Insert clever tagline here

I’ve been homebrewing since 2009 and I have always been looking for ways to improve my brewing to turn out better beers. A yeast starter is a method of preparing your yeast for fermentation by introducing your yeast to a small amount of wort before fermentation in order to encourage yeast cell multiplication to create an optimum amount of healty, ready-to-go yeast cells for an ideal fermentation of your beer. (Brew365.com). I was getting ready to brew a Pumpkin Ale, which was a big hit last year, so I figured I would pick up a yeast starter kit at the same time and give it a try. The kit I purchased was the 2L Yeast Starter Kit from Midwest Supplies. The kit includes a 2L Erlenmeyer flask, stopper, airlock, 1 lb. dry malt extract, 2 oz. yeast nutrient, and instructions. I suplimented the instructions that came with the kit with a post I found on Brew365, Making a Yeast Starter.

Brew365 suggested measuring the malt extract by weight rather than using a measuring cup, so I measured out 3 oz on my kitchen scale.

For my Pumpkin Ale, which has an OG of 1.047, I used the Mr. Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator™ to determine that a 1L starter would be enough. So I collected about 1L of water in my flask.

Added the malt extract and a tsp of yeast nutrient to the water.

I took the mixture over to the stove and brought it to a boil, while it was boiling I sanitized all the equipment and the yeast pouch to prevent infection.

Once the 15 minute boil was finished, I covered the flask with some foil and placed it in an ice bath to lower the temperature. (the black floaties in the water are from a minor boilover I had on the stove. Oops!)

Once the starter was cooled, I just waited until the outside of the flask was cool to the touch, I pitched the yeast and put on the stopper/airlock.

Over the next day my wife and I swirled the starter every once and a while to mix up the batch and encourage the yeasties to do their work. By brewday I had a healthy batch of yeast and I saw the start of fermentation after only a few hours.

The Pumpkin Ale will be ready by Thanksgiving. I’ll post some feedback on how it went with my first starter.

• Share