Yeast Starter

http://www.mrmalty.com/starter_faq.php
should answer most of your questions.

The need for a starter has a lot more to do with the starting gravity of your wort than the amount of hops present.

 

2 cup starter will get your yeast active, but it isn't going to reproduce alot (if any) yeast. Other than to check viability, I don't see the reason for a 16 oz. (2 cups) starter. I am assuming a DIPA will need alot more yeast than your starter will produce.

The reason to do a starter is to grow (create more) your yeast. Those vials are probably fine for something around 1.040 OG, but it would be underpitching once you get much above that.

GreenKrusty posted the calculator, that is the only tool you really need as far as making a starter.

 

Also, no need to use a bung or airlock, you want oxygen in your starters for the yeast to use.

 

I'm curious where you found this recipe. Never heard of using honey in a starter. Add some lemon juice and sprinkle on romaine lettuce. Otherwise you can just stick with malt extract. Honey provides sugar but no yeast nutrients. Some prefer using wheat malt extract because they believe it provides more nutrients. Some will add a prepared yeast nutrient supplement

 

Good point on the honey, doesn't honey actually hinder the growth of yeast?

 

Honey is a simpole sugar and will not add nutrients (which malt does) beneficial to the yeasts health. I am more concerned with the the gravity of your starter, and how many yeast cells you may have killed in the process of trying to reproduce the yeast itself.

Priming and doing starters are very different things, when your priming, your not going to be reusing that yeast. When your making a starter, the whole point is to make the yeast as healthy as possible. Simple sugars can be very hard on yeast, and 2 teaspoons will noit even start to add a flavor. You will see that you may even want to dump the liquid in your starter anyway before pitching it, since starters really taste like crap.

 

Looks tasty. High on the crystal malt for my taste buds, but I am done going there

With that said, I would make another starter. Much bigger, like 3 liters.

 

Honey has 0 nutrients while malt extract does, it is different. For just honey you would need to add yeast nutrient. However you have it with malt extract so it should be fine.

 

I believe (though I may be wrong) the problem with using honey is the kinds of sugar contained in honey, namely mostly simple sugars. Yeast that go into a honey fueled starter won't get to break down any more complex, longer chain sugars that are found in a malt based wort, and might then not be able to do so when pitched into your actual beer. It's the same reason we don't just use table sugar for our starters.

Using something like honey or maple syrup for priming sugar is completely different, as the yeast have basically already don all their work with the beer, and just need simple sugars to consume to carbonate the bottles/cask.

 

2 teaspoons of honey, while unnecessary and possibly unsanitary isn't a deal breaker in a starter

 

Personally, I would just make a bigger starter. 3 liters, around 1.040 OG. Actually, what I would do is make a whole batch of a 1.040 beer, then repitch the yeast.

 

I personally am of the opinion that Mr. Malty is a very conservative yeast calculator. I have personally followed the recommendations of the various yeast vendors and that has been successful for me.

White Labs recommends that you make a 1 quart (2 pints) yeast starter for higher gravity ales:

Typical Starter Volumes for 5 gallons:

To activate the yeast: 1 pint (with 1/4 cup DME)

To revitalize yeast past its Best Before Date: 2 pints (with 1/2 cup DME)

To brew a high gravity beer: 2 pints (with 1/2 cup DME)

To brew a lager beer, starting fermentation 50-55F: 4 pints (with 1 cup DME)

You can read more here: http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/homebrew_FAQ.html

Cheers!

 

Here's a great video "series" with about an hour of footage dedicated to the yeast starter and he is super into sterilization, OK and sanitization, OK and repeating himself, OK and the work OK:

You may get sucked in just for the fact of thinking in your head how much of a crazy lunatic this guy is OK but this kid is crazy, OK... ha-ha.