I have a yeast starter on a stir plate. As of tomorrow, it will be on for 4 days on the plate. I am brewing Monday morning. I was planning on shutting down the stir plate Friday afternoon. I never did this, but my plan is to let the yeast settle, do the decant thing, and pitch the yeast lying on the bottom of the flask. My question is: After shutting off the stir plate, do I need to refrigerate the yeast or can it sit at room temperature until Monday (the room is 62 degrees)? Also after decanting, is it ok to take some cooled wort, place it in the flask, swirl then pitch?
Thank you. :?
I refrigerate the whole thing, pull it out when I start my brew session, decant most of the liquid off the top, swirl and then pour it in. I’m not touching my cooled wort with anything unless I need to.
YMMV.
[quote=“shizzy”]I refrigerate the whole thing, pull it out when I start my brew session, decant most of the liquid off the top, swirl and then pour it in. I’m not touching my cooled wort with anything unless I need to.
YMMV.[/quote]
What is the purpose of decanting? This is something I only read about on the forum, thought I would try it. In the past, when I made a starter, I would keep it on the stir plate for two days, then on brew day, take it off the stir plate and pitch the whole starter. Also on Monday, when I take the flask out of the refrigerator and decant, I suppose I should let the yeast warm to a temperature near that of the cooled wort?
From what I’ve been told being that you were only fermenting some light DME at a warm temp you could end up with off flavors.
Even when brewing extract, if you pull it out of the fridge when you start your brew session, its going to be a good 2 hours till you are pitching yeast. plenty of time for it to come up to proper temp.
I pull from fridge, decant and immediately pitch. It will warm right up to the temp of the wort you are pitching to.
Do yourself a favor on Monday. When you decant, pour a small amount into a cup and taste it. It probably won’t be awful, but it won’t be great. Why add any amount of somewhat nasty liquid to you nice fresh batch if you don’t have to?
[quote=“560sdl”]I pull from fridge, decant and immediately pitch. It will warm right up to the temp of the wort you are pitching to.
Do yourself a favor on Monday. When you decant, pour a small amount into a cup and taste it. It probably won’t be awful, but it won’t be great. Why add any amount of somewhat nasty liquid to you nice fresh batch if you don’t have to?[/quote]
Right there ^^. If you cold crash, then warm back up, the dormant yeast can become active. Defeats the purpose of cold crashing. :cheers:
Are you cold crashing to drop the yeast out of suspension in the DME, thus when decanting, you are not dumping valuable yeast?
+2 This is the method to use. Pitch right after decanting.
I’ll usually decant and then let the yeast warm up a bit before pitching. I always assumed the temp difference of pitching cold yeast into warmer wort may shock the yeast to unknown effect.
If you thin about it, you are going from roughly 40* to roughly 60*, some people 70*.
That is not as extreme as bottling a lager after cold storage where you might go from 30ish to 75* or so and the yeast are fine.
[quote=“Bier brauer”]I have a yeast starter on a stir plate. As of tomorrow, it will be on for 4 days on the plate. I am brewing Monday morning. I was planning on shutting down the stir plate Friday afternoon. I never did this, but my plan is to let the yeast settle, do the decant thing, and pitch the yeast lying on the bottom of the flask. My question is: After shutting off the stir plate, do I need to refrigerate the yeast or can it sit at room temperature until Monday (the room is 62 degrees)? Also after decanting, is it ok to take some cooled wort, place it in the flask, swirl then pitch?
Thank you. :? [/quote]
Agree with others… cold crash, decant, then pitch. No need to mix that crappy spent wort in with your beer. If it’s a small starter 1L or less, I will just pitch the whole thing, but anything bigger and I decant. And pitching cold yeast into warmer wort is fine. You just don’t want to pitch yeast into colder wort. That could cause it to go sleepy.
I’ll also add, unless you’re making a very large starter, you don’t need 4-5 days on the stir plate. You really only need 24-48hrs on average. Then in the fridge for another 24-48hrs to cold crash… depending on the yeast strain and how it floculates.
[quote=“560sdl”]
That is not as extreme as bottling a lager after cold storage where you might go from 30ish to 75* or so and the yeast are fine.[/quote]
I’m sure it’s not necessary but it’s the way I’ve always done it. I’m pretty sure it helps my beer, just like brewing with no pants and tapping on my carboy 3 times before moving it. 
An observation. I shut down the stir plate when I got home from work at 06:00 and let it on the stir plate. I moved it to a refrigerator when I got up. I am concerned. I thought the yeast cake would be larger. But again, I never did this so I am not sure what to expect. My flask is a 2000ml, I made a 1700 ml starter, and used yeastcalc to figure amounts of DME to the amount of cells needed. The yeast is Denny’s favorite, and I am doing Tallgrass all grain wheat. There is about 1/4 inch thick cake on the bottom of the flask, maybe more will drop out after cold crashing.
Yes! How much DME did you use? If you followed yeastcalc, you can be confident that your numbers are close.
Yes! How much DME did you use? If you followed yeastcalc, you can be confident that your numbers are close.[/quote]
Here is the yeastcalc I used: Tallgrass OG 1.048, I need 177 billion cells, production date of Wyeast 10/31/12, starter gravity1.037,need to make a 1500ml starter using 5.2oz DME will give me 202 billion cells. Looks like the volume in the flask is 1600ml.
I just looked at NB mag. And it said Tallgrass wheat OG is1.064, so I checked the instructions, and it said OG is1.048. Wonder which is right. :shock:
Yes! How much DME did you use? If you followed yeastcalc, you can be confident that your numbers are close.[/quote]
Here is the yeastcalc I used: Tallgrass OG 1.048, I need 177 billion cells, production date of Wyeast 10/31/12, starter gravity1.037,need to make a 1500ml starter using 5.2oz DME will give me 202 billion cells. Looks like the volume in the flask is 1600ml.
I just looked at NB mag. And it said Tallgrass wheat OG is1.064, so I checked the instructions, and it said OG is1.048. Wonder which is right. :shock: [/quote]
You’re cool. Your starter gravity was 1.035 instead but you have plenty to pitch a healthy starter.
How much LME/DME is in the recipe. For 1.048 you will have 6lbs, for 1.065 you’ll have 9.
+2 This is the method to use. Pitch right after decanting.[/quote]
Yep. Once the yeast warm up they start consuming their built up nutrient reserves. You want that to happen in the beer, not when the yeast is just sitting around awaiting to be pitched.
Nope. it works the other way around…warmer yeast into cooler wort can shock the yeast.
I went back into YeastCalc and plugged in OG as 1.064 listed in NB magazine instead of the 1.048 on the instructions. If the 1.064 OG is the right one, I will be under pitched. Another question I have is using the YeastCalc, should I match the starter OG to the on the DME calculator to the wort properties OG? I did not do that.
I will take starter out of the refrigerator on brew day, decant most of the “clear” liquid, swirl the remaining liquid, then pitch their chilly butts into the wort, which should be in the neighborhood of 67 degrees. 
Brad
[quote=“Denny”]
Nope. it works the other way around…warmer yeast into cooler wort can shock the yeast.[/quote]
Every day is a school day . Thanks for the info, Denny.
