Questions : Making Nottingham starter for 2 brews

[frankjones]

I'm making a one gallon starter with nottingham.

I used one pound pale ale malt, steeped for an hour and boiled for 30 munites. Letting cool and going to pitch a half packet of Nottingham.

I'm going to wash the slurry and harvest.

Will that slurry be enough to pitch onto 2 separate 5 gallon buckets of simple cider at 1.06 gravity? With just apple juice , preservatives free and table sugar?

 

[ncbrewer]

Starters aren't normally recommended for dry yeast. From Mr. Malty: "Another case where you generally don't want to make a starter is with dry yeast. It is usually cheaper and easier to just buy more dry yeast than it would be to make a starter large enough for most dry yeast packs. Many experts suggest that placing dry yeasts in a starter would just deplete the reserves that the yeast manufacturer worked so hard to build into their product. For dry yeasts, just do a proper rehydration in tap water, do not make a starter." I'm not an expert on the subject, but this might be helpful.

 

[TheFlyingSparge]

Agree with ncbrewer. For an extra $3 you could just pitch a packet in each bucket and call it a day. I'm no expert, but I generally only do starters for higher-gravity brews because they are a bit more taxing on the yeast and you need to raise an army to get the job done right.

 

[jigtwins]

I disagree with the don't make a starter for dry yeast fan club. I have made starters with dry yeast to increase the cell count when there are no other options. I get it dry yeast is cheaper, but still not all that cheap. Not everyone has a lhbs to run to also. My process is to rehydrate the yeast, then pitch into a 1.04 ish starter of the proper size. Let it run its course on a stir plate or by shaking it. It's no different than adding rehydrated yeast to the wort for your beer. I do not claim to be a expert, just sharing my experience.

 

[kh54s10]

I disagree with the don't make a starter for dry yeast fan club. I have made starters with dry yeast to increase the cell count when there are no other options. I get it dry yeast is cheaper, but still not all that cheap. Not everyone has a lhbs to run to also. My process is to rehydrate the yeast, then pitch into a 1.04 ish starter of the proper size. Let it run its course on a stir plate or by shaking it. It's no different than adding rehydrated yeast to the wort for your beer. I do not claim to be a expert, just sharing my experience.

It may work, but it is not the best practice. When you make the starter you deplete the reserves that were engineered into the yeast. So your viability drops. You then build cell counts back up and hope that you passed what was originally in the pack.

That and the fact that DME is expensive. You probably spent close to the same in DME as it would have cost to buy another pack of dry yeast.

 

[kh54s10]

One gallon starter? If you made a starter from the half pack you really only need a half a pint for each 5 gallon bucket!

Just get another pack - one for each. Total cost $8.

 

[frankjones]

Well, I made the starter, split it in half, one half knocked out a five gallon batch of apple cider with OG of 1.064 amd the other half knocked off a 5 gallon bucket with OG of 1.055

I still have the other half packet of Nottingham, I made another one gallon starter will pale ale grain and I will do the exact same project again this weekend.

My lhbs is 45 minutes away and inconvenient to get to for $15 in gas.

Both buckets finished where I wanted them.

The ale was 1.012 and the cider 1.009