I just tried liquid yeast in one of my 5 gallon extract batches. This is the first time that I have ever used liquid instead of dry. I went back and forth on making a yeast starter, and I settled on just pitching the yeast directly into the wort without a starter. After about 12 hours I noticed pretty active bubbling in my airlock. Now, it’s been 48 hours and it is still bubbling away. Is this confirmation that my yeast is “active?” Or, should I still be concerned about not using a starter?
Starter are typically used when making big beers with high original gravities or when the yeast is old and/or unreliable. Sometimes I make starters with some yeast just to harvest the fresh yeast before pitching.
Online you can find calculators to determine how much yeast you need for a given OG & recipe size, as well as how much yeast remains active in a pack based on its starting cell count and age. The result tells whether you need a starter and if so, how big.
That said, I generally use the unscientific “I don’t feel like/didn’t plan ahead” method for liquid yeast starters, and I’ve gotten good beer every time. Maybe some of them could have been great beers, but I’ve gotten no complaints.
