As life has gotten in the way, my next brew day has been pushed back to next week. Probably Friday. The yeast I have, liquid, has been sitting in the fridge now for a few weeks. The date on it still is about 2 months out, so I think I am still good. My plan is to take the yeast out of the fridge and let it come to room temp on Thursday morning. Then, break open the smack pack and let it do it’s thing for a few hours. Thursday midmorning I have DME at the ready and a small pot for the boil. My plan is 100 grams of DME to one quart of bottled water. Bring it to a boil and boil for about 20 mins. Does that sound about right? I think it is what I have been reading as a good recipe. Then, leave it on the counter at home, which is normally in the high 60’s low 70’s during the day, and shake it up every so often as I pass by it or think about it. The container is clear, so I can see how things progress and go from there. If the yeast does not react then I have some dry Yeast as a backup plan. Then, when I do my first BIAB recipe with my new stuff on Friday afternoon, add the yeast and let it do it’s thing.
I guess my question, after that long winded post is pretty simple. Is 100 grams of DME and a quart of water the right measurments for a starter for a 5 gallon batch?
Sorry to ramble, but each brew day seems to be new for me.
Thanks to all who suffered thru my long post and read to the end.
The answer you seek is in the details. What is the target starting gravity? If it’s 1.045 or below you’re good. If it’s 1.060 or above you need more yeast. It also depends on the yeast strain and objective. For kviek and Belgian strains generally speaking you can pitch a little less yeast.
Bottom line for anything under 1.060 you can get away with 100 grams/1 quart(liter) starter. However it will not be optimal.
Thank you for the reply. I input my ingredient list into Brewfather and it came up with an OG of 1.082. I am doing a double ipa using Elysian Space Dust as my clone recipe. I am using 1 package of Wyeast 1450 liquid yeast. The clone recipe I used even specifies not using a starter, but what the heck, I want to give it a try.
Don’t let the cell count thing throw you. I have found healthy active yeast is much more important than cell count.
Here’s a real life example…last Thur. I took a pack of WY3787 out of the fridge. Best by about a month out. I smacked it, not to verify it, but because I wanted to break the nutrient pouch and get that into the starter. I pitched it cold into my starter wort, shook the crap out of it, and let it sit overnight. About 24 hours later I pitched it into my 1.081 wort. Normally I don’t aerate but due to the gravity I did this time. In 2 hours I had positive pressure. In 6 hours, I had active vigorous fermentation.
There is no need to boil your starter for 20 min. I do 8 min and feel that’s overkill.
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+1. I make a 10 degree Plato (1.040) starter wort, add a pinch of yeast nutrient for good measure, and boil if for only 7 minutes. I have also done a 5 minute boil on the starter wort with no adverse effects. The boiling makes the wort homogeneous and sterilizes it.
I’m interested in Denny’s comment about aeration. I’ve been thinking about trying liquid yeast but have hesitated because I didn’t want to invest in a stir plate and an aeration kit (at least for awhile so as not to push my wife’s tolerance for new supplies arriving at the house).
Is a “shaken not stirred” starter and oxygenation by merely shaking the fermenter going to be adequate for liquid yeast in a normal strength (around 1.060) wort?
Absolutely fine. That’s what I do almost always do for beers in that OG range (although I don’t shake the fermenter). Since this was 1.081 I wanted to give it a little extra help.
These days anything in the neighborhood of 1.060 and under I don’t make a starter. On the few occasions
I do make a starter is a SNS made the no earlier than the night before brew day when I’m milling grain and setting up delay timer on the mash tun. I do take the yeast package out of the fridge the morning of brew day but no earlier. There have been times I forgot until late in the day but I don’t worry about it.
I also have pretty much stopped worrying about the date on the package. My past 5 brews have been made with free yeast and the reason it was free is because I ask the guys at my LHBS what he has out of date and he will give those away at no charge.
In every instance beer was made and it was good. #NoStressBrewing
Thanks Denny, this is good stuff. So, if I am reading right, I can make my starter say Thursday morning lets say about 10am, let it sit on the counter until later Thursday night, let’s say 10pm and put it in the fridge. On Friday, lets say early afternoon, I can take it out and use it in my cooled wort? I know I am being very anal about this, but that is how I am.
Thanks to all for all the input, this is fun stuff and I am learning tons. Writing a lot of stuff down too.
I am a bit confused about your statement. You make the wort the night before, but don’t pitch the yeast into it until the morning of? I was assuming that the idea was to have the yeast in the starter at least the night before? Sorry for not understanding.
Sorry, I didn’t proof read very well. When I make a beer with an original gravity of around 1.060 or less I don’t make a starter at all. I just pitch the package of yeast directly into the fermenter and in those cases I take the package out the morning of brew day to warm up some before I pitch. I have forgotten to do this however and just pitched it right out of the refrigerator with no problems.
When I do make a starter I use the Shaken Not Stirred method. I sometimes make this SNS starter the night before brew day but I often wait until the morning of.
I stopped worrying about details that make no difference to me. I used to fuss over every detail of brewing… including starters where I planned exactly how many days ahead of brew day I needed to make it… measured out precisely the amount of water and dry malt extract… boiled and cooled exactly as instructions say… used a stir plate… worried about cell count - the whole fiddly process. Then I stopped and asked myself just what the hell am I doing? This is supposed to be fun. So now unless I am making a big, high gravity beer I don’t concern myself too much with yeast starters.
Awesome, thank you all for all the input on this. I have learned that I am just being too detailed. I am going to just work with what I have, know and have learned from all of you and see where it takes me. I will probably do the starter the night before, what the heck. If I forget, then the morning of, because I don’t think I will even be ready to pitch it until later on in the afternoon. Either way, many thanks to all who have read thru my posts and have offered me info and tips. It is all good stuff. Be safe all. RR
Starter made and sitting in a sanitized gallon jug. Looks like so little, but we shall see. I have some dry yeast on hand just in case, but I am hopeful. I put my new kettle together and synched the temp gauge. Washed and cleaned the chiller, and have my bucket ready for a cleaning and sanitizing. All ready for my maiden voyage on my new stuff. We will see how it goes.
So disappointed. My preboil gravity was supposed to be at 1.075 and it was a 1.045. But, what the heck, I am already in it, so might as well finish. The good thing is that my preboil amount of 6.25 gallons was spot on. Sparged at 170 to get to the preboil volume. Now, we wait. Maybe I am just not built for this? I am very disappointed. But I am going to see it to the end and see what I end up with. The good thing is, I kept my mash temp damn near at 150 the whole time, so I am pretty happy there. Keep a prayer out there for a novice who is very disappointed and thinking maybe I am just not built for this. Darn it. RR
Edit: I read your post wrong. I thought you measured 1070 when expecting 1045. I see it’s the other way around. You probably need to get a handle on your efficiency and then scale recipes accordingly. Hang in there. You’ll be coasting along very soon. Plus, 1052 post boil will make a nice beer. I’m sure it will be good.
It was a IPA Clone. I measured 1.052 into the fermenter. I put everything into Brewfather and the liquid amounts were right on. 6.5 pre-boil and a little more than 5 gallons in the fermenter. Who knows, but maybe you are right. I will try it and see if I like it and go from there. Gonna let it do it’s thing for a few days, then I have an dry hop addition that I need to put in. Probably do that after most of the bubbling stops. Also, another positive takeaway is the starter I did seemed to work out well. I was bit nervous because the yeast package was very inflated, if that makes sense. I had to open it and pop the nutrient pack with a pair of sanitized scissors, so I was not sure the yeast was good. It smelled good though LOL Anyway, It is bubbling away, so we shall see. This was my first try with all new stuff. I was pretty happy though to keep my mash temp right at about 150. This is the recipe i used, minus the Melaniod stuff. LOL.
Keep in mind that any recipe needs to be adjusted to fit the efficient of your system. You can seldom use a recipe as is. You have a new system, so it will take a few brews to establish your efficiency.
Pre-boil gravity of 1.045 instead of 1.075 is a huge difference. Check your grain crush and check your mash pH. Something is very wrong. You can do some test mashes with just a cheap base malt to measure and improve your efficiency. You don’t even need to do a boil and make beer. Just do the mash and measure it.