How To: Make A Yeast Starter

A few years ago I was sitting at work on a Saturday, not thinking about work, but thinking about ways to improve my beer.  After spending some time on Google, I found that making a yeast starter was an easy and inexpensive step to improve beer.  I usually try to make my starter the day before I brew.  Sometimes I forget, take a deep breath, and I make the starter the morning of brew day (this is usually is enough time for the starter to get moving and begin creating additional yeast).  I think that any head start you give the yeast is better than nothing.  This is good for your beer because full on fermentation will begin sooner, minimize the risk of infection, and will lead to a healthier fermentation.  Healthy fermentation = delicious beer!!!

This is the procedure I follow for 5 gallon batches of beer.  If you're brewing 10 gallon size batches, you'll probably want to double everything in the procedure.

Here's what you'll need:

Yeast (duh!)
1000 mL Erlenmeyer flask w/ stopper
Funnel
Light Dried Malt Extract (DME)
Saucepan
Stirring Spoon
Lighting reading (optional)
Whiskey (see background, also optional, but leads to more fun!)

Here's what you need!

Now for the procedure.  This is very simple.  You're basically making a very smaller batch of wort to get the yeast going.

1.  Clean and sanitize all your equipment that will come in contact with the wort.  I use PBW and Star San like I do for brewing full batches.  However, you should clean and sanitize using whatever method you're used to.

2.  Bring 650 mL of water to a boil in the saucepan.  Add 1/2 cup of the light DME to the boiling water and stir until the DME dissolves.  When you add the DME it will boil over.  Be prepared to lift the pan off the stove.  Once the wort calms down, continue to boil for 15 minutes.

Note:  I've tried performing the boil directly in the Erlenmeyer flask, but have had a very difficult time controlling the boil over.  The flask tends to act like a 3rd grade volcano project and erupts every 30 seconds during the boil.

Ready for boil over!

Boil over gone!

3.  Before the end of the boil prepare a small ice bath.  Once the boil is complete, transfer the boiled wort into the Erlenmeyer flask.  Place the flask into the ice bath and wrap the flask in a cold, wet towel.  The wort should be cooled in about 10-15 minutes.

This isn't the most impressive ice bath, but it doesn't need to be for your starter.

4.  Once the starter has cooled to room temperature.  You're ready to pitch your yeast.  For this particular batch, I'm using White Labs California Ale WLP001.  Swirl the yeast around inside the vial to be sure none is stuck to the sides and pitch into the flask.  If you're using a Wyeast smack pack, perform the smack! as your normally would pitching into a full batch of wort.  Swirl the flask after you've pitched the yeast to throughly mix the yeast with the wort.  Place your stopper and let sit for about 24 hours.  You're done!

Pre-pitch

White Labs Yeast Vial

Post pitch

All told, this take less than an hour and I've had success using this method for more consistent fermentation in the full batch.  Remember to pitch the entire starter into your batch.  This will not affect the flavor of your particular style.

One additional step that can be performed is to place the starter on a stir plate to continually oxygenize the starter.  I don't use a stir plate and would recommend that a stir plate is strictly optional.  If you're in the cool chemistry lab stuff, then by all means one.  If you're on a budget, you can skip the stir plate and still make a great starter.

UPDATE:

By popular demand here is a shot of the yeast starter right before I pitched into my pumpkin ale yesterday.

Yeast Starter on Brew Day - 9/2/2013