How exactly do you "do" a starter?

[spencer]

I want to try this, so I ordered a starter kit (heatable glass jar, stopper, airlock, dry malt extract). I usually use the White Labs stuff, and up until now I have just pitched it directly from the tube. I know that I have to make some wart with the malt extract, but I'm not sure how much to make (teaspoons of extract per ml of water or something?). Also, how much of the yeast do I put in the little batch of wart? All? Less? Finally, what is a safe amount of time to allow for the starter to do its thing? I assume I can pitch it before it's jiving if needed, but that sort of snuffs out the who reason that I want to do the starter. As always, thanks.

[toneyc]

From John Palmer's online book howtobrew.com, here is the page on yeast and starters:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html

Basically, it is a half cup DME per pint of water. I make mine up with 1.5 cups DME and 3 pints water and a pinch of yeast nutrient.

:)
Toney.

[spencer]

Come on Toney - you're all over this page. What exactly do YOU do? This is what makes good beer great! Give us the stuff... I have a tube of WL yeast & a glass thing that looks like it came from 7th grade science class... now what?

[wild]

3 days prior to my brew day, I boil 1 cup of DME in a quart of water for 10 minutes. Cool it down to 70 degrees then pitch my yeast. Set the airlock in place and leave in a cool dark area until it's time to pitch.

W

[toneyc]

Well... I am far from being an expert, it wasn't too long ago that I was asking this very same question. Here's what I do, right or wrong:

A day or two, sometimes three, before brew day, I boil three pints of water with 1.5 cups of DME and a pinch of yeast nutrient for about 15 minutes. Cool it down in the sink full of cold water. When it gets below 100*F, I start whisking it until it reaches about 70*F. Then pour it into a sanitized half gallon glass jug and pour in the yeast, which has been sitting out for at least an hour. Put on the sanitized stopper and airlock and put it up on the shelf. Everytime I pass by, I give it a swirl. Be careful, this may cause lots of foam, but it does seem to increase yeast production.

On brew day, I pour the whole thing into my cooled whipped wort. Some folks only pitch the slurry, your choice. I have had lag times as short as one hour. Last brewday, I did two batches back to back. Didn't have time to do a starter for the second batch. Lag time on the batch with a starter was about 2 hours, lag time on the starterless batch was about 30 hours. I'm convinced.

:)
Toney.

[Fast_Eddy]

And if you want to get even fancier - you can make your starter's gravity match the OG of the batch you're making. It's actually less stressful on the yeast, per George Fix. I use my DME by weight to match gravities.

[davesarman]

I pretty much follow Toney's procedure and will vouch for the great results...

[DreamWeaver]

Toneyc made it sound so EZ that I'm going to have to try it. I have been using Nottingham re-hydrated yeast with good results but this batch I used WPL001 and it took 28 hours to go. I did'nt sleep right that night!

Toneyc... You da man! :cool:

[chris1kanobi]

http://www12.brinkster.com/milehighmonks/starter.htm

This is how I do it. Nothing fancy.:D

[Jughead]

I use enough DME and water to make about 13 starters. Then I use one and can the rest in quart sealers.

When it's time to brew again, just dump one of the jars into a jug along with the yeast.