How to make a Yeast Starter for Homebrewing

In this video I walk you through how easy it is to make a yeast starter, how large your yeast starter needs to be and why it's important to make a yeast starter for home brewing.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• yeast starter
• making yeast

[TheAmericaninexile]

Can i culture liquid and or dry yeasts using a DME solution?

[benshomebrew]

@TheAmericaninexile

Yeah, you can culture liquid yeast from bottles, you'll just have to step up the starter a few times in order to get enough yeast. DON'T make starters for dry yeast. They come packaged with all their nutrients and are ready to go. Just pitch more yeast if you need to.

[TheAmericaninexile]

@benshomebrew i don't live in the US. i'm coming home in august and was hoping to bring back some yeast strains and continuously farm them. i'm already doing it with some wine yeasts (using grape juice) and it works well. could i do the same with ale yeasts (liquid or dried), using dme and yeast nutrient? dried would be much more convenient. thanks for the 411...

[benshomebrew]

@TheAmericaninexile

Sure, you can do that. I don't see any issue with them, just make sure they don't get too hot in transport.

[neightwatts]

What would you say the dangers are of using dry yeast for making a starter?

My thoughts on it is that, even though the yeast package comes with the nutrients needed to encourage the dry yeast to propagate, a head start couldn't hurt. Right?

isn't 300 billion yeast better than 100 billion?

I just pitch the dry yeast as it comes packaged but I am interested in farming my own yeast for future brews.