Yeast Starters

[21st-Amendment]

First post!

Anyway, i just recently got all my equipment and some ingredients together and I'm itching to start but I had a few questions about yeast propogation. The kit i got came with ingredients for a pale ale (came with 2 packets of dry ale yeast) and I bought ingredients for a red ale for my second attempt (liquid english ale yeast). It comes packaged as "ready to pitch" but I don't necesarrily trust it, like brewer's instinct or something. I've read that dry yeast should be started half hour or so before hand and that smack pack liquid yeasts anywhere between 2 and 4 days beforehand. The liquid yeast I have now sitting in my fridge isnt a smack pack, came in a test tube like bottle. My questions being...

A) how long should i start a dry yeast before i pitch?

B) is it really ready to pitch in this form or should i make a mini wort ahead of time and bottle it for propagation?

c) how long will these keeps refridgerated?

Thanks

[fretlessman71]

White Labs, right? Yeah, it's ready to pitch... sort of. Your best bet is to leave it out of the fridge for a few hours before you do so, which means take it out just as you're starting to get your wort together. That stuff will stay for quite some time in the fridge. Never made a starter, but I know they're a really good idea....

Welcome to the board! Glad to have you!

[21st-Amendment]

yea its whitelabs, just checked the label. Sounds simple enough.

[fretlessman71]

Yep - you got some good professional stuff there. White Labs and Wyeast are, I think, the two major yeast "manufacturers" around.

All you do is get your wort into your fermenter (well chilled, or course, and quickly at that), tip it onto its side, and swirl it around until you get that "vortex" thing going on. Once that happens, start swirling it hard the OPPOSITE direction so the wort basically runs into itself, and create a reverse vortex. (This is my technique for aerating the wort; my whisk doesn't fit into a glass bottle.) Stop it again, and swirl it in the original direction, get your original vortex going, shake the yeast tube, and dump it right down the hatch! Best of luck!

[21st-Amendment]

Ok, for the dry yeast how should I start it before hand? I've read mixing it with a cup or so of warm water and letting it sit for a half hour or so was ideal. This sound right?

[fretlessman71]

Since I've never done a starter, I found this (http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html) for you. Hopefully it'll tell you everything you need to know, and if not, keep posting questions - I'm sure someone here can help you out as well!

BTW, the homepage to that link is www.howtobrew.com if you have problems getting the original link to work. Look for Chapter 6.5 . Best of luck!

[BluesHarp]

WARNING!!!

When you shake up a WhiteLabs vile; open it slowly...it will have a bit of pressure in it from shaking.

...and no. I didn't learn this the hard way..I'm just very observant! ;)

[wild]

I make a starter for all of my ales no matter what the OG or type of yeast 3 days before brewing.

Wild

[YamahaXS]

Starters are a good idea, but for beers with OG's under 1.060 I wouldn't say they are an absolute must. For the beer < 1.060, you could skip the starter batch altogether, with both liquid and dry yeasts. I expect some people my disagree with that, but I have done just that....sprinkled dry yeast on top of the wort before and it works. Definitely slower to start, but you'll get a complete ferment. If you know you aren't going to do a starter, then try to aerate your wort (preferrably after it is cooled below 80 F.).

cheers and beers

[noby]

Originally posted by 21st-Amendment
Ok, for the dry yeast how should I start it before hand? I've read mixing it with a cup or so of warm water and letting it sit for a half hour or so was ideal. This sound right?

That's exactly what I do when I use dry yeast. You could sprinkle in a pinch of sugar if you like. It should get going within 15 mins or so, then you're ready to go. I've also sprinkled, as Yahamaxs said, but this quick starter will reduce the lag time.

Welcome to the boards!

Cormac

[guildofevil]

My procedure for dry yeast is as follows:

At the start of the boil, I take a tablespoon or two of wort and mix it with a cup of water, in a one pint measuring jug.

I mix in the dry yeast at 30C (86F) – 35C (95F), cover the whole lot in cling film and put it somewhere I'm not going to knock it (found that one out the hard way).

By the time I'm ready to pitch the yeast, I have a measuring jug full of foamy, yeasty goodness.

Séan

[Grog]

Originally posted by wild
I make a starter for all of my ales no matter what the OG or type of yeast 3 days before brewing.

Me too. There is something comforting about seeing the yeast working before you toss it into a batch.

-G-

[ray m]

I agree with Yamaha in the sense that, since you are in the "fertilizing the embryo" stage of this hobby, start off slowly. White Labs is awesome stuff, and you don't need to do a starter, as long as your making a beer with OG under 1.060. Start off slowly so you're not overwhelmed by the process. I would suggest getting 2 or 3 batches under your belt first. By then you should be pretty comfortable, and you will have questions, many, many questions. You will experience tremendous panic because something happened that's gonna make you think you wrecked your batch. You will also think you screwed something up becuase your wort's still not fermenting after 12 hours (which you will experience when you don't make starters).

After that, start making starters for your yeast (if you still dig the hobby). Then, madness will set in and you're gonna want to upgrade your equipment, move on to all grain, etc., etc. But as I said before, start off slow to get comfortable with the process first, then start adding "options" to your brewing schedule.

[CampAjohn]

One additional piece of advice for making yeast starter: KEEP IT CLEAN. Since the starter will be introduced to the "cool side" of the wort, after it is chilled, the container it is made in, the water, even the outside of the yeast packet, must be as biologically clean as possible. I now use the "no rinse" BTF Iodofor disinfectant. Before I switched to a lot of stainless equipment, I just used diluted laundry bleach, like a tablespoon per quart.