Made a 1L starter (which ended up turning out to be 750ml) yesterday and it's now sitting in the fridge. I'm wondering if I should step it up to 1.5L tonight for tomorrow's brew that will be about 1.070 OG. If so, does the starter from the fridge need to be up to room temp or can I just boil, cool and pitch the new wort right onto the cold yeast?
Step starter up for a 1.070 brew?
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Heavywalker
Well-Known Member
I'd warm the yeast up to room temp and pitch once the wort cools, yeast don't like to be shocked with big temp swings, they will be more happy if you take them out of the fridge first.
m3n00b
Well-Known Member
Watch for blow off. Happened every time I stepped until I started using fermcap.
You don't say how you are making your starter or how old the yeast is. Mrmalty.com, using today for the date suggests a 1.96 liter starter for 1.070 with intermittent shaking. Your yeast will be older so you will need a bigger starter than that. Stepping up does allow for a smaller starter. Yeastcalc.com has information on making step starters. Your step up is good but it is better to plug the numbers into one of the calculators and get closer to the optimum cell count.
Thanks, kh54s10. I ended up using both Mrmalty as well as Yeastcalc to get a better idea of what I would need to pitch. I made a 1L starter with a Wyeast 1450 Smack Pack born on 5/18 and had it on a stir plate for 20 hours and then put it in the fridge. After about 10 hours, I decanted and stepped up with about another 1.2L of wort. I left that on the stir plate overnight. The next morning (brew day) I activated the other Smack Pack and let it swell for a few hours. About an hour before pitching, I added it to the starter on the stir plate. I originally wanted to pitch a starter into one carboy and just a Smack Pack into the other to see what the differences would be but got nervous about under pitching. I just evenly split the yeast between the two carboys.
Holy cow did these things take off. After only a few hours from the time I pitched the yeast, there was activity in the airlocks. I got up the next morning and one of the carboys was gracious enough to create a nice little project for me... yes m3n00b, I should have had blow off tubes right off the bat. I did use Fermcap but apparently not enough. I'll be making starters for every batch here on out now... and I'll be sure not to forget the blow off tubes.
Holy cow did these things take off. After only a few hours from the time I pitched the yeast, there was activity in the airlocks. I got up the next morning and one of the carboys was gracious enough to create a nice little project for me... yes m3n00b, I should have had blow off tubes right off the bat. I did use Fermcap but apparently not enough. I'll be making starters for every batch here on out now... and I'll be sure not to forget the blow off tubes.
