I tried searching, but got lost in a sea of irrelevant info…
I normally let my yeast starter die down, settle out, then pour off excess liquid, and then pitch. However, tonight, I have a great opportunity to get a brew done, but my starter isn’t quite “finished” - i.e. still bubbling slightly, with some yeast still suspended.
It is too cloudy to “pour off” excess liquid (I’ll be dumping a bunch of yeast), so my question is - what is everyone’s opinion on pitching the entire starter?
I know there are folks that do both methods, I’m curious as to a discussion of the differences in each. …can I brew now and pitch it all with little worries, or is there a benefit to waiting?
Thanks!
(FYI - posting this to the General Forum as well for others to see that may not check this forum)
I’d pitch the whole thing. I prefer to chill and decant but have pitched the whole thing with no ill effect. Not sure how big your starter is mine are normally 1800 ml.
For me it depends on the size of the starter and the beer. For example I’m about to brew a 5 gallon pilsner and I did a one gallon starter. I wanted to brew today but I started the starter too late. No way I’m pitching the full one gallon on a 5 gallon beer. I want to decant it first.
I have pitched full 2 liter starters to 5 gallons before. Don’t see an issue with that.
I always Pitchh the entire starter. Most of my brews require a 2l starter. Since I use the swirl it whenever I can method, I always pitch a very active cloudy starter. Always have good results.
It will usually always be pretty cloudy unless you chill it. Then, if you want, you can pour off the excess. Just leave a little bit so you can swirl it to get all the yeast.
It doesn’t really matter if you chill and decant or pitch the whole thing. Some will say they don’t want that relatively nasty tasting beer in their good wort, so they chill and decant. Others will say that it really only depends on the size of your starter and batch of your beer.
I have done both, and have noticed no difference in fermentation.
I agree with pretty much everything stated above. If my starter is 1L, I tend to not chill and decant and pitch at high krausen.
I am also going to throw a twist to it. Depending on how clear/clean I want my beer I will chill and decant. For example, for a lager, I will always chill and decant.
If the time permits and the starter is greater than 1L, I’d chill and decant. It certainly will not hurt and it will give you some sort of peace of mind.
Hope you’re still there Denny, I’ve heard without decant it makes the beer taste bad, buty a full batch after a day or so doesn’t taste that great either. I always thought a starter was just a mini batch of beer. What makes it so wrong not to decant?
While a starter is indeed just a “mini batch of beer”, it’s made under conditions intended to propogate yeast cells, not to make tasty beer. And, while the yeast in the beer are generally able to clean up the undesireable flavors found in the starter, it’s just a little extra bit we’re expecting the yeast to do for us. It probably doesn’t make much difference for the most part, but if the yeast in the batch is already a bit stressed for whatever reason (underpitching, slightly high/low ferm temps, etc.), those off flavor-producing esters, phenols, etc. you just pitched with your yeast might just make the difference between a great batch of beer and one that’s just good, ok, or even just meh…
[quote=“65SS427”]While a starter is indeed just a “mini batch of beer”, it’s made under conditions intended to propogate yeast cells, not to make tasty beer. And, while the yeast in the beer are generally able to clean up the undesireable flavors found in the starter, it’s just a little extra bit we’re expecting the yeast to do for us. It probably doesn’t make much difference for the most part, but if the yeast in the batch is already a bit stressed for whatever reason (underpitching, slightly high/low ferm temps, etc.), those off flavor-producing esters, phenols, etc. you just pitched with your yeast might just make the difference between a great batch of beer and one that’s just good, ok, or even just meh…
Great info so far - thanks! …I pitched the whole thing, so we’ll see how it turns out.
To play devil’s advocate on a couple comments, however…
Some have stated that they are worried about “off flavors” being added to the “beer” wort from the “starter” wort when the “starter” wort hasn’t had a chance to finish, and chew up those “off” flavor components (so they advocate letting it complete its conversion, then cold crash and decant), oxidation, etc…
Well…for those talking about “off flavors” that would have been cleaned up by a complete cycling of the starter… if the yeast in the starter would have cleaned up the off flavors, why wouldn’t it do so in the primary fermentor in the “beer” wort? How would the yeast know the difference? Wouldn’t the resultant yeast do exactly what the starter yeast (which - technically - it is) would have done? Wouldn’t a LOT more yeast (in the primary) have a better opportunity and efficacy for/in cleaning up anything “bad” imparted by a relatively small percentage of the total volume (a quart or two vs. 5 gal.) from the “starter” wort?
One particular point I brought up in another forum is that no one seems to pay attention to the pH of a starter wort. Although a starter ferments that is no assurance that once added to your brewed wort that it will not adversely affect it. Especially, of when some of the calculators out there calling for 1G starter for 5G beer.
In the spirit of devil’s advocate, there are some of us that have escaped the madness called yeast starters and have gone to dry yeast, pitching multiple packs when appropriate (lagers/big beers).
It depends on how the starter is doing. Right now I have one going that I made yesterday, or is it yeast erday? Plan is to brew tomorrow so if it looks like it has completed then why not decant it. If it still shows signs or being active then pitch the whole thing. I do not have a stir plate, just swirl it around anytime I go by it.
A little off topic but would active yeast not be better?
Also If stir plates are to oxygenate the starter, why do we not give them a shot of oxygen just like you would an entire batch of wort and why don’t we use giant stir plates with 5 or more gallon fermeters?
[quote=“HD4Mark”]It depends on how the starter is doing. Right now I have one going that I made yesterday, or is it yeast erday? Plan is to brew tomorrow so if it looks like it has completed then why not decant it. If it still shows signs or being active then pitch the whole thing. I do not have a stir plate, just swirl it around anytime I go by it.
A little off topic but would active yeast not be better?
Also If stir plates are to oxygenate the starter, why do we not give them a shot of oxygen just like you would an entire batch of wort and why don’t we use giant stir plates with 5 or more gallon fermeters?[/quote]
Some say that active yeast is better, but maybe they haven’t tried the alternate. In reality, I get just as good performance from a crashed and decanted starter as I do from an active starter.
The purpose of a stir plate isn’t oxygenation. In truth, very little of that happens. The purpose of a stir plate is to keep the yeast in constant contact with the “food”. The reason stir plates are no used in a full batch is due to 1.) impracticality 2.) unnecessary 3.) oxidation of the beer.
