Yeast Starter Question

BigDog007 · Jan 16, 2015

Hi All,

I'm brewing my first 5-gallon batch today (friends coming over around noon) and I've had my yeast starter going on the stir plate for the past 24 hours.

Started with Wyeast 3068 for my Hefeweizen kit. Smack pack was fully inflated after about 4 hours.

Sanitized everything, went with a ratio of 1/2 cup DME to 2 cups water, boiled it up then transferred to my flask. Cooled it down to about 65F. Like I said above it's been on the stir plate with a pretty decent whirlpool going for the past 24 hours. I keep the temp in the house around 70F, wife wasn't happy to hear the noise last night but she'll get used to it. I've been researching this for a while so I think I'm doing ok so far. BeerSmith said I needed about 237 billion cells for my starter, not sure if I'll get that many but I figured I would be in the neighborhood.

I guess my main question (will take all advice offered) is I've heard about cold crashing the starter before pitching. Is this really necessary or can I just go straight to pitching from the starter right off the stir plate?

I've watched about every youtube video available and for some reason don't remember this step...

Thanks all, so excited to see how this comes out!

RP

BierGut · Jan 16, 2015

I've pitched the entire starter into my batches before. You only need to worry about head space in your fermenter and it can skew your OG by a fraction. Cold crashing it will allow the yeast to settle down to the bottom of your flask and you can decant the liquid off of it, rouse and pitch.

MrHadack · Jan 16, 2015

I concur with BierGut. I have two batches to do this weekend and I prepped my yeast starters last night. Sometimes I pour the entire thing in, other times I refrigerate. It depends on timing, really. Since I am not brewing until tomorrow, my yest will be finished this evening, and then I will refrigerate until i need it tomorrow afternoon. By then the yeast will have settled to the bottom for the most part. I will decant the spent liquid from the top of the yeast cake, leaving maybe about a half-inch. I'll use that small amount of liquid to swirl the yeast and let it warm up while I brew, and then pitch it in.

flars · Jan 16, 2015

A starter is a starter, but you question if it may be enough? Starter calculators can reduce that worry.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/
http://www.homebrewdad.com/yeast_calculator.php
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast-tools.php

Make your starters a week ahead of time. That is if you can plan ahead better than I can.

eadavis80 · Jan 16, 2015

I've only made a handful of starters, but have not noticed a difference either way. My "rule of thumb" is that if I make the starter more than 48 hours before pitching, I'll put it in the fridge the night before I use it, but usually I just make it a day or two before brew day. I've not noticed a difference in terms of the beer's taste, but I also have not done a specific experiment where I brewed the same beer back to back - one with a decanted starter and one without. Again, I don't think it makes a difference.