STARTER HELP!

[GweedoeBrew]

Ok... So I am going to start making yeast starters... something I have never done....

so I bought a large Erlenmeyer flask.... I don't have a stir plate...

Ok so I am going to do a DIPA (OG 1.080) on Memorial day weekend.... I went to the Mr Malty yeast pitching Calculator... and it said that I need to make a 4.08 liter starter... That is over a gallon... my Flask isn't even a gallon (ok not sure of that, but pretty sure)...

Am I missing something... isn't a Gallon a lot to put into a beer... I guess If I make a 4 liter stater... what do I do with it???

So someone explain to me how a starter works please... I want to have enough yeasts to handle this DIPA, but not sure how to do that!!

[crupp]

I'd do it in stages if I were you. maybe do a liter or two, let it settle out, decant the top wort, and add another two liters. When it comes time to pitch, chill it down a little bit, decant some/most of the wort off of the top, and pitch the slury into the fermenter.
I try my best to hit the starter size on JZ's site. In the end, any starter is better than no starter. I wouldn't lose too much sleep about it.

[Wutz]

If you're brewing on Saturday, make the starter on Monday.
Let the yeast go to work.
After they stop, throw it in the fridge to get the yeast to drop to the bottom.
Pour off most of the liquid before you throw it in to the wort, leaving enough in the bottom to be able to swirl your yeast up in to suspension.
Pour the slurry in to your fermentor.
Put on your blow-off tube, tin foil, airlock, or other preferred method of keeping the badness out but letting the CO2 escape.
Control your temperature.

[thatguy314]

Depends on how comfortable you are about sanitation.

Very comfortable? Brew the starter in steps. If you have 200 billion cells that's 2 vials, 300 billion that's three vials. Then chill the starter to crash the yeast, decant the spent wort/beer, and add fresh wort to it. Adjust the calculator accordingly.

Not as comfortable? Pitch multiple vials into the starter.

[brewinhard]

Okay, if you are using Cal Ale yeast, fuck the starter and use fermentis safale US-O5 (1.5 - 2 packets should get you there, rehydrated of course). If you are using another liquid yeast just make a 1/2 gallon starter 5 days in advance, let it fully ferment out for 3 days, then put it in the fridge to cold crash. On brewday, pulll the starter out to warm up to room temps, decant with sanitary procedures, pitch and aerate WELL!! You will be underpitching a bit, but should be fine for the beer to finish out. Oxygen is a must!

[Old_Skool]

So - putting your SG into the calculator (at 5.25g) AND selecting intermittent shaking indicates you only need 2.66L of starter. Actually a Erlenmeyer flask its more of a vigorous swirling motion to really mix things up. So if you can put the flask where it will be near the proper temp. range and easily accessible for swirling whenever you pass by you can drastically increase yeast production. And of course a stir plate gets you down to 1.73L.

So a couple of thoughts -- even 2.66L is quite a bit -- and keep in mind that you don't want to fill your flask way full because you also want a good amount of surface area for gas exchange. For one of my early starters I spent $5 on some cheap wine in a 1.5g bottle (stout roundish bottle). Dump some of the wine into quart mason jars - screw lids on - put in fridge to use for cooking or a real cheap drunk. Either way you now have a large bottle for large starters. Start 5 days before brew day with say 3L of starter (2.66L bumped up a bit) and even a big round wine you can swirl fairly easily. Swirl it for at least a minute or 2 whenever you can for 3.5 days - ish then crash it in the fridge for 24-35hrs.

Then get it out after you have started brewing and put it in a 68-70deg water bath (DO NOT SWIRL OR MIX) -- I have a long stem thermometer that I punch thru the loose foil cap. Keep repeating the water baths until the starter is up to 65-68deg. As pitching time nears -- decant about 90% of the spent wort in the starter bottle -- after cooling your wort use a sanitized glass measuring cup to get about 1/3 a cup of your fresh wort and add this to the recently decanted starter (temps should be within 5-8deg) and now swirl it up every few minutes for at least 10 - 15 min to get the yeast going. Pitch the whole thing when ready - mix-up and aerate your wort well.

Lastly be ready for a big fermentation if all is going well. And as a process note --- as the starter clears in the fridge the results of your efforts should be obvious. The bottom will be coated in a large amount of yeast

[11amas]

Another trick I like is making your starter at the proper temp you will ferment at. Let's say you are doing a 65 degree ferment for an ale and you need a 4L starter. Like everyone says, starter, crash, decant... So if you need 400 billion cells, you can double that in about 48 hours with a 2L starter so start with one vial or smack pack. Then, after it ferments out, crash in the fridge, decant, add another 2L of cooled 1.030-1.035 wort, ferment this at 65 or whatever you will ferment your ale at. Now you can dump the entire thing in the beer and skip the last crash, decant. Just plan your brew to need another 2L of wort. If you are paying $4-5 for a 2L starter's worth of DME why dump it? The DME will most likely not be noticeable especially in your DIPA batch since it is largely base malt and your DME was made from base malt. This keeps your starter from going sleepy again in the fridge during the last crash and saves you a few dollars.
What I have been recently pondering is this: so I use a few dollars of DME and some time to double the cell count on a vial/smack pack of yeast...which costs $6-7...my time is worth more than a dollar for the hour or two the starter takes; add in the risk of infection and I am wondering why I am really doing this? To wake the yeast up and get them ready to ferment, sure, so I still do a starter when I need a doubling of cells, otherwise I just pitch the yeast at proper rates from the vials or smackpacks. I use dry yeast whenever it doesn't need to be liquid to make a difference.
Now lagers and really high gravity ales, that is where you really start needing either starters because 4-5 smackpacks/vials will run $25-30 dollars. But why spend $15 in DME to save $10 and spend lots of time? At this point, planning is your friend, brew a low gravity beer with the yeast you want to use in the high gravity beer (doing a DIPA? Make a nice little APA, lower gravity, not too many hops...ok, add hops but mostly bittering in the boil, rack after fermentation to a secondary, and dry hop the crap out of it). Now you have a massive amount of yeast. A good ferment should do approx 5x reproduction of the initial pitch (rough estimate I am sure). But now your one pitch for $6-7 gives you a 5 gallon batch of beer and $25-30 of yeast to boot to pitch in your DIPA!
So...why throw out DME that you buy if you can use it? Why use DME if you can grow the yeast in beer that you can drink?

Soon this line of thought will drive you to just suck it up and buy a conical like I did, dump the yeast you want and stop lifting those stupid, hazardous carboys! Ok buckets and better bottles are cheaper but conicals will impress people!