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Starters

Post #1 made 14 years ago
by kartoffel
I have made a few beers. Only 1 so far was BIAB. I have never used a starter for yeast before. I have made a 1.1OG weizenbock and pitched from a wyeast smack pack that was only smaked for 3 hours and it started to have activity and a whole hell of a lot of it in less than 12 hours. It attenuated properly and was delicious one of the best beers I had ever made. I've used wyeast before and always smack right before I start brew day and they usually are smacked for all of 4-5 hours and always do great and get to work right away. Many of my beers are above 1.065 and always have worked and attenuated well. I also have used dry yeasts and those always work well after rehydration in non stanitary water out of my tap at 100F I figure the water out of my tap is ran though one of those fancy filters 99.99% claimed filtartion for anything under the sun. I have never had an infection, and sometimes im sloppy but always santize equipment. So my big question is are yeast starters more LHBS add on sales pitch propaganda conspiracy, not to sound like a lunatic but I have given yeast the worst theortical environments and they have thrived.

Post #2 made 14 years ago
by PistolPatch
Hi there kartoffel :peace:,

I'm not quite understanding your question sorry. A yeast starter is generally used to increase the amount of live yeast cells you have available. I'm taking a guess here but is your question, "Do I really need to build up my yeast count with a starter or is the amount of live yeast cells that come in a pack enough?"

If that's the question then some of the guys here will have some good info for you.

;)
PP
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Post #3 made 14 years ago
by BobBrews
kartoffel,

The Wyeast smack pack is good enough for 5 gallons or 19 liters of ale under normal conditions. Where you really need starters is for Lagers where cold conditions cause a long and slow ferment. The more of your "Yeast of choice" that you have the less chance of a infection you have. Some people like to use yeast starters for every yeast they pitch, ale or lager? If you have a weak or damaged smack pack then the few surviving yeast must work overtime to build up enough siblings to have a good fermentation. This time delay is a good place for some infection to start up before the "yeast of choice" are strong enough to win the battle!

The quicker the yeast of choice begin fermenting the better. Some beers actually are infected but the wild yeast may be slow in reproducing and the yeast of choice eat up all the sugars first! So its not a marketing ploy to make you buy extra yeast. It's a choice you have to make for your brewing conditions?
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Post #4 made 14 years ago
by BrickBrewHaus
Its kinda like wearing a seatbelt...Do you HAVE to wear a seatbelt every time you're in a vehicle? Probably not. Are you hurting anything by putting your seatbelt on? Nope. Is it good practice? You betcha.

And what are they really trying to sell you? The absolute essentials are 1) 100-200g DME. That's it. I doubt they make much money per batch on that little bit of DME. You can buy an Erlenmeyer flask (one time expense), but can do just as well with some 1-3 L vessel you have lying around the house.

They're so easy to make, why not?

Post #5 made 14 years ago
by thughes
BrickBrewHaus wrote:Its kinda like wearing a seatbelt...Do you HAVE to wear a seatbelt every time you're in a vehicle? Probably not. Are you hurting anything by putting your seatbelt on? Nope. Is it good practice? You betcha.

And what are they really trying to sell you? The absolute essentials are 1) 100-200g DME. That's it. I doubt they make much money per batch on that little bit of DME. You can buy an Erlenmeyer flask (one time expense), but can do just as well with some 1-3 L vessel you have lying around the house.

They're so easy to make, why not?
Even cheaper: Save a quart of wort at the end of boil from every brew session and then freeze it. Thaw when it's time to make a starter, boil for a few minutes, cool, dilute to @ 1.030 with water if necessary, and use that to make your starter. No need to by expensive DME! :party:

Better yet, if you're a no-chill brewer just pull off a quart as it goes into the cube and use that for your starter.

---Todd
Last edited by thughes on 15 May 2012, 21:51, edited 3 times in total.
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Post #6 made 14 years ago
by kartoffel
Maybe I'll give a starter a try. I always am just a bit careless on brew day. I don't check the pitch temperature after it's cool "enough" I pitch the yeast from a smack pack that is only 3-4 hours smacked. I did this with a 1.10 OG beer and in less than a day I was losing beer through my blowoff tube with ~20% headspace it was like a volcano. I probably piched too hot or too cold too, who knows.
I just have never cared too much about measurements, and all the other "modern neccessities" I figure back a few hundered years ago no one knew this or had the tools to measure half of what we are suposed to these days. Maybe they had more to throw out but I've been lucky so far.

Post #7 made 14 years ago
by BrickBrewHaus
If that's how you like to brew, then who are we to try and convince you otherwise. It all depends on what your priorities are. Relaxation vs. More "Work"? Beer is good as-is vs. Trying to improve quality?
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