Saturday I plan to brew my second batch and use a starter for the first time. I'm bottling my first batch tonight and it'd be ideal if I also do the starter this evening. Is the +36 hours creating the starter tonight and pitching midday Saturday too long? Otherwise I'll do the starter tomorrow night. If it has relevance, I'll be using a stir pad and the yeast is Wyeast 1028 London Ale. Thanks!
Too long? no. If anything it is a bit rushed, but you can make it work. I do up to 24 hours on a stir plate, then turn off the stir plate for a day, and then in the fridge for a day. In your case just remove the middle step.
As a FYI, below is what Jamil Zainasheff does for his starters (this was published in the Zymurgy article entitled Making a Starter): “I like to pitch starters while they're still very active and as soon as the bulk of reproduction is finished, usually within 12 to 18 hours. This is really convenient, because I can make a starter the morning of the brew day or the night before and it is ready to go by the time the batch of wort is ready.” If you are using a stir plate to make your starters you should make you starters well in advance since you do not want to add the starter beer (liquid) to the beer; the stir plate action results in oxidized starter beer being produced. When using a stir plate you want a schedule something like below: · 12 – 18 hours of stir plate time (Edit: or 24 hours as detailed in the above post) · Put the starter in the refrigerator to get the yeast to drop out (sediment). This could take 24+ hours to occur · Take the starter vessel out of the refrigerator and permit the starter to get to room (pitching temperature). I am not sure how long this takes. · Decant the room temperature starter beer and only pour the yeast slurry into the primary An additional step you could perform is to add some fresh wort to the yeast slurry to ‘wake up’ the yeast prior to pitching but this step is entirely optional. Cheers!
oh, at this point I suppose several unimportant reasons. habit Unless it's the Fullers strain, mine are usually still very active at 24 hours. Maybe most others are cranking their stir plates higher than I do? Or perhaps because I am so often working with older yeast? Whatever. I like letting the starter finish if possible to see flocc characteristics with my own eyes, and have a habit of measuring FG when I decant my starter wort as well. Mostly looking for surprises. Since I am only generally around once per day, that's when i turn it off. also it is a combination of a conversation with Chris White some time ago talking about beating up your yeast when too long on a stir plate, reading multiple places that most growth will happen in 12-18 hours, and seeing a slide from a Neva Parker (also with White Labs - AHA members, see "Fermentation Mythbusters" presentation, NHC 2012, if curious.) presentation showing growth through 48 hours. So this is what I've settled on. ...biggest reason is likely that Mrs udubdawg gets annoyed with the flasks in the fridge, so I delay their move there a bit. Her own fault for not allowing the purchase of a 5th fridge IMO! cheers-- --Michael
