Hey guys i made a starter for a russian imperial stout with white labs london ale yeast. I used 1400ml water to 140g of dme. Its been on a stirplate for 24hrs but i dont have time to brew with it for another 2 days. Am I able just to store this at room temp OFF the stirplate or do I need to refrigerate and bring back to temp before pitching?
Storing a Starter
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the cells will do better if you store it in the fridge.
pull out of fridge a few hours before pitching, i usually do it when i start the boil.
added bonus: by putting your starter in the fridge, you're cold-crashing it. the yeast will flocculate (fall to the bottom). so in 2 days, pull it out, let it warm up, and just before pitching you'll be able to pour off the "spent beer" and leave behind mostly yeast. don't decant too much of the beer, leave like an inch above the yeast cake so you can swirl up the yeast and pour it out.
pull out of fridge a few hours before pitching, i usually do it when i start the boil.
added bonus: by putting your starter in the fridge, you're cold-crashing it. the yeast will flocculate (fall to the bottom). so in 2 days, pull it out, let it warm up, and just before pitching you'll be able to pour off the "spent beer" and leave behind mostly yeast. don't decant too much of the beer, leave like an inch above the yeast cake so you can swirl up the yeast and pour it out.
+1 to all of this ^^^^^, except the warming up part before pitching. It won't hurt, but is not necessary either. Pitching cold into warmer wort is fine. You just don't want to pitch a warmer starter into colder wort.
... and do not warm up before you decant, that will reactivate your yeast into solution and you will pour off active yeast. There might be a couple of layers of liquid if it is only a couple of days in the fridge, you can decant the top clear layer. If it is all clear, decant like sweetcell stated, in inch or so above the cake. Of course decanting is not required (especially with a dark strong beer) and you can just swirl the whole thing and pitch
Also you can store this for a week (or even two) without any problems if needed. This is basically what you get with liquid yeast (Wyeast and White Labs).
definitely agree about that last part, warm starter into cold beer is a bad idea. but according to Yeast (White & Zainacheff), pitching cold starter into too warm a beer can also shock the yeast. it won't kill them, but isn't the easiest on them. with yeast, it always better to change temps gradually.
i've never had a problem with pouring out yeast. after a few days in the fridge, i have a well packed cake even after warming. i decant slowly and no yeast is lost.
if you decant before warming up, you're kicking up some of the yeast cake and exposing some of the cake to air. this gets them started hours before you really want them revving up.
well, i guess it depends on what you mean by "required". it won't ruin your beer to pitch the whole thing.
on the other hand, that "starter beer" is oxidized to hell. have you ever tasted that stuff? it's disgusting. i wouldn't want any more of that in my beer than necessary.
so it won't ruin the beer... but it definitely won't improve it. depending how big a starter you make, you could have a noticeable flavor impact. otherwise, impact is probably small - but why have any impact at all?
If you are warming it (taking it out of the fridge) for 2 hours before pitching and then pouring off most of the liquid, there is actually quite a bit of good viable yeast in that decanted bit.
I wouldn't think that pitching yeast that had been exposed to air into aerated wort would be a problem, it does after all need the oxygen.
I usually want them 'revving' up as fast as possible. I decant just before pitching and do not warm it up.
