Hello I just put my yeast starter on my stir plate. This my first time using a stir plate so how long does one leave it on the stir plate for what 36hours or would it be better to leave it on for 48hrs?.
WHEN I used one, it was the night before a brew day, I would do the starter. But, when I wanted to culture up some to store for future use, it would be a few days of tinkering to build up the volume. If you are going to brew, you’ll try to pitch your yeast at high krausen for very good results. And that will take you some trial and error to find that answer. Yeast’ are all different, and age matters. Sneezles61
I planned my starters to be done a few days before brew day. I would turn the stir plate off after 24 hours. Let it sit for a few hours then give it a good swirl. If an instant krausen formed the yeast was not done working. Let it go another twelve hours and repeat.
Having the starter done before brew day gave me time to chill the starter to drop the yeast out of suspension. My starters would be overbuilt to divide for the beer being brewed and saving some of the fresh yeast propagated for the next starter. I use this calculator for an estimate of the total number of yeast cells needed for the overbuild and beer to be brewed.
I knew somewhere I read 12-18 hours was the sweet spot
http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php
The whole page is an interesting read, but here’s the quote I was looking for:
Wyeast says starters reach their maximum cell density within 12-18 hours, which sounds about right to me. Some sources suggest that maximum cell densities are not achieved until 24 hours and others as much as 36, but the return on waiting that long is minimal. Let's just say that the bulk of the yeast growth is done by 12-18 hours. I like to pitch starters while they're still very active and as soon as the bulk of reproduction is finished, usually within 8 to 18 hours
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Like me i do in between 24 to 36 hours. Than into the fridge. Day of brewing take it out. Decant. And let it come to room temp. Swirl it and the thing into the wort
I usually target 18 hours plus or minus a few depending on my schedule and, as @sneezles61 mentions, age of the yeast. I recently did a starter on 4 month old WYeast 1056. It took 8-10 hours before any kreuzen formed so I pushed my brew day schedule back a few hours so the starter could build up more. I now take the age of the yeast into account when I plan my yeast starter. Also, I keep the speed fairly low. You really just need to keep the yeast in suspension.
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