If I’m making a starter for a Porter or other dark beer should I use dark DME for the starter?
No, use light extract. It’s more fermentable, so you’ll get the most “bang for your buck”.
Sorry if I’m preaching to the choir, but I thought I’d give my 10 second starter lecture: Don’t use an airlock. Cover it loosely with foil or use a foam stopper instead. Shake it up as often as possible to get oxygen to the yeast. If time allows, put it in the fridge overnight before brewing, pour off most of the starter “beer”, then pitch.
I’ve always been scared to dump any of the “beer” to isolate the yeast, figuring if it can stay suspended in my fermenter for weeks it must not drop out of my starter overnight. This has also kept me away from large starters since I didn’t want to add large quantities of a bland LDME solution.
Is my paranoia unwarranted?
Putting it in the fridge overnight will cold crash the yeast. The liquid on top is clear, layer of yeast on the bottom. No porblem doing this.
Yeah, what stays in suspension is a pretty trivial amount of yeast. I heard an interview with Chris White, IIRC, in which he said that wort is visibly turbid above about 1 million/mL. So in a 2 L starter you’re talking about discarding maybe 10 billion cells, tops, even if it isn’t clear.