Accounting for yeast starter volume?

[BilBrewing]

Hello fellow forum members!

I brewed up a nice IPA today. I BIAB and i was aiming for 11ltrs of 1.068 wort. I made a yeast starter (800ml with 1 pack of 1056) as per BeerSmith 2's yeast calculator.

I ended up with 11.2ltrs of 1.064 wort, a little short, but i'm still learning!

When using BeerSmith to formulate the recipe it only adds the starter volume to the bottling volume.

My question is would adding the yeast starter dilute my OG even further? Or am i missing something here?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fat Bastard]

It does dilute it if it's higher gravity wort than your starter. You could calculate it, but the difference is so small I wouldn't worry about it. I normally use 2 litre starters for everything and if I feel the recipe needs any adjustment, I change it next time around. The only exception I make for this is with low IBU beers, where I'll increase the volume when working out hop additions in beersmith (or brewmate until recently) and go from there.

Trust your tastebuds over calculations!

Edit: I should add that doing the same thing each time you brew the beer is important. That way you are consistently adding 2l or 800ml or whatever of 1.050 wort to your base wort each time you brew the beer and can adjust accordingly from that.

 

[slash22000]

In your case I would have crashed and decanted the yeast rather than pitching the entire thing. I mean you've got 11.2L of wort with 800mL of starter, almost 10% of the beer is starter wort (which is not nice to drink). Chuck it in the fridge for 24-48 hours after fermenting for 24-48 hours, drain off all the wort except the last 250mL, and pitch the remaining slurry once it's at the proper temperature. Solves the gross tasting wort problem and the volume problem.

 

[BilBrewing]

Thanks guys. The cold crashing makes sense so I'll add this to my process. The wort tastes pretty darn good so I'm sire it'll turn out a OK.

You brew and you learn.

 

[Edak]

I am now a convert for decanting, it just means you have to get it started a few days before brew day.

 

[lael]

What 'should' the decanted wort taste like? I frequently get yeasty... (a good thing) but also slightly sour... is that normal? what is it from?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Try a megaswill lager then a Coopers Pale Ale.

You will imediatly notice that the Coopers tastes sour.

Sour is good. Anything else is bad