Starter times?

[chickypad]

How long does a chilled starter last in the fridge at 38*f? Then do I just leave enough old wort to swirl and pitch or decant all to the yeast cake, make new wort with DME and swirl/pitch?

I've left it chilled up to about a week with good results. No need to add new wort in that short period of time, just decant most of it on brew day, swirl, and pitch. Like sky4 said some yeasts do need a little longer to settle out anyway. On a perfect schedule I would probably like 24 hr on stir plate and 48 hr chill, but I don't worry too much about it if I'm a little off a little in timing either way.

I see the Yeast reference where they are talking about letting the starter fuly settle, then "Storing the yeast in the same vessel for an additional eight to 12 hours after they reach terminal gravity allows them to build up their glycogen reserves."

I take that to mean it can be part of the chill phase not that that it needs to run hot for an additional 12 hrs, in fact it sounds like that could start burning up reserves. They also mention the bulk of growth should be complete at 24 hrs, 12-18hr in many cases. I wouldn't stress about exact schedules and exact pitch rates too much OP, the fact you're making a starter in the ballpark should get you good results.

 

[Silentnoiz]

I use liquid yeast with a starter on a stir-plate.

Typically I start the starter 48 hours before pitch time. I use Mr.Malty's calculator to get the starter size. Then use this formula to calculate how much DME (oz) to use: (ml/10)*.03527. I do the whole boil/cool/pitch into the starter flask.

It's on the stir-plate for 24 hours, then I cold crash it for 18 hours, then let warm to room temp. I decant then pitch when it's time.

I have a brew (DIPA) fermenting now that I started the starter 24 hours prior to pitch time. When it was time to pitch, I just pitched the entire volume of the starter (without decanting) just to experiment and see how it differs. It was by far the fastest starting fermentation I've ever had in terms of gassing off CO2.

 

[Nate]

This is a good thread. I had no idea there were such varied techniques being used for starters. We've always tried to use a 24 to 30 hour window, no decanting and no chilling. At pitch time, just give a big swirl and pitch it all. lol.

This can probably go into the category of "more than one way to skin a cat" and they all make beer... just a question of what's optimum.

 

[sky4meplease]

As with any yeast culture at fridge temps death will occur at some rate but really a few days or a week or two won't ruin your starter. If it makes you lose sleep at night then make the starter a little bigger.
Heck the hardest part is thinking that far in advance. I normally bottle my last brew, brew a fresh batch and make a starter for my next brew within a few days or a week of each other, let the starter run its course and cold crash it until my next brew day a week or two later.
Just pull the starter out of the fridge several hours ahead of time so it can acclimate, decant and ladle some fresh oxygenated wort into the starter, stir it up to homogenize and pitch.