VERY simple yeast starter IIPA

[hgearle]

Easy as easy gets and so fast. Works great. So...this is what I do for my starter. My brew is an 11 gallon 1.075 gravity IIPA. (Cut this in half for a 5 gallon batch)
The night before I am going to brew...so about 18 hours before pitching my yeast.........I pour two cans Proper premixed starter wort (16 oz. each), add 32 oz water (I used RO) (Starter wort is high gravity and the water mixed at 50% makes it about 1.040 per the instructions on the can) (for 5 gallons...one 16 oz can and one 16 oz water). (You can still make your own starter wort with DME, but I am lazy). Add 1/8 tsp yeast nutrient.

The yeast is taken out of the refrigerator about 3 hours prior to warm up. Make sure you shake up the yeast good in the container to suspend all the yeast. The first time I did this, I did not and left yeast in the package.

I oxygenate my wort for about 1 minute to 1:15 with 100% oxygen to get lots of airy bubbles in my 5+ liter erlenmeyer flask. The 100% oxygen bottles are sold at Home Depot in the tool section for about $10 (the hardware can be found on brew websites). If you don't want to do this, then shake the hell out of the container to get the most bubbles/air in suspension you can.

After the wort is at pitching temperature, the wort is aerated, and the packages are sanitized with isopropyl alcohol including the rim of the flask....then pour the yeast in the flask. I give it a swirl to make sure all is mixed well.

That is it....keep it near pitching temperature for about 18 hours...swirl to get all the yeast in suspension....pitch. It smells really good unlike a chilled/stir-plated starter. After 12-18 hours, the yeast is at high krausen and will generate the yeast it need to ferment your 5 to 15 gallon wort. I usually pitch at 18 hours. When I swirl it before pitching, it foams up and smells nice.

I admit that this is a more expensive way to make a starter as you are buying starter wort, not harvesting yeast for the next batch, and I personally use 2 yeast packs when I could probably use one even for my big IIPA, but I don't care as $ is not an issue for me making beer. It's about making great beer the easiest way possible and doesn't cost that much more.

A stir plate is not needed and it actually harmful to the yeast. Don't make a yeast starter harder than it needs to be. If you can't make the starter the night before, then do it as soon as you wake up and pitch as late as you can to make sure the yeast is at the highest krausen it can be....relax...drink a homebrew...like I am now typing this. Cheers.

EDIT:
What I do above is a slightly modified version of the Shaken Not Stirred method that was posted by a man in the UK named Jim, aka YeastWhisperer, and S. Cerevisiae. He has a website similar to this site in the UK and is a yeast wizard. He deserves all the credit for this method.

You can find the Shaken Not Stirred method here:

https://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=70926
The name Jim's Beer Kit is the name of the website, not a sales pitch for anything. A few of you asked questions about stir plates, length of time to pitch, yeast count, etc. All of the answers are on the page listed above. I have been using this method for over a year (as has Denny Conn) and it works perfectly with minimal effort.

 

[phyllobeddo]

Looks like great advice to me! I've done the same and I really like the Propper Starter product.

 

[day_trippr]

[...]A stir plate is not needed and it actually harmful to the yeast[...]

How is a stir plate harmful to yeast?
The wee bastids sure seem to enjoy riding around on mine and go on to brew enjoyable beers...

Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

I use proper starter all the time . It's worth the $ to me . I use a stir plate and I've done the occasional shakin not stirred starter if I'm pressed for time . I've never had an issue nor have I heard a stir plate being bad for yeast.

 

[IslandLizard]

How is a stir plate harmful to yeast?

Shear Stress

 

[Dgallo]

This is the same process of any agitated starter but your just using proper instead of dme. I will tell you that in 18 hours your yeast is not fully consuming a 2l starter at 1.040 and will not meet your calculated cell count. Going to take at least 36-48

 

[IslandLizard]

This is the same process of any agitated starter but your just using proper instead of dme. I will tell you that in 18 hours your yeast is not fully consuming a 2l starter at 1.040 and will not meet your calculated cell count. Going to take at least 36-48

I wait for the color change from brown to creamy, and give it another 24-36 hours after that. I've heard those 24-36 hours may be too long... But never noticed any negative side effects.

Note: I don't count cells, I prefer to live in oblivion in that regard.

 

[hgearle]

I edited my initial post above to include where you can go that answers all the questions and comments made so far. Once you try this method, you will most likely use it all the time.

 

[day_trippr]

Shear Stress

Ok, so the first article contains clear words to the contrary of the supposition.

To wit:

"Effect of mechanical power input To determine the effect of the mechanical power input during cultivation on the mechanical properties of the cells the stirrer speed was preset to 200, 500 and 700 rev min1 and airflow rate was preset to 05 and 25 min1 . This resulted in an overall mechanical power density of 96, 440, and 4060 W m3 . Table 1 shows the resulting micromechanical values of the cell populations.

Within the examined values of mechanical power input during cultivation there is no significant effect on the mechanical properties of yeast cells and the cell diameter as a representative parameter for cell morphology. In contrast, other micro-organism like Eubacterium ramulus (Jonczyk et al. 2013) or the filamentous growing Apergillus niger (Wucherpfennig et al. 2010) are affected by shear stress during cultivation.

We believe that due to their small size and spherical shape, the micromechanical behaviour of yeast cells is not sensitive to shear stress occurring in typical cultivation process. "

Cheers!

 

[hgearle]

Ok, so the first article contains clear words to the contrary of the supposition.

To wit:

"Effect of mechanical power input To determine the effect of the mechanical power input during cultivation on the mechanical properties of the cells the stirrer speed was preset to 200, 500 and 700 rev min1 and airflow rate was preset to 05 and 25 min1 . This resulted in an overall mechanical power density of 96, 440, and 4060 W m3 . Table 1 shows the resulting micromechanical values of the cell populations.

Within the examined values of mechanical power input during cultivation there is no significant effect on the mechanical properties of yeast cells and the cell diameter as a representative parameter for cell morphology. In contrast, other micro-organism like Eubacterium ramulus (Jonczyk et al. 2013) or the filamentous growing Apergillus niger (Wucherpfennig et al. 2010) are affected by shear stress during cultivation.

We believe that due to their small size and spherical shape, the micromechanical behaviour of yeast cells is not sensitive to shear stress occurring in typical cultivation process. "

Cheers!

Look....I am a home-brewer and not a scientist. The proof for me is the pleasant smell of my yeast when pitching, versus what I used to smell when using one of my two stir plates. The method I described above is most definitely easier than using a stir plate, cold crashing, decanting, and then pouring into the wort.

When you read the responses to questions that the YeastWhisperer has answered (who wrote the Shaken Not Stirred method), you know he is as educated as they come with respect to yeast.

I wish I did not even put that statement in my original post, because it takes away from the original idea itself.

 

[day_trippr]

Calm thyself, I was responding to the provider of a purportedly supporting document and pointing out it actually went 100% the other way
I actually have no opinion on unstirred starters. Vaya con Dios.

Cheers!

 

[isomerization]

This is the same process of any agitated starter but your just using proper instead of dme. I will tell you that in 18 hours your yeast is not fully consuming a 2l starter at 1.040 and will not meet your calculated cell count. Going to take at least 36-48

I’m not a yeast biology expert, but I believe all yeast growth takes place prior to the majority of fermentation.

I have actually been heating my stir plate starters to 75F and they finish fermenting within 24 hr. Even when pitching into supposedly too large of volume increases.

 

[Dgallo]

I’m not a yeast biology expert, but I believe all yeast growth takes place prior to the majority of fermentation.

I have actually been heating my stir plate starters to 75F and they finish fermenting within 24 hr. Even when pitching into supposedly too large of volume increases.

I’m certainly not either but I was at a tour at Ommengang and who I believe was their microbiologist was telling us that as long as their is food available , yeast will continue to multiply. Obviously that does not answer when the majority of growth takes place, but is seems they multiply regardless as long as their is food, more food remaining(higher og) more growth, less food remaining(lower og) less growth.

My issue with this method is the volume/gravity and the shorter time. If it was a 1l starter I wouldnt question it what so ever.

 

[hgearle]

Dgallo said.....
"I will tell you that in 18 hours your yeast is not fully consuming a 2l starter at 1.040 and will not meet your calculated cell count. Going to take at least 36-48."

"My issue with this method is the volume/gravity and the shorter time."

Please go to the Shaken Not Stirred site and read it. Until you read about it, then try it is difficult to comment on it. We (myself included) think we know about things, then we learn something that changes that. I have sat in a class with Chris White (White Labs founder) for a whole day and did not learn a fifth of what I learned reading the website I posted. Because we read the book "Yeast" (which is a good book), we think we know what we need to, but knowledge is fast moving in this brewing field and thing change.

To Day_Tripper.....thyself is calm...drinking another fantastic IPA. Cheers!

 

[Jag75]

I can speak on the shakin not stirred method . It works very well . I've done it multiple times when I've decided to brew on a whim. I cant say whether it has fully fermented or not , but there is action in the flask . Maybe it's just co2 I dont know. I guess one would have to check the gravity to really know.