Thu Apr 15, 2010 2:13 pm by dmtaylo2
How to make a starter? It's very easy to do, and doesn't take much time. First, buy yourself a 3-pound bag or two of dry malt extract. I always keep some on hand for making starters. Dry extract is convenient because it is easier to store and measure.
You'll need to do the calculations yourself, but basically, you're making a tiny little batch of extract beer, but without any hops. Calculate how much extract you would need for, say, 2 quarts of starter -- this of course is a half gallon. So, I don't recall specific numbers, but maybe extract has around 36 points per pound per gallon? Something like that. You always want to shoot for about 1.035 to 1.040 for your yeast starters. Never any more or less gravity than that. 1.040 is just enough to wake up the yeast and get them multiplying, without stressing them out due to too high a gravity. So if you're making a half gallon, you'll need about a half pound -- am I right? Confirm my math for me, please.
So then after you weigh out your necessary amount of extract for whatever volume you want for your starter, you just dissolve it in the proper volume of water, and boil it for about 5 to 10 minutes -- no need to boil for an hour. You just want to kill any wild critters and that's it.
Then put that into a small sanitized bottle or jar, something you can do a small fermentation in. It will foam up, so use a container that will leave some room for that. Cover it with clean aluminum foil or a loose lid (sanitized, of course), and let it cool down to 70 F or less, then pitch your yeast, shake it up, and let it go for one or two days (two days is probably better). Temperature doesn't matter -- room temperature is just fine for making starters.
Then you're ready to brew and pitch your starter. There are two ways to pitch. You can pitch the whole darn thing, which will add a few quarts of volume to your final batch of beer. Or, you can just throw away the liquid on top, and just pitch the yeast that settled down to the bottom of the starter. I prefer to pitch the whole thing, because all of your super active yeast remains in suspension, and only the tired yeast settles out. But, with lagers, you really need to make at least a gallon-sized starter, which is a pretty huge volume, so for that, I just pitch the yeast from the bottom so that it doesn't add a whole extra gallon of weak 1.040 beer to my real batch.
How's that?
Dave
"This is grain, which any fool can eat, but for which the Lord intended a more divine means of consumption. Let us give praise to our Maker, and glory to His bounty, by learning about... BEER!" - Friar Tuck (Robin Hood - Prince of Thieves)
