2L Starter

Quick question(s): when boiling down the wort for a 2L starter there is always evaporation. I usually boil my DME solution for 10 minutes and wind up with roughly 1.7L of wort. In the past I would let that ride, and cool the wort, and pitch my yeast, then off to the stir plate for a day or two. However, this time I topped off, about 300ML of water. By doing some quick math, that would reduce the starters gravity down to 1.031 from 1.036.

Two fold Q:

  1. Does this really make an impact on a starter?
  2. Do people dilute their starter back to 2L or let it ride after the boil

I used to make my starters about 10 percent bigger. For a 2L starter I’d do 2200ml water and 220 grams of DME to account for boil off. Recently I’ve just been bringing the water to a boil, adding the DME and once it’s dissolved I take it off and cool it. No hot break, no long boil. Just don’t see the necessity for it. Not making beer.

Thanks Danny!

Makes sense to bring to boil, dissolve then cool.

Not that a couple points in gravity make that much of a difference in a starter but just keep in mind that you don’t need to increase your DME to reach your gravity when accounting for boil-off, just water. You aren’t boiling off sugar, just water.

Hi mattnaik,

“You aren’t boiling off sugar, just water.”

That is where I get most confused. With the boil off and dilution. I know I need to really read up on this, but in theory, I get what you are saying. Now I just need to wrap my head around the concept.

:cheers:

[quote=“andymag”]Hi mattnaik,

“You aren’t boiling off sugar, just water.”

That is where I get most confused. With the boil off and dilution. I know I need to really read up on this, but in theory, I get what you are saying. Now I just need to wrap my head around the concept.

:cheers: [/quote]

To think of it simply, the longer you boil, the higher the gravity of your finished product. Because it’s the same amount of sugar in less and less water. So add enough extract to create the gravity that you want at your finished volume and boil down to your finished volume.

All that said, I only boil for like 5 minutes and usually lose around 0.1 Liters which will yield around 0.002 difference in gravity which is nothing to really worry about when all you are trying to do is build up a yeast colony.

Valid point.

Thank you mattnaik.

That makes much more sense.