Yeast starter

[salb29]

I made my first yeast starter last night in preparation for a Sunday morning brew day, I used about 1 pint or water, half cup of dme and a smack pack yeast made for a Belgian ale

Question: is it suppose to foam up so much every time I swirl it, I have changed airlock sanitizer at Least three times and I'm not even swirling it that hard, is that a good thing that its doing that...? I just swirled again after 24 hrs and it went out of air lock again so this time I didn't change water.. Any feed back would be good thanks

 

[WoodlandBrew]

That's about 100g of DME in 500g water which is about a 17°P (1.068) wort. 9°P (1.036) is the typical gravity. So that explains the activity. You aren't going to propagate many cells in 24 hours, but you will have active yeast. Based on starters I have tracked I would guess you will have 120-150 billion cells by tomorrow.

 

[salb29]

That's about 100g of DME in 500g water which is about a 17°P (1.068) wort. 9°P (1.036) is the typical gravity. So that explains the activity. You aren't going to propagate many cells in 24 hours, but you will have active yeast. Based on starters I have tracked I would guess you will have 120-150 billion cells by tomorrow.

Sorry I meant one cup of dme

 

[WoodlandBrew]

That's 200g of DME to 500g of water which is even higher at 29°P. You only need 1/4 cup in a pint or a half cup in a quart.

It might be a little late now, but you added enough DME for half a gallon of water. Your yeast may be suffering from alcohol poisoning tomorrow.

 

[salb29]

That's 200g of DME to 500g of water which is even higher at 29°P. You only need 1/4 cup in a pint or a half cup in a quart.

It might be a little late now, but you added enough DME for half a gallon of water. Your yeast may be suffering from alcohol poisoning tomorrow.

Should I not pitch? Going by my local brew shop directions

 

[WoodlandBrew]

You'll probably still have enough healthy cells. It takes time for alcohol to kill. The brew shop said 1 cup of DME in a pint of water?

details in ABV effects on yeast:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/01/abv-effects-on-yeast.html

 

[salb29]

You'll probably still have enough healthy cells. It takes time for alcohol to kill. The brew shop said 1 cup of DME in a pint of water?

details in ABV effects on yeast:
http://woodlandbrew.blogspot.com/2013/01/abv-effects-on-yeast.html

Yep that's what they told me

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Im sorry, but that is just plain bad information. The top I would do for a starter is 1.060 (15°P). Most yeast are okay up to 5-6 ABV, but they aren't very happy above that.

 

[salb29]

Im sorry, but that is just plain bad information. The top I would do for a starter is 1.060 (15°P). Most yeast are okay up to 5-6 ABV, but they aren't very happy above that.

Like I have asked before should I pitch? Or wait and buy more yeast?

 

[jethro55]

You definitely have them started. Some of those WY Belgian strains go up to 13%. So the stronger starter wort might be OK this time.

 

[salb29]

Okay guys ill pitch and i guess lets see what happens, og shouldbe around 1.050

 

[Brewshock]

Salb29,

You said you changed your sanitizer in the airlock a couple times. If your using starsan you actually don't have worry about a little starsan getting into your starter if it overflows in the air lock. The owner of Five Star said that a small amount of Starsan actually acts as a yeast nutrient.

 

[salb29]

Salb29,

You said you changed your sanitizer in the airlock a couple times. If your using starsan you actually don't have worry about a little starsan getting into your starter if it overflows in the air lock. The owner of Five Star said that a small amount of Starsan actually acts as a yeast nutrient.

I was not worried about the star San mixing In with the mix but the wort mixing with the star San in the air lock...but now that I think about it what difference would that make...?

I'm just worried that I didn't make a productive starter

 

[grem135]

here is a yeast starter pictorial

 

[salb29]

Update: I pitched the yeast starter and 15 hrs later it started to bubble pretty nicely but next time ill either use one pint with 1/4 cups of dme or 32oz of water with 1 cup dme thanks for all the help guys