Advice on starter temperature

[Tomp]

Afternoon folks.

I'm interested to know how others maintain starter temperatures.

I'm looking to use a stir plate and want to keep the starter at a nice even temperature (about 18c?) but my kitchen regularly falls below this temperature during the day time in winter and it seems a little extravagant just to keep the heating on for yeast cells......

[scotsloon]

Do you have a drying cupboard? Maybe where your hot water tank is located? They are usually fairly warm and fairly steady. Your yeast would thrive in that situation.
Failing that you might consider making up a small enclosed and insulated box of sufficient size to put a tube heater into. You can use an Eltec temperature controller to maintain any temp you like then.

[Tomp]

.....Failing that you might consider making up a small enclosed and insulated box of sufficient size to put a tube heater into. You can use an Eltec temperature controller to maintain any temp you like then.

That was kind of at the back of my mind TBH. Probably the way forward. I'm about to build an insulated box for the fermentation bin to I could put a shelf in there for yeast while I'm at it.

[MTW]

If you haven't already, I'd stick some some 18C water in the flask (an amount to match your planned starter) and just see how much it warms just from any heat rising from the stir plate. My home made job creates quite a bit, but I have controlled cooling as well... and rarely bother with anything more than a well shaken, active starter nowadays.

You could do with a probe on the flask itself (I'm assuming a flask, with your stir plate), if not for control of a heater, at least to monitor the temperature of the fermenting starter; it will generate a fair bit of its own heat once it's going. I keep mine at 21-23C; some folk go higher than that, especially if they're planning to decant the spent wort/beer rather than pitch the whole thing. You want plenty of yeast growth above all else, and 18 is a bit on the low side for me, depending on how much heat the starter and the stir plate itself create.

[Fil]

18c is low for a starter? when attempting to stimulate population growth in a starter a warmer temps 26-30c can help as well as keeping the sweet liquor well oxygenated.

As MTW says before pitching simply decant off all the spent liquor from the starter and only pitch the yeast slurry, rinsed out with cold earlier boiled water if needed..

[MTW]

18c is low for a starter? when attempting to stimulate population growth in a starter a warmer temps 26-30c can help as well as keeping the sweet liquor well oxygenated.

As MTW says before pitching simply decant off all the spent liquor from the starter and only pitch the yeast slurry, rinsed out with cold earlier boiled water if needed..

FWIW I didn't mean to recommend decanting generally, just if you've gone for such high temperatures as you're suggesting, and when making stepped starters. I prefer to keep them around 21 and pitch the whole thing fully active around 12 or 15 hours on.

[McMullan]

About 30*C is optimum. Sufficient growth occurs below 30. It just takes longer. It's not necessary to decant spent starter wort (and waste time chilling it) between step ups. Just reduce the volume of water in the subsequent step. E.g., for a finished 500ml starter being stepped up to 2.5L, add 2L containing 250g DME.