Yeast starter today, brew today?

Quoth Jamil:

Most yeast experts say that when propagating yeast, moving at high krauesen is optimal. The time of high krauesen can range anywhere from a few hours to 24 or more. It depends on the amount of yeast added to the starter wort, yeast health, temperature, and several other factors. Doss says a starter made from an XL pack of yeast into 2 liters of wort will reach its maximum cell density within 12 to 18 hours. If you’re starting with a very small amount of yeast in a large starter, it can take 24 hours or more to reach maximum cell densities. 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.​

I generally prefer to give them enough time to finish multiplying and, ideally, cool and decant the starter beer, but there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rule about what to do.

 

Go for it .. it will be fine.

 

@MCBanjoMike sums it up pretty good . . . shouldn't go wrong taking his advice. I used to suggest you compute how many yeast cells you have and how many you need from the starter . . . but this didn't seem very popular so I stopped.

One thing you can count on, those little yeast buggers like to play games; you might have a two hour lag time or it might be ten hours. If they know you post on BA they tend to be more mischievous, so along with the DME you might want to feed them some dis-information.

 

If you make a yeast starter in the morning and pitch it in the evening two things will result:

· There will be more yeast cells in the evening vs. the morning

· The yeast will be in an active growth stage

I prefer to wait 18-24 hours before pitching my active yeast starters but a morning – evening schedule should ‘work’.

Cheers!

 

As long as you are not brewing a monster beer you should be OK.
Might be a good idea to give some oxygen in the morning. If you do not have an O2 setup just sanitize your kettle and pour back and forth between it and the fermenter.

 

+1 to jncastillo87, Jack, and NiceFly. Brew today. It should be just fine, probably. For a lager, maybe not. But for an ale? Sure.

 

Waste of effort for making a starter IMHO. It will work, and you will have some more cells, but not as many as if you go through the whole process. I think if you are not willing to wait for the starter to finish and then crash it, just pitch your yeast pack / tube. Or use 2 packs of rehydrated dried yeast. That would be cheaper, and faster.