Old_Skool wrote:mordantly wrote:
what questions? i take from fridge, decant, drink, and if a-ok pitch!
Ok - I assume you're yanking my chain on the drink part
--- but doesn't going from the fridge to 68deg wort shock the hell out of the yeast ?
I don't think he's yanking your chain at all. I taste most of my starters (esp. the multi stepped starters). If you taste it, and there is an obv. infection, you wouldn't want to pitch that into your beer. Granted, starters will can taste very different... so if you don't know what your looking for, you might dump a starter that you didn't need to.
For example. When I do starters, I tend to forget (or am too lazy) to use filtered water. My starter will taste clean, but will definitely be throwing some chloro-phenol off flavors from the chlorine/chloramines in my water. Since I decant this, as long as I know what I'm tasting, I've pitched these starters will excellent results.
Also, if you build a lager starter at 68º, you might get some undesirable fermentation characteristics at the warm temp... but as long as you know what is coming from where, and you're decanting that starter wort, you're still good to go.
That being said, I just did a 4L starter of the Wyeast Munich Lager... and tasted the decanted wort. I was surprised at how clean it was, even though I built the starters in the 68-72 range.
When you pull your starter out of the fridge... decant right there. while the yeast is cold, it will stay packed on the bottome of the flask, and you can decant mostly just wort.
I leave a little wort on top of the yeast, and stir the heck out of it as it is coming up to room temp and/or pitching temp. If I think my starter is a little undersized, I'll even blast the starter once or twice with pure o2 before I even pitch. The yeast as they are coming out of dormancy will suck that o2 up faster than you will believe. (I also oxygenate the wort as well).
In short. For me.
Starter. Pitch. Ferment completely. Fridge (2 days +). Pull and decant. Taste. Warm. (Sometimes o2). Pitch.
