BeerBorg

...coming home from work and seeing your yeast starter with three inches of krausen. It was flatter than a pancake this morning. Grow, you yeasties! GROW!

I have nothing to add, except this --->

T minus 12 hours eh!!! Arizona time of course

Hell, not just my yeast starter either...oh my TMI

FedoraDave wrote:...coming home from work and seeing your yeast starter with three inches of krausen. It was flatter than a pancake this morning. Grow, you yeasties! GROW!

You're ahead of me on that. I washed some yeast for the first time last week ... but I haven't done a starter on it yet. I brewed last night, and pffftttt ... I realized I forgot to do that, and just grabbed a pack of S50.

I figure, and please correct me if I'm wrong ... a couple or three days before I brew, take the washed yeast out of the fridge, and transfer to a sanitized jar with an airlock and a skoach of sugar in it. If it comes "alive", use it to pitch. Is this right?

I washed yeast last Friday put it in the fridge pulled it out when I started brewing Sunday, pitched it about 5:30, it was going to town when I got up for work at 5:30 Monday morning. Just wondering if it is really necessary to do a starter?

Tabasco wrote:

FedoraDave wrote:...coming home from work and seeing your yeast starter with three inches of krausen. It was flatter than a pancake this morning. Grow, you yeasties! GROW!

You're ahead of me on that. I washed some yeast for the first time last week ... but I haven't done a starter on it yet. I brewed last night, and pffftttt ... I realized I forgot to do that, and just grabbed a pack of S50.

I figure, and please correct me if I'm wrong ... a couple or three days before I brew, take the washed yeast out of the fridge, and transfer to a sanitized jar with an airlock and a skoach of sugar in it. If it comes "alive", use it to pitch. Is this right?

Tom, it's a little more complicated than that.

You need to boil some Light DME for 15 minutes. 200 grams of DME for 2000 ml of water, which will give you a good base for your starter. Chill to pitching temp and pitch your yeast. Ideally you should use a stir plate to keep it aerated. But if you shake it frequently, that should be adequate (though not ideal; I did my first starter this way). Two or three days ahead of brew day should be adequate. You want it to krausen and maybe even fall before you use it.

Obviously, keep it covered and sanitized. A piece of aluminum foil sprayed with sanitizer will do the trick. There are videos online that explain and demonstrate it more, and I'd encourage you to investigate them.

Dawg LB Steve wrote:I washed yeast last Friday put it in the fridge pulled it out when I started brewing Sunday, pitched it about 5:30, it was going to town when I got up for work at 5:30 Monday morning. Just wondering if it is really necessary to do a starter?

Not necessary, as your experience shows. I frequently do 2.5 gallon batches with dry yeast, and just pitch it straight from the packet.

But making a yeast starter from a liquid yeast (or washed yeast) increases the number of yeast cells and will help fermentation, attenuation, and can help you make better beer.

Whenever possible, I like to make a yeast starter, especially for my five-gallon batches.

FedoraDave wrote:

Tabasco wrote:

FedoraDave wrote:...coming home from work and seeing your yeast starter with three inches of krausen. It was flatter than a pancake this morning. Grow, you yeasties! GROW!

You're ahead of me on that. I washed some yeast for the first time last week ... but I haven't done a starter on it yet. I brewed last night, and pffftttt ... I realized I forgot to do that, and just grabbed a pack of S50.

I figure, and please correct me if I'm wrong ... a couple or three days before I brew, take the washed yeast out of the fridge, and transfer to a sanitized jar with an airlock and a skoach of sugar in it. If it comes "alive", use it to pitch. Is this right?

Tom, it's a little more complicated than that.

You need to boil some Light DME for 15 minutes. 200 grams of DME for 2000 ml of water, which will give you a good base for your starter. Chill to pitching temp and pitch your yeast. Ideally you should use a stir plate to keep it aerated. But if you shake it frequently, that should be adequate (though not ideal; I did my first starter this way). Two or three days ahead of brew day should be adequate. You want it to krausen and maybe even fall before you use it.

Obviously, keep it covered and sanitized. A piece of aluminum foil sprayed with sanitizer will do the trick. There are videos online that explain and demonstrate it more, and I'd encourage you to investigate them.

Thanks, Dave. I do think yeast likes to eat sugar as much as dme, though ... hence the most common priming ingredient is sugar. Anyway, I finally washed some yeast. I had never remembered to have sanitized jars on hand on kegging day, and one time recently I did. But, it's been sitting in the fridge for weeks.

I tried drilling a hole in the top of a mason jar lid, to put an air lock, but the jagged metal ripped the rubber grommet right apart. I'll seal that up somehow .... Maybe next batch of beer that comes close to kegging day, I'll remember to start the yeast up a few days ahead of time. I'd only bother to "start" washed/recycled yeast. That's the part I'm interested in (yeast that fell to the bottom of the fermenter on the previous brew).

There are also videos about proper yeast washing. I've harvested yeast, but early on, I don't think I was really doing it the best way. It's fairly involved, but I think it's worth it if you know you're going to use that yeast regularly.

This particular yeast starter is from WLP001, which I use in at least three recipes. And it's Generation 4 at this point, which is pretty impressive.

I'd recommend the following video for yeast washing. I refer to it all the time, because I need refreshers.

http://billybrew.com/yeast-washing