| Author |
Message |
    
Tony Osko (4.38.82.62)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 07:56 pm: | 
|
Last night I made a starter yeast that I'm going to use on Saturday. Tonight when I get home, should I add more DME to it? Or should I cook up a new DME wort to add to it? If I do either, is it a good idea to add more yeast nutrient to it?
Or should I just let it sit?
Thanks. |
Bill Pierce (208.57.122.28)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 08:23 pm: |
|
Assuming that the starter is of sufficient size to pitch into your wort, it's not necessary to do anything to it. Although 36-48 hours is the ideal time to prepare a starter before pitching the yeast, I have had successful fermentations with starters that were anywhere from 10 to 96 hours old. |
Tony Osko (4.38.82.62)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 08:38 pm: |
|
But will it help to add some more DME for a more robust yeast? If 36-48 hours is the ideal time, then I want to ensure that I don't come up short.
Maybe I'm worrying too much. At the most, this starter will be about 65 hours old by the time it's pitched.
The book I'm using is "How to Brew" and it seems pretty solid. I'm just curious as to why it advises to to make a starter 4 days in advance of pitching. |
Bill Pierce (208.57.122.28)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 09:28 pm: |
|
What is the volume of the starter and what is the volume of the batch into which it is going to be pitched? |
Tony Osko (4.38.82.62)
| | Posted on Thursday, March 06, 2003 - 11:47 pm: |
|
The starter volume is close to 500 millileters or 1 pint. The batch is starting out with 6 gallons of water but should end up around 5 gallons total. |
Bill Pierce (208.57.122.28)
| | Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 01:49 am: |
|
Assuming that your beer is of normal gravity you should be just fine. |
Walt Fischer (24.221.196.114)
| | Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 04:46 am: |
|
certainly dont ask me about normal gravity...
Life begins at 1.060 OG to me 
Walt
---- |
Chris Colby (66.25.197.116)
| | Posted on Friday, March 07, 2003 - 05:28 pm: |
|
Your starter will probably be fine as is. However, one standard pitching rule is to use yeast from a volume of wort 1/10th the amount of your larger wort for pitching. By this rule, you will be underpitching.
For six gallons (23 L) of wort, you could bump up your 1 pint/16 oz. (~500 mL) starter to a 0.6 gallon/77 oz. (2.3 L) starter and have the proper amount of yeast. (The starter step-up here is "overpitching" by the 10X rule, but that won't hurt anything.)
If you do bump up and you're brewing Saturday (tomorrow), you'll probably want to pitch the whole starter. It won't be fermented out by tomorrow if it's kept at the proper temperature.
On the other hand, you could just pitch the yeast you've already raised. You'll only be pitching 1/4 of the required yeast -- according to the standard rule -- but, after the yeast cells replicate twice, they will be at the correct density. The only thing you're out is the amount of wort the yeast cells "ate" to get the energy to replicate twice.
Chris Colby
Bastrop, TX |
Brews and Views Archive 2003