Too early to start starter?

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dmbnpj

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Plan on brewing the end of this month Friday 8/30/13. Plan on doing the Green Flash West Coast IPA clone and using WLP001. I would like to make a starter this week. Can I keep it on the stirplate until day before brew day (~3 weeks) and then cold crash in the fridge the day before?
 
It only takes about a day to finish and then you're going to leave it sitting out hot for 3 wks? Bad idea. Can't you do it a couple days before?
 
What about stepping it up several times to grow the yeast?
 
Stepping up can be used if you can't get the proper number of cells in one step. Why are you trying to do this so early though? Increasing the cell count is just one purpose of the starter, you also want to have nice healthy, fresh yeast. Doing it 3 wks in advance kinda defeats that part.
 
What would you recommend in doing a 5 gallon batch and starting with the White labs yeast?
 
dmbnpj said:
What would you recommend in doing a 5 gallon batch and starting with the White labs yeast?

Go to Www.yeastcalc.com and plug in the various miners and will tell you what size starter to make. Use k.troester selection for stir plate.

Even if you need two steps a week in advance should be enough time to make the proper starter:)
 
Go to Www.yeastcalc.com and plug in the various miners and will tell you what size starter to make. Use k.troester selection for stir plate.

Even if you need two steps a week in advance should be enough time to make the proper starter:)

^this

Check out this video with one of the Wyeast microbiologists if I can get this to work. Especially see about 55 seconds in and on.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Great video, thanks. Even though he said "acrosst", with the garb he is wearing I have to tend to believe him.

Honestly though, I didn't know the yeast grew that fast and have been doing a starter a week before. I have had a person say that you don't want to add too much wort at first to the starter that it will be too much for the yeast. This video seems to contradict that suggestion. Even the How to Brew book by John Palmer lead me to believe that I need to start it at least several days in advance of brewing and step it up gradually. Oh what to do
 
If you're trying to grow up some old or questionable yeast you do want to use a lower gravity starter wort as it will be less stressful for them, maybe that's what you remember hearing. I know Palmer gives the walkthrough on a pint starter but that's really smaller than is typically done. Provided the yeast is not super old you will be totally fine pitching one vial or pack in up to at least 2 L. Palmer does talk about not leaving it around hot for too long.
 
And if you made a mistake, thinking you'd be able to brew on Saturday, but now you can't because friends are coming into town and SWMBO doesn't want to lose a day with friends to brewing... what can you do to keep the yeast healthy and happy for an extra week?
 
Trippel-A said:
And if you made a mistake, thinking you'd be able to brew on Saturday, but now you can't because friends are coming into town and SWMBO doesn't want to lose a day with friends to brewing... what can you do to keep the yeast healthy and happy for an extra week?

Just out the starter in the fridge sealed and they will be fine. If you are delayed longer than mix up a small batch of new wort and restart
 
Weird thing. My starter has a layer of darker, trubby lookin yeast on the bottom, below the white layer. I've not seen that happen before. What's the deal?
 
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