yeast starter / water?

i have a paper on yeast starters. It ways for a 1000 ml starter I need 650 ml of water? Seems to me that if I want a 1000 ml starter I would need 1000 ml of water or more with boil off.

Close enough.

Maybe the paper assumes the starter is made with slurry, or other liquid with a volume close to 350 ml. If not, I’d use about a liter of water.

If you don’t have a good software package to calculate your starter size, get the free app: Mr. Malty.  It’s quite accurate and easy to use.

To make a 1000 mL starter, I would start with 1000mL of water - perhaps a fraction less because you will me adding a few ounces of DME, but close enough.

Here is how I have been doing it (full disclosure:  I am a bit anal about this).  I weigh out 100 grams of DME for each liter of water to make a starter that is 10 degrees Plato (1.040) which I have gleaned from literature and manufacturer’s recommendations.  Let’s assume a 1 liter starter (1.06 quarts). I fill the flask with maybe 700 ml of water (since the DME addition will increase the volume in the flask), heat it to slightly below boiling, add the DME, and swirl to dissolve it.  I then top up the flask to 1 liter with additional water.  That gives me the 10 degree Plato number I am looking for (within a small margin of error).

If that sounds like way too much work, you can keep doing what you are doing.  Your volume will be a bit more than 1 liter and your starter gravity will be slightly lower, but you will be close enough.

I measure out a qt. of water plus a little bit more.  I add 3 oz. of DME and boil it.  Works every bit was well as more complicated methods I’ve used before.  It’s certainly nothing to stress over.

I usually add a few grams of food grade urea on the hot side, just to ensure the yeast has everything it needs.
Jim

i do exactly what denny does and never have problems. SNS is the way, for me at least