Talk to me about yeast starters...

spbrhs07 · Mar 2, 2015

I've been brewing for about 6 months and have made about 5 wonderful batches of beer. I can say that I've never had a bad batch. I've always used dry yeast. Never rehydrated and never made a starter. Currently I have a Belgian Dubbel in the primary and it has been fermenting very slowly. I think it's finally done after about 2 weeks. This has me thinking about yeast starters. Apparently not doing a starer can lead to off flavors and other problems - none of which have I ever experienced. I did read a sticky on dry yeast and it looks like starters are not needed for dry yeast.

I also have an Irish Red that was started on Saturday. For this batch, I used liquid yeast for the first time. It was a Wyeast smack pack and I assume that the pack itself is similar to doing a starter so I didn't really see the point in doing a starter with that either.

Any thoughts?

flars · Mar 2, 2015

Open up Google and type in "yeast starter", you'll find a wealth of information from different sources. Check out "Danstar Articles", great information there also.

BigFloyd · Mar 2, 2015

spbrhs07 said:
I also have an Irish Red that was started on Saturday. For this batch, I used liquid yeast for the first time. It was a Wyeast smack pack and I assume that the pack itself is similar to doing a starter so I didn't really see the point in doing a starter with that either.

Any thoughts?

1. An 11g packet of dry yeast has lots more cells than either a WLP vial or a Wyeast smackpack.

2. A smackpack is not a starter. The capsule is a tiny amount to starter wort meant to "activate" the pack.

3. When using liquid yeast, you really ought to do an appropriate starter for any 5-gallon batch over 1.040. The size of the starter will depend on the OG, amount of wort and type of beer (double the cell count is needed for lagers) Also, it's much more important to aerate the wort well when using liquid yeast.

4. Use a yeast pitch rate calculator like this one - http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

eadavis80 · Mar 2, 2015

Doing a starter with liquid yeast is always a good idea. While not "required" on beers that are 1.055 or less, it can only help your beer. I always make one with liquid or harvested yeast. Get into that habit and your beers will thank you.

philosofool · Mar 2, 2015

A yeast starter is used to increase the amount of yeast you put in your beer. The standard liquid packs contain about 100-125 billion cells. The recommended pitching rate for medium strength ales is .75 bil cells per liter per degree plato. (Plato is just a unit of gravity, 1 plato ~= .004 increase in S.G., see here.) That means you want about 180 billion cells to fermenter a 1.050 beer, which is roughly what you'd do in a classic american pale ale.

A starter is made by pitching a yeast pack into a small amount (800-1600mL, though big beers can need more...) of sanitary wort of about 1.037 gravity and fermenting it. This will grow a lot of yeast at low cost. Once the starter has fermented, you chill it and decant it. It can be kept a few days before pitching into your future beer. There are online calculators to help you determine how large your stater needs to be. I use this one.

One of the best books you can buy on brewing is Yeast. It covers a lot that every brewer should know