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Author Topic: Brew day Starter?  (Read 2678 times)

Offline garc_mall

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Brew day Starter?
« on: February 18, 2012, 01:19:52 pm »
So, I get all ready for brewing, I heat up my strike water, get out my grain, hops and start getting excited. I open my fridge, and see my lonely package of yeast with no starter... I am going to brew today, but I would rather not run down to the LHBS. Here's my plan, I would like to know your thoughts.

I am making a APA, and shooting for a 1.055 OG.

My plan is to add an extra .5 gallon of sparge water, and run that off into a pan, boil it for 5-10 minutes, cool it, and pitch my yeast. When it hits High Kraeusen, which should be sometime tonight or tomorrow morning, pitch the whole business. I figure that since it is the same grain bill as the beer, and I won't over oxygenate it, it won't affect the flavor of the beer so much. Any Ideas?

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Brew day Starter?
« Reply #1 on: February 18, 2012, 01:57:03 pm »
it will probably be fine.
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Offline dcbc

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Re: Brew day Starter?
« Reply #2 on: February 23, 2012, 09:04:20 am »
Just run it off into your boil kettle.  After the first 15 minutes of the boil, use a pyrex measuring cup or similar and scoop out a couple of quarts or open the valve straight into your flask if you have one.  Cool it (doesn't take too long at that small volume) and pitch.  Works great.  I do it quite often, even if I have already made a starter.  Nice to have the yeast going strong when you pitch into the fermenter.
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Offline nateo

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Re: Brew day Starter?
« Reply #3 on: February 23, 2012, 09:23:33 am »
Nice to have the yeast going strong when you pitch into the fermenter.

Agreed. A small active starter is better than a large sluggish starter.
In der Kürze liegt die Würze.

Offline garc_mall

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Re: Brew day Starter?
« Reply #4 on: February 24, 2012, 11:30:47 pm »
I thought I would post my first impressions of the plan.

I felt like it worked really well, actually better than expected. At least for my light to middling ales, I think this is going to be my plan going forward.

I didn't take a pre-boil gravity reading on my second runnings, but based on my pre-boil reading for the total volume, I would say it was about 1.030, so pretty decent for a starter.

I was pitching the yeast into the starter with about 45-50 minutes left in the boil, because that starter wort got to a boil quick, and then cooled quickly as well.

As per usual, my wort chilling gets really sluggish around 75 degrees, so I pulled out the chiller and siphoned into the fermenter, and then put a stopper on it and set it outside to cool the rest of the way.

About 3 hours after siphoning, and 5 or so hours after pitching the starter, I started to see kraeusen building in my starter. 2 hours after that, it was pretty close to high kraeusen, and getting close to bedtime, so I pitched my whole starter into the wort, which was down to about 58 degrees. Moved the fermenter into my closet at 63, put an airlock in, and left it alone. 10 hours later, that yeast was trucking. As of today, still going strong, looks like 2-3 more days and I can add the dry hops, 1 week after that and it will be bottling time. I will report back again when I pull my final gravity sample before bottling to talk about the taste, and any off-flavors I noticed.