Yeast starter or not?

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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guypettigrew
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Yeast starter or not?

Post by guypettigrew » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:26 am

A delivery from The Malt Miller is due to arrive about midday today. The delivery includes a couple of sachets of White Labs yeast. Tomorrow is the only day I can get a brew going for over a week.

Which of these would you do?;
  • get a starter going today, knowing it'll only have about 24 hours before pitching
  • pitch the yeast directly from the sachet tomorrow
  • leave the brewing for a week and get a proper three day starter going at the beginning of next week
Thanks.

Guy

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gr_baker
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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by gr_baker » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:35 am

It depends what you're brewing. If it's a session ale. Then getting the starter going now and pitching tomorrow or even straight from the packet might be ok.

However, if it's a cold fermented lager or a strong beer I'd build the starter and brew next week.

guypettigrew
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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by guypettigrew » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:45 am

It'll be a 'standard' bitter at about 1.050 OG.

Guy

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gr_baker
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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by gr_baker » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:48 am

Well you might be underpitching if you don't build a proper starter with that og. However, if the yeast is fresh you should be ok.

If you want to be safe, wait until next week

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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by Rookie » Wed Jan 23, 2019 11:59 pm

Which yeast?
I'm just here for the beer.

guypettigrew
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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by guypettigrew » Thu Jan 24, 2019 10:36 am

It would have been White Labs 007. Best by April 30th 2019.

I say 'would have been' because I saw sense and decided not to brew today. Brewing next week will allow me to build up a proper starter.

Over the years I've only had to chuck away a few brews. The most common cause has been the fermentation not starting quickly enough and the brew then hosting unwanted bugs before the proper yeast got going.

Since I've been making a starter up bubbles begin to flow through the blow off tube within a few hours and no more infected beers.

Guy

MTW
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Re: Yeast starter or not?

Post by MTW » Thu Jan 24, 2019 1:47 pm

I've used 007 regularly in a 12 hour shaken starter, pitched whole and active; 1L for a 20L batch or so, for a regular OG like that. (Edit: by 12 hour, I mean started 12 hours before, not shaken for 12 hours - that would hurt!)
Busy in the Summer House Brewery

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