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Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
How much yeast do you add to the starter?
I add the yeast, then spin for a while to get some oxygen in to it, then I stop and wait until there is visible activity. Spin for ~12-16 hours, scale up if needed.
Don't look at the krausen, look at the colour, should look cream / off-white.
For the yeast nutrients, I put into the starter what is advised for the whole batch. Growth exhausts nutrients fast.
Excellent presentation on yeast propagation:
www.mbaa.com/districts/Northwest/Even...
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
I'm sure mchrispen will pop in with some Mark VD info on cell divisions and timelines that will be more accurate than what I'm going to provide, but it'll still be fine.
Zainachef and White have reported that yeast have completed the vast majority or even all of the cell divisions they are going to do in 12-18 hours. So pitching when anaerobic fermentation begins (or just after) in 12-18 hours will give you max cell density and as Kid said, there is still plenty of yeast nutrient available in the wort so they should be at max vitality at that point.
There are some reports that finishing fermentation and then crashing and decanting is actually resulting in a good bit of cell death and loss of vitality. Again, mchrispen can probably provide more info here.
But in any case, this sort of info is most of the reasoning behind why I started harvesting wort from the beer I was brewing to make a starter. That way I wasn't diluting the wort too much with gross extract wort that had been fermented completely and might have off flavors. I pitch the next day anyway so no reason not to use "real wort."
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
BTW, why are you adding yeast nutrient after cooling? It's supposed to go in the boil IIRC. I never use it though. I figure if malt and water doesn't have what yeast needs then we're all screwed anyway.
Posted 34 days ago.
Sorry, that sounded rude or accusatory. I didn't mean it that way at all. Just curious. Maybe I don't know how it's supposed to be used since I don't use it.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.
I run my starters to completion, usually 3, sometimes 4 days. I cold crash, decant, pitch what I want to pitch, save some yeast for next time. I hate to pull up yeast for storage when fermentation is incomplete, as I'd prefer to not have exploding vials (though, I suppose the the cold of the fridge should curtail that).
For what it's worth, I can't recall the last time I had an ale - even my typical mid 60s to upper 70s gravities - lag longer than 3-4 hours.
Posted 34 days ago.
Posted 34 days ago.