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elgee

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I know there is a lot of threads on this topic but I am making my first starter and would like to know if it will be ok to keep on the stir plate for 2 days, or will that be too long? I am planning on brewing Saturday morning, and to do that I need the starter to be ready on Saturday morning but I can't make it on Friday morning because I have no time. If I make it on Thursday night, and leave on the stir plate till Saturday, will it be too long? I am. Not going to cold crash this one, maybe next time though.
 
I do 6-8 hours prior to adding it. That's just me.
 
It should be fine. While it's not necessary to be on that long, it shouldn't hurt anything either.
 
yeah it takes 18-24 hours. but leaving it for 48 isn't going to hurt or help.
 
I do a minimum of 12 but almost always between 24 and 30 and have had great luck. I think 6 hours is only going to help lower gravity beers though anything is better than nothing.
I do the starter the morning before I brew and since I brew the next morning, by the time it's ready to pitch I'm already a few hours over 24.
 
So would 12 hours be enough or does it need the 18-24?

I would do the 18. I guess it all depends on viable cell count. If you have the quantity of yeast you need, 12 will likely wake them up and get them going again. If you need to build cell count I would let it go the 18-24. At least that makes sense to me.
 
So would 12 hours be enough or does it need the 18-24?

It really depends on the viability of the yeast. I always check the date on the yeast I buy to make sure I'm buying it fresh/young. I almost always start mine right before bed the night before, so I'm pitching in that 12-18 hr range. There have been times that I made the starter the morning of and just waited until evening to pitch.

Obviously, there are different approaches, which means don't sweat it that much. IMO, pitching active yeast is best, but others have great success with crashing. Bottom line: if you have good, recently packaged yeast, 12hrs or so will be just fine.
 
Do you guys also decant this? So put it on a stir plate for 18 hrs, put it in the fridge, then pull it back out a couple hours before pitching, decant it, swirl it, then dump it in?
 
Do you guys also decant this? So put it on a stir plate for 18 hrs, put it in the fridge, then pull it back out a couple hours before pitching, decant it, swirl it, then dump it in?

NO. If you're going the 12-18hr route, the point is pitching active jumping yeast. You don't want to put them to sleep mid-phase. With this approach, I pitch the entire starter.
 
NO. If you're going the 12-18hr route, the point is pitching active jumping yeast. You don't want to put them to sleep mid-phase. With this approach, I pitch the entire starter.

I've heard of people chilling the wort/yeast before pouring into the primary. I've never gone that route myself.
 
Ironically my copy of Brewing Classic Styles by Palmer and Jamil arrived today. In the section on starters, Palmer writes...

"A 2L starter with healthy yeast will reach its maximum cell density in 12-18 hours. If you are starting with a very small amount of yeast or a low viability yeast, it can take 24 hours or more to reach maximum cell density. Once that point is reached you can pitch it directly into your wort."

He then goes on to talk about decanting, stating you can put it in the fridge to let the yeast drop out of suspension, decant most of the remaining liquid, swirl the remaining to loosen the yeast cake and then pitch all that into ur wort.
 
Last time I brewed on a Saturday, I gave myself plenty of time if something went wrong since I was using 3 month old washed yeast and I needed to about double my yeast count (for a 10 gal batch and a high gravity batch). So I wanted to make sure I could get to my LHBS if something went wrong. So I started my starter on the tues before. It did take ~36 hours before I saw the foam on the walls of my flask from the krausen. So on Thurs evening, I crashed it in the fridge and used it on Saturday. Worked well for me.
 
Ironically my copy of Brewing Classic Styles by Palmer and Jamil arrived today. In the section on starters, Palmer writes...

"A 2L starter with healthy yeast will reach its maximum cell density in 12-18 hours. If you are starting with a very small amount of yeast or a low viability yeast, it can take 24 hours or more to reach maximum cell density. Once that point is reached you can pitch it directly into your wort."

He then goes on to talk about decanting, stating you can put it in the fridge to let the yeast drop out of suspension, decant most of the remaining liquid, swirl the remaining to loosen the yeast cake and then pitch all that into ur wort.

Right, but decanting kind of goes against the idea of pitching active yeast. On mr.malty's (Jamil?) site he says that you can, but he much prefers to just pitch active yeast than the same amount chilled. I have to agree with him.
 
Right, but decanting kind of goes against the idea of pitching active yeast. On mr.malty's (Jamil?) site he says that you can, but he much prefers to just pitch active yeast than the same amount chilled. I have to agree with him.

Im not going to argue that, especially if it goes into a batch of ale or saison or anything else with a with a high ferment temp. For lagers it makes sense or if you plan on making a larger starter and want to add several DME additions to build uip the slurry... But as far as this is concerned, i just threw it out there since it was the next paragraph down and someone had asked.
 
I personally put it in the fridge and decant. Like the above post, I don't want that extra beer thrown in. I carefully decant 75% of it, swirl it around, and pitch it.
 
jflongo said:
Do you guys also decant this? So put it on a stir plate for 18 hrs, put it in the fridge, then pull it back out a couple hours before pitching, decant it, swirl it, then dump it in?

I always crash my starters, and lately have been keeping them on the stir plate at least 24 hrs. If I need to brew sooner for some reason I'll use a pack of dry.
 
I decided to make it early before work, but didn't put the stir plate on, as I forgot. I will turn it on tonight, I don't think that should be a problem, as it will still have a good 14 hours on the stir plate. I did have some clumps of yeast from the vial, I hope they will break up, that was a concern if mine!
 
If I'm making a big starter and don't want to add the whole 2L+ volume to the beer, I'll do the starter a few days early and then cold crash it. On the morning of brew day, I'll pull it out of the fridge and decant, and then boil/cool maybe a liter of sparged wort and add that to the starter yeast cake. I usually use the extra runnings that slowly drain out of the mash tun after the main sparge is done.

This way you're not diluting your beer with the starter wort, but using some of your actual wort to wake up the yeast before pitching. It's usually very active (lots of CO2 outgassing when swirled) by the time I pitch it into the main fermenter.
 
18-24 hours is what I usually do, but if it's a modest beer or I'm starting with a pretty fresh smack pack, I've made a starter the morning of.

Nothing terribly specific, but here's a video from Wyeast talking about not leaving starters on the stir plate too long:
 
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Both methods work fine. Chill and decant or pitch the entire starter.

Some people say they don't like to pitch the entire starter because the starter doesn't taste good to them. They are right, the starter doesn't taste good. Likewise, hops don't taste good and yeast doesn't taste good either, but we all put them in the beer.

I pitch the entire starter because I end up with about a 1/2 gallon more beer, don't waste anything and most yeast experts claim pitching yeast when they are active is a good method according to Mr. Malty. This method requires fewer steps and less time.

I don't think it dilutes the flavor of the beer. You are pitching a light malty beer with booze and a lot of yeast into your beer, not just water and yeast. You can always add a bit more flavor to your recipe, if you tried this method and think it diluted a familiar recipe. You could also brew with less water equivalent to your starter volume.

I'd chill and decant, if I didn't use a stir plate and used a starter larger than 2L in a 5g batch.

Again, both methods work fine.
 
What I've been doing recently is doing a starter well ahead of time then cold crashing it. The night before brewday, I'll make up another batch of wort and wake up the yeast and let them get active again, then pitch the entire starter AFTER letting the wort get all to the same temp (around 65 for my ales). Sometimes that means waiting until the next morning.

I like to think that having yeast in active cell growth reduces lag time and off flavors from stressed yeasties. I'm not too concerned with the spent wort addition. I haven't noticed any off flavors as if yet.
 
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