So I know I’m a fool for never doing this but I’ve never made a starter. Basically I just want to know how to make one, do you hop it? Do you just mix DME with water? And while I have a thread up I gotta ask, what is a flameout? >.<
Flameout is when you turn off the heat to the boil kettle. So sometimes people will say “at flameout” for a hop addition or whatnot.
You build a starter by pitching a quantity of yeast into a sterile low-gravity wort. This is to encourage multiplication of yeast primarily, and to ensure good yeast health before pitching into the fermenter. That’s when wort becomes beer.
No need to hop the starter IMO.
Yup, euge has go tit more or less, I do 100 grams in 1 liter of water. boil for 10 minutes or so, chill to 70ish and pitch. I use a half gallon mason jar unless I am doing more than 1.5 liters, then I pull out the gallon jug. Either way I just cover the opening with sanitized foil. I don’t have a stir plate so I just make a point of swirling every time I walk by it. When using the mason jar I can screw down the ring over the foil and really shake it up good a couple times a day.
Don’t forget, you could also add yeast nutrients to the starter.
giggle giggle. 8)
i do about the same thing about 3 onces dme in 1 quart water after boiling and allowing to cool. just leave lid on mason jar loose (just the flat piece)
making a starter now. doing something i never have done (i don’t have a stir plate and usually swirl) but now every hour or so i have been using the aquarium pump to agitate and add air. see what happens
For big beers or lagers you’ll want to make bigger starters. Jamil has a yeast starter calculator at his website www.mrmalty.com
I used jamil’s yeast starter page for a while but later found www.yeastcalc.com and it really helped me with stepping up to a larger starter for larger batch sizes. Also it will tell you how much dry extract for the starter size you desire
Nice! Never saw that but looks great - thanks!
I use the pressure cooker to make my starters well in advance. I can usually make 5 quart-sized jars at a time. They keep fairly indefinitely. I put in 3.2 ounces DME, a pinch of yeast nutrient and fill to the neck with water. Shake well and then cook at 15psi for 15 minutes. Thanks to Drew for the info.
Nice post, thanks!
+1 to all the advice above. When you want to make lagers, starters are paramount to your success.
Dave
is yeast nutrient just an item i could buy at my LHBS? Is that the actual name of the product?
Its just called yeast nutrient at mine. I think there’s some brand names, though.
Reminds me of the movie Repo Man where food was called “Food” and drink was called “Drink”.
You will want to get a yeast nutrient hat is fortified with zinc. The white labs and wyeast nutrients are both good, i wouldnt waste my money of the servo from White Labs though, just the regular nutrient. You also want to aerate the starter well, and if you can,mourns the starter fermentation.
come again?
When your hat is fortified with zinc it’s important to mourn the starter that’s all. perfectly clear to me ;D
ah yes, now I get it! ???
Damn, that was some crazy auto correct! :o I meant to say if possible, aerate the starter during fermentation.
+1
Use of a stir plate is a real good aeration technique for yeast starters.
bluesman, Friday night we were talking about a yeast starter for the maibock I brewed yesterday. We decided the yeast starter I had prepared was too small and there was not enough time left to step it up to the correct size. You explained a lot to me at the time, but since I was engaged in sampling homebrew, I have retained very little! 
So my question is, what’s the correct size yeast starter for a 5-gallon maibock? What’s the best way to make the starter and how many days before brew-day should I begin?