What’s the hive opinion on a starter or not when brewing in about 36 hours? I’ll be using a Wyeast 1318 pack. I know I can’t do a starter plus decant in that time.
I was considering either dumping the whole starter in or skipping it. The beer is a 1.052 5.5 gallon batch.
I my house this is the best timing for a SNS starter.
Using the “shaken, not stirred” starter method, I’ve been aiming to pitch into the starter 8 hours before I intend to pitch into the beer. Might not be a bad time to try something along the lines of that method, even if you can’t follow it exactly.
What these guys said! ^^^^
I would think 8-12 hrs if you go the SNS route.
EDIT: everyone beat me to it!
Another ‘what these guys said’. I like ~ 12 hrs to pitch SNS on ales.
Can you elaborate? I always shake BTW. I’m assuming this means begin the starter 8 hours prior to pitching and hope to pitch it all while at high krasuen?
Empirical evidence from well known members here seems to indicate 8-12 hrs representing a “sweet spot” and ideal window that accommodates the variables between everyone’s process.
I find that the only times I’ve missed the 8-12 hour window were when my starter was made too hot or too cold.
I make a typical 1L water/50g DME/0.25 tsp nutrient starter. Boil for 10 minutes, then cool. Pour into a 1 gal glass container, pitch yeast, shake the crap out of it. Loosen lid and start counting to 8 hours.
Normally, I just do this first thing in the morning on brew day. I got a pressure cooker not too long ago though, so I hope to start canning my starters.
Same thing I do. Anywhere 8-12 seems to work great. I usually go closer to 12.
I’m closer to 24.
How long it takes to get to high krausen really seems to depend the most on how fresh the yeast is. Which I suppose isn’t really that surprising.
With a swelled smack pack (honestly I only use Wyeast for liquid yeast) pitched right into a SNS starter I would think you could expect HK closer to the 8 hour mark.
With slurry it may take a bit longer.
Why would fresh slurry take longer than a smack pack?
Sorry. I really meant harvested/stored slurry, the assumption being that fresh slurry is likely to be repitched in short order without needing a starter.
This pack only a few weeks old…I may just pitch it.