I’m going to make my first starter in preparation for a big 1.078 IPA using Wyeast 1450 that I hope to brew this Sunday. According to Mr. Malty (after my 4th batch I finally remembered!), I need 2.52L of starter required w/intermittent shaking; I don’t have a stir plate. I plan on laying to rest some cheap gallon-wine and letting it ferment in that given it’s glass and I can easily sanitize it. Since I only have a 1L flask, I was going to:
Wednesday night : boil 840 mL water + 0.65 cups DME, ice-bath cool it, add smack-pack #1, pour into wine-jug, aerate it for a few minutes, and put that in the fridge overnight so yeast cake settles.
Thursday night: repeat this w/smack-pack #2, but before adding the batch decant off the gunk, then put in the fridge.
Friday night: " " smack-pack #3
Sunday morning: take out of fridge, allow to warm up to room temp, and start brewing.
Do these steps seem to make sense? Should I shake it each morning before I head off to work while it’s still cold from being in the fridge overnight? Should I not put anything in the fridge until all three mini-volumes are prepared? I know I’ll be losing a good amount of volume in the decanting process, but having tons of yeast ready to go should be the more important step here, right?
Assuming you’re making a five gallon batch, you’ll only need one smack pack in a 2.25L starter.
Prepare your wort to about s.g.=1.030 and chill down to 70F, aerate the wort then pitch your smack pack and cover your container with sanitized aluminum foil. Allow the starter to ferment out while intermittently shaking. It should take about 2-3 days then cold crash. When you’re ready to brew, pull out the starter and allow it to warm up a bit then decant the spent wort and pitch the slurry into your beer wort at about 64F.
I don’t know why you are putting your starter in the fridge. Remember you need the yeast to grow…they won’t do much of that if they are asleep in the fridge. You need to ferment the starter first for 24-48 hours at room temps THEN you can crash cool it in the fridge.
Regarding me refrigerating immediately, I think my brain signals got crossed from reading too many threads on how to do my first starter and saw that technique somewhere.
But yup, I’ll be making a 5g batch. I read the fine print on the site and see that since the smack packs have 100% viable yeast (not the 32% default on the calc), that only one pack is needed for a 2.25L. I’ll follow your instructions though and won’t cold crash it until friday night after I make it tonight.
Another tip…on brewday after you’ve decanted the spent wort and the starter has begun to warm up…add a pint or so of fresh starter wort (S.G.=1.030) to rejuvenate the starter and pitch that active starter into your beer at 64F. This allows the yeast to wake up from their cold slumber and go to battle in your beer wort.
So just scale down the DME/H2O to make a pint, no additional yeast necessary, pitch into the starter after decanting off spent wort, pitch that into the beer, then party?
Just an update that the starter worked out great. My OG was a little under my target (1.071 w/target of 1.078), but more importantly the beer is bubbling nice and steady after only about 3 hrs! Thanks for the help.
