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Yeast Starters

PetenNewburg

Grandmaster Brewer
Joined
Feb 1, 2011
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Location
Newburg, PA
 I am a very new newbie to homebrewing, but I am trying to cram as much info into this gray head as I can!  I have read a bunch of the older posts on this topic and even attended a meeting of our local club on this topic.  I just want to run something by some experienced brewers.  Please feel free to critique my concept.

YEAST STARTER CONCEPT
CREATE MULTIPLE STARTERS FROM SINGLE VIAL OF LIQUID / DRY YEAST.

Starter Jars

1. Boil 1.5 gallon of water with 18 oz or enough DME to make a 1.020 / 1.030 wort along with yeast nutrients.
2. Fill 8 Quart canning jars evenly with hot wort to 1.5 - 2 inch of top, install sterile canning lids.
3. Boil canning jars for 15(?) minutes, remove from canner and allow cooling and sealing.
4. Store until needed.
5. Boil extra sealed canning jars with just water in them, I’ld do a dozen or so.

Making a 2+ liter Starter

1. Bring 3 water filled Quart jars to room temperature.
2. Bring 3 Canning jars of wort to room temperature.
3. Shake or stir vigorously 1 jar of wort.
4. Empty and use extra water jar to make 3 jars of equal level of wort.
5. Pitch yeast to 1 jar, cover with foil or air lock.
6. Allow yeast to work 24 hours or until yeast settles.
7. Use sterile turkey baster  to remove liquid above yeast cake.
8. Pitch remaining cake to three prepared jars, cover with foil or airlock..
9. Allow to work 24 hours prior to pitching


SAVING YEAST FOR RE-USE

1. Use a fresh can of beer or canned saterile water to rinse out Primary Fermenter.
2. Drain into Serilized remaing 2 canning jars with 1 cup fresh wort.
3. Re-use as above to make new starter.
4. Refrigerate until use.


Original boiling amount/jars would be up to brewer or size of canner/boiler.
 
  After thoughts:  Create 4 jars of Starter, save 1, pitch 3.  Add 1/4 tsp to original wort boil; Wyeast Brewer's Choice™ Wyeast Nutrient Blend.  Use of Stir Plate.
 
Wow that's a lot of work.. ???. I don't normally go through all of that to make a starter but this you may find a little faster for saving yeast to reuse. I don't normally save a full starter just wash and store enough yeast to build up a yeast bank for when I need it. If I feel I'm going to need a starter I will make it with a portion of the wort I'm going to ferment in the first place and two bottles of the yeast I have collected in the past. Sort of like giving it a snack before it gets to work. It delays the pitching by a day or so but the yeast appears to benefit from it and fermentation takes off a lot faster. 
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/yeast-washing-illustrated-41768/
If you let things settle a time or two and pore off the excess liquid and re add more of the suspended yeast you can normally build up about a 1/4 inch of yeast in a beer bottle and get about six bottles out of a good size yeast cake. Two of those or three in a high OG wort will do the trick every time. 
 
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