Plan to make a two gallon starter tonight or in the morning. Without getting out the big stuff it would be easier to just do one on the stove with LME. The problem is the size pot is less than two gallons. So is there a reason you can’t top up a starter with water just like you would do brewing an extract? It would also help cool the starter wort.
No you can but I would boil the water tonight. Place it in the fridge to cool so it will help cool the wort.
So you would be making a higher gravity starter say 1.080, then to make more of it, add water until a 1.040 or there abouts before you pitch yer yeast? It will work, but as LB sez, boil yer top off water… I’ve not made a strong starter fer ale yeast as I worry about it affecting it. Sneezles61
Decided to get a big pot out anyway. It’s not happening today anyway. The DME I bought from a local hydroponic store/homebrew store must have been around for a long while. I tasted it before adding it to the pot and it tasted sour. Last trip there. Hope they are better at helping you grow pot plants than brewing.
Mark the HB supplies are just a front for the pot supplies. 
I’m actually thinking about making a 5gal unhopped beer (45 min boil), freezing it in containers, and then pulling it out for starters and boiling for an additional 15 mins.
Grand idea Loopie……Sneezles61
Somehow I’m never smart enough to save some wort from the runoff after reaching my desired volume then save it in canning jars or something and just boil that up for free. DME isn’t that expensive but I always forget to have some on hand so I’m going out today to replace the stoner store’s stale stuff.
I always try and do this. I typically can get 2 decent containers of wort run off from the MT that have a OG of 1.025-1.030. Most of my starters are to “wake up” yeast that I washed and that’s been sitting, so using this seems to work perfectly. If I need something stronger, I’ll add a little DME to it.
I always try and do this. I typically can get 2 decent containers of wort run off from the MT that have a OG of 1.025-1.030. Most of my starters are to “wake up” yeast that I washed and that’s been sitting, so using this seems to work perfectly. If I need something stronger, I’ll add a little DME to it.[/quote]
man you might be able to increase what you input as your efficiency number and use less malt - i am always at 1.010-15 when i get my volume for normal sized beers (<1.070)
to the OP - my standard practice, since i usually need bigger starters than my pot allows is to boil the ‘top up water’ directly in my flask along with the stir bar, seal it, let it sit on the stove for a few hours and then chill it. then either later or usually the following evening, I’ll boil the extract for the total volume in a much smaller amount of water, chill to ~80-100 and add to the chilled flask and pitch my yeast. works very well for me.
I’m sure this will be frowned upon by many, but I routinely top off starters with water straight from the tap. I’ve done this many times, and with yeast used for multiple generations. Never had any problem.
I believe that but when I have 10 hrs (recipe form, starter, cleaning conical, brew day, kegging, cleaning conical etc) wrapped up in a brew 10-15mins of boiling water is cheap insurance.
Same here. Not hard to boil water but then it is also the time to cool it down. I’ve actually started to use Norther Brewer’s canned starter (Fast Pitch) which is 1.080 and then equal water is added to get it to 1.040, the water I use for that is from the tap. Sure it’d be cheaper to either can my own wort, freeze and boil wort or do them from DME but making a starter from Fast Pitch is super easy and the cost is well worth the time saved to me.
