I was planning to brew this afternoon but my plans were derailed by unforeseen events… I made a yeast starter last night obviously intending to pitch it tonight but now it’ll have to wait until tomorrow afternoon. Will the little yeasties be fine another 12 hours or should I put it in the fridge?
FYI: the beer is a nut brown around 1.050. I don’t have a stir plate so I’m swirling it as I remember.
Thanks in advance!
It will be fine. Put a piece of sanitized foil on the top. Put it in the fridge. Then before you pitch tomorrow poor out the starter beer and just pitch the yeast cake that settles on the bottom.
Called “decanting” if you wanna YouTube the method
Do you have to decant I had to use half a cup of the three pounds DME in a kit I got at my LHBS and thought I’d just add it back with the starter?
you dont HAVE too. it’s just recommended. your beer will still be fine.
but if you used a half cup of DME for a starter, that must have been a small starter. next time make make a 1.5 liter starter at the very least. 100 grams DME per liter.
a lot of people pitch the entire starter. but sometimes starter beer doesnt taste great, due to high fermentation temperatures, light exposure, and no hops. so decanting is the preferred method
Thanks I’ll remember next time.