Yeast Stater

This may be a dumb question,but what determines when you will use a yeast starter? Is it the gravity of the beer,strain of the yeast your using,or what?I have read several different reasons.
Thanks Ernie

Whether or not you will need a yeast starter is a function of the volume of your beer in the fermentor, the estimated original gravity, and the viability of the yeast on hand.
A couple of good calculators.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitc ... alculator/ http://www.homebrewdad.com/yeast_calculator.php

[quote=“Ernie”]This may be a dumb question,but what determines when you will use a yeast starter? Is it the gravity of the beer,strain of the yeast your using,or what?I have read several different reasons.
Thanks Ernie[/quote]

For me, anything that’s 5 gal. and over 1.040 gets a starter with liquid yeast. No starters for dry yeast, though.

[quote=“Denny”][quote=“Ernie”]This may be a dumb question,but what determines when you will use a yeast starter? Is it the gravity of the beer,strain of the yeast your using,or what?I have read several different reasons.
Thanks Ernie[/quote]

For me, anything that’s 5 gal. and over 1.040 gets a starter with liquid yeast. No starters for dry yeast, though.[/quote]

What size starter do you make? How do you determine starter size?

[quote=“flars”][quote=“Denny”][quote=“Ernie”]This may be a dumb question,but what determines when you will use a yeast starter? Is it the gravity of the beer,strain of the yeast your using,or what?I have read several different reasons.
Thanks Ernie[/quote]

For me, anything that’s 5 gal. and over 1.040 gets a starter with liquid yeast. No starters for dry yeast, though.[/quote]

What size starter do you make? How do you determine starter size?[/quote]

It’s based on the age of the yeast and the OG of the beer. My ROT is 2 qt. between 1.040 and 1.060-65. Over than, up to maybe 1.100 I do 3 qt. If I’m feeling really energetic I look up the correct size at mrmalty.com, but my ROT works well for me.

[quote=“flars”]Whether or not you will need a yeast starter is a function of the volume of your beer in the fermentor, the estimated original gravity, and the viability of the yeast on hand.
A couple of good calculators.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitc ... alculator/ http://www.homebrewdad.com/yeast_calculator.php[/quote]

This one.

I’ve used the brewersfriend calculator with great results. Haven’t had a slow or stuck fermentation yet.

[quote=“Denny”][quote=“flars”][quote=“Denny”]

For me, anything that’s 5 gal. and over 1.040 gets a starter with liquid yeast. No starters for dry yeast, though.[/quote]

What size starter do you make? How do you determine starter size?[/quote]

It’s based on the age of the yeast and the OG of the beer. My ROT is 2 qt. between 1.040 and 1.060-65. Over than, up to maybe 1.100 I do 3 qt. If I’m feeling really energetic I look up the correct size at mrmalty.com, but my ROT works well for me.[/quote]
My ROT is pretty similar to Denny’s, but I’ll go to 4 liters if I’m over 1.080 or so. And double the starter size if you are using lager yeast.

Yep!