Yeast Restarter

[chaserchap]

So, I made a starter last week for brewday tomorrow. It's been in the fridge for about 5 days and I was told I'd probably want to restart it. That being said, when should I do this? Tonight, for brewing tomorrow afternoon? And is the following procedure correct?

Decant the current starter.
Let the rest come to room temperature.
Meanwhile, boil water/dme.
Add dme.
Cover and leave it alone.

Doesn't seem like it's rocket science, but I don't want to screw anything up. Also, in case it matters, it's Wyeast German Ale Yeast.

 

[BBL_Brewer]

Yeast Strain is less of a concern in my experinece except that some strains take longer to complete the process than others.

Your process sounds bout right. I have made quite a few starters......in fact I culture my own yeast now from smack pack and freeze for later propogation......I can make as many cultures as I want and bring them back up whenever I want.

With that said.....you need to either let the starter run its course all the way or most of the way and pitch the slurry......or pitch the whole starter wort and all at High Krausen or sometime shortly after.....these are both good proctices and will work well. I prefer to pitch only slurry so that all the nasty oxidized stater beer gets dumped down the drain.

If I were you....and as of right now your yeast is still in the fridge. Plan on brewing two days from now. Take your yeast out and let stand for 5 or 6 hours and come up to room temp. Pitch your starter wort and let it go. If you have a stir plate this helps immensely....I can't stress that enough. Regardless of stir plate....you still need at least 24 hours to ferm out most of the strater. What I do......of course I use a very flocculant yeast.....I ferm out a starter in a bout 24 hours depending on a few things I won't get into and then I set the starter some place cooler like the basement where I brew to settle out for at least 12-24 hours......anything past two days and I give em another drink. If you plan to pitch the whole starter wort and all....well....you could brew tomorrow. Get your starter made up ASAP and dump in the whole nine yards.

Hope this helps,

Shaggy

 

[chaserchap]

So if I just pitch the whole thing I can make the starter now and brew tomorrow?

This is my second batch, I haven't built up the patience of you old hands. Haha