yeast starter

im a new brewer i hear starter,starter, starter. I want to do one but im a bit confused. I know how to do it ive watched a ton of videos read about it etc.

What i never hear and dont understand is how to know when you have enough yeast built up. I know its bad to under pitch but its also bad to over pitch. is it a visual thing? or is it more use X amount of DME wait X amount of time ?

[quote=“beerme11”]im a new brewer i hear starter,starter, starter. I want to do one but im a bit confused. I know how to do it ive watched a ton of videos read about it etc.

What i never hear and dont understand is how to know when you have enough yeast built up. I know its bad to under pitch but its also bad to over pitch. is it a visual thing? or is it more use X amount of DME wait X amount of time ?[/quote]

Use Mr.Malty to tell you what size starters to make. And when making starters use 100g of DME per 1L of water. This will give you the proper OG for starter wort. And yes, it’s not good to under pitch, it is not easy to over pitch. For home brewers over pitching is generally something we never have to worry about. Home brewers tend to under pitch which can be an issue, stressing yeast which leads to unwanted biproducts, flavors and aromas in your beer.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

There are also apps you can download to your smart phone.

Like Dobe inferred it is more this one. Only breweries (and maybe some super advanced homebrewers) have the equipment to do cell counts, rest of us have to depend on calculators to estimate a proper pitch rate.