Can anyone advise on the approximate timeline for making a yeast starter? If I was to make one up today, roughly when could I brew with it after stepping it up once or twice (actually how many times do most people step it up?)
are you using vials? what are you brewing and how/why are are you trying to step up a couple of times?
It all depends on how much yeast you start with, how viable it is, and what temperature you can ferment it at.
If you plan to make a starter for a Wyeast pack, and assuming it's reasonably fresh, you can make 1.2 - 2 litres of wort at a gravity of 1.030 - 1.040. To do this boil 2 litres of water with 200g of DME (this 10:1 ratio can be scaled for any sized starter).
If you have a stir plate, allow the starter to grow for 24 - 48 hours (assuming the ambient temp is around 20C). If you don't have a stir plate, give the starter a good shake every time you pass it. If the ambient temp is about 20C, two days is fine. If it's less than 18C you might need a third day.
If you're growing a starter from a slant, start with a small initial starter (about 250ml) for 24 hours and then step this up to 1.5 - 2 litres for another 48 hours.
I normally turn off the stir plate the morning of the brew day and allow the starter to settle. I then decant off most of the liquid and swish the yeast cake around in the remaining liquid before pitching.
The Mr Malty pitching calculator (http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html) is a great resource for working out how big a starter you need.
Its WLP007 that I got from here (thanks Rossa). I'd say theres about 15-20ml of yeast in the vial. If I was to make a 250ml initial starter, how much DME would I use for that?
Also, that Mr Malty calculator....how the hell does that work? :o
I use 100g for every litre of water so I am guessing you are going for 200ml so 20 grammes
Are you using a stir plate?
Unless you are making a very high gravity beer you don't need monster starters, bump up to 500ml if you want.
make sure you see good signs of life throughout, beergeek has a good youtube vid for starters.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jMhFerNTwbQ
No stir plate so I'll go for the ol' swirl-when-I-pass-it method
thats works keep and eye out for bubbles up the side of the conical
Good video...helps a lot.
I have a 1 gallon demijohn. Hopefully its not too big for a 500ml starter
go the litre if you have the 100g of DME
Grand job thanks :)
Gonna give this a go during the week. When i have my 1 litre starter and I'm finished my boil, do I pour the 1 litre on top of my beer, or decant most of the liquid off leaving the sediment which I then pour into my beer?
If you're making a stout or something like that it probably doesn't really matter but if you're brewing something paler then it could affect the colour. Also, you have to remember that the starter is unhopped yeasty malt and as such doesn't taste great. That's why I usually decant to be on the safe side. But don't worry if the yeast hasn't settled well. Just lob it all in. It won't do any real harm.
Important thing is that you cool your wort down to your fermentation temp, that will also means that you bring your starter up to wort temp to avoid thermal shock.
I'm brewing a stout, but I'll decant as it's probably the 'proper' way to do it. I brew partial mash, partial boil beers so hopefully temperature won't be an issue as I top up with about 10 litres of tap water usually