HOW TO MAKE A YEAST STARTER

Before your brew day, it's always a good idea to make a starter! Join me as I walk you through how I make my yeast starters.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• beer
• brewing
• homebrewing
• home
• ale
• lager
• ferment
• yeast
• stir
• plate
• homebrew
• brew
• hops
• malt
• Drink
• Drinks

[AmberBrews]

I'm learning to brew beer and make YouTube videos. I wonder if you would like to make a trade and review each others beers!

[bluemystic7501]

@AmberBrews

I might be up for a trade. PM me and we can work out the details.

[clyons17]

I would think a full vial of yeast would ferment out 2qts of wort in 24hrs. 5-7 days seems like a long time to wait for pitch.

[bluemystic7501]

@clyons17

It's not that I'm waiting 5-7 days for it to ferment, I'm waiting for it to floc. When it comes to the various steps in the beer making process, I don't like to rush things. Cheers!

[clyons17]

@clyons17 HI again. Why not throw the starter into the fridge for the night? Just wondering as I am just getting started with brewing. I thought the idea of a starter was to not only increase the yeast population but also to get the yeast ready for active fermentation. If you're waiting 5-7 days, I would imagine you're missing that window of oppurtunity when the yeast activity is at it's peak. I understand you wish to decant the spent wort which makes things a bit tricky.

[bluemystic7501]

@clyons17

I think you're referring to pitching an 'active starter' in which case you can get by with a starter about half the size and like you said, you'd pitch after 24 hours. I don't like starter wort in my beer which is why I make bigger starters than needed which are full fermented, decanted, then pitched.

[mikeystern]

so the if my theoretical beer has an OG of 1.103, i want my starter to be that before i pitch it?

[clyons17]

That should read..."into the fridge for over night floc. Yeast come out the following day (brew day), up to room temp, DECANT and finally pitched."

[clyons17]

@bluemystic7501 Bigger starter, floc and decant vs smaller, active starter. I am not sure what JZ would think but that makes sense to me... You've won some awards I take it, so must be working!

I've only made a couple of starters, in the past I've pitched to starter 2 days before brewing, 18-24hrs to ferment out and then into the fridge for over night floc. Yeast come out the following day (brew day), up to room temp, and finally pitched.

Keep up the vids!

[bluemystic7501]

@lowblazun

I'm brewing tomorrow actually and the video from that brewday will be up when the beer is ready to drink. Cheers!