So here it is, my first yeast starter for an OG 1.076 brown ale I'll be brewing on sunday. made 1800ml of starter with a gravity of ~1.050, its a little higher than the 1.040 standard but for higher gravity beers such as this brown ale i have read and i'm hoping the slighty higher gravity starter will not shock the yeast when they get in the wort of 1.076.
Why make yeast starters?
The quantity of yeast in a Wyeast "smack pack" typically isn't anywhere near enough to give you a fast, healthy fermentation. That's why it is a good idea to make a starter. The idea behind making a yeast starter is to provide the small number of yeast cells from a Wyeast package with an ideal environment in which they can build up their health and numbers, with no competition from other competing microbes. Then, when the contents of the starter are pitched into your wort, you will get a shorter lag time, and a faster fermentation. This in turn will result in a cleaner tasting beer, and reduce the chances of infection, because your yeast will take over quickly, leaving little time for unwanted microbes to gain a foothold.
Even the "pitchable" liquid yeasts (e.g. Wyeast XL packs, and White Labs vials) will benefit from a starter, especially if the yeast is more than a couple of months old, or will be pitched into a high gravity (> 1.070 OG) wort.
The quantity of yeast in a Wyeast "smack pack" typically isn't anywhere near enough to give you a fast, healthy fermentation. That's why it is a good idea to make a starter. The idea behind making a yeast starter is to provide the small number of yeast cells from a Wyeast package with an ideal environment in which they can build up their health and numbers, with no competition from other competing microbes. Then, when the contents of the starter are pitched into your wort, you will get a shorter lag time, and a faster fermentation. This in turn will result in a cleaner tasting beer, and reduce the chances of infection, because your yeast will take over quickly, leaving little time for unwanted microbes to gain a foothold.
Even the "pitchable" liquid yeasts (e.g. Wyeast XL packs, and White Labs vials) will benefit from a starter, especially if the yeast is more than a couple of months old, or will be pitched into a high gravity (> 1.070 OG) wort.
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