Making a Yeast Starter - Brew Your Own Magazine

Give your beer fermentation a boost by making a yeast starter for your next batch. James Spencer from Basic Brewing Video shows how.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• yeast
• starter
• beer
• homebrew
• brewing

[brewyourownmagazine]

The airlock allows the carbon dioxide produced during this mini-fermentation to safely escape. Before you put the airlock with rubber stopper on, you should try to get as much oxygen into the wort by at the very least splashing it around a bit so air mixing in before you add the yeast. Good luck with your brewing!

[4slagel]

@wildknightz oxygen during the initial 12 hours or so, after that, they simply convert the simple sugars and multiply. Read "Yeast - the practical guide to beer fermention" by Chris White (White labs) and Jamil Zainasheff. Volume of wort relative to volume of yeast cells is critical to growth.

[EricDMott]

Listen to the basic brewing radio episode about starter experiments. There is a dramatic increase in yeast production when you just use tin foil. It allows O2 to get into the vessel and sustain the active yeast.



[ShitMyCatsOnFire]

@matthewgarvin Airlock isn't necessary. Just loosely cover the top with aluminum foil. Air needs to be able to get into the starter.

[matthewgarvin]

Looks great, but I've heard conflicting information on airlock use in starters. Is there a definitive judgement on this?

[UtilitasNL]

is it possible to use yeast from beer that yeasts while it's in the bottle, instead of any liquid or grain yeast?

thnx

[wildknightz]

I disagree with the airlock. The healthiest yeast are the ones grown in an oxygen rich environment, not when forced to ferment. Any time you starve yeast of oxygen and force them to ferment, then you reduce the health and viability of the cells. They need oxygen to provide for their cell wall integrity after budding. Putting them in an environment with alcohol and without oxygen reduces the health of the yeast. Basically, all you are making here is a yeast cake: stressed, exhausted cells.

[Graham1983]

Another great video James!

[Aschecteable]

Stupid question but during those few days of making the starter don't you want to allow oxygen into the starter? I was always told the yeast needs this oxygen in order to reprduce. wouldn't an airlock prevent this? ie. a foam stopper.

[Aschecteable]

Stupid question but during those few days of making the starter don't you want to allow oxygen into the starter? I was always told the yeast needs this oxygen in order to reprduce. wouldn't an airlock prevent this?