Splitting A Wyeast Smack Pack

[fergi]

A good point. I have made 100g/1L wort for a starter and and ended up with wort of G 1.050 after a 10 min boil on the cooktop, not a raging boil, just a low boil, a trap for new players. Check the gravity of your starter wort!!!

Screwy

good point there screwy, never thought of that. thanks
fergi

 

[under]

Hey Tony. Split as your instructions last year sometime. Got a few vials left over of some Wyeast 2035 - American Lager. How do you go about starters with the split vials. Do you still just dump the content of a single vial into a Litre of 1030-1040 starter wort? Or do you step them up from say 500ml to 2L then pitch? Im looking at a 42l batch.

 

[stux]

Hey Tony. Split as your instructions last year sometime. Got a few vials left over of some Wyeast 2035 - American Lager. How do you go about starters with the split vials. Do you still just dump the content of a single vial into a Litre of 1030-1040 starter wort? Or do you step them up from say 500ml to 2L then pitch? Im looking at a 42l batch.

Work out a triple-step starter regime with this calculator
http://yeastcalc.summitwoodwork.com/

Best to have larger growth steps first

 

[brando]

Old thread, but it got me thinking...

Until now, when building a starter I have simply boiled the wort in my conical flask with aluminium foil on top. Then I let it cool down, add the yeast and stirbar, then whack it onto the stirplate (with al foil back on).

The results have been not as much yeast slurry as expectd at the end of the 2-3 day starter process.

I normally leave the foil off the flask for the first 20mins or so after putting it onto the stirplate, but now I'm thinking that perhaps this isn't enough to aerate the wort sufficiently, especially considering the narrow mouth of the flask.

Thoughts??

 

[lickapop]

Awesome tech.
One thing I have tried with the last couple of smack packs is give the pack a wipe over with 70%metho and *** the side with a 20ml syringe, draw off the yeast and store the syringe in the fridge.
When I make a starter I just get a syringe out, flame the tip and squirt it into the starter wort.

Another thing I have been meaning to ask when using a stir plate...I know most use foil over the mouth of their containers which to me is ok if you have positive co2 pressure. But when using a stir plate wouldnt it suck air in?
I go to all the trouble of making sure everything is sterile and then sit it on the stir plate with foil over the mouth of the flask, turn it on and watch it suck in every mould spore / wild yeast spore in the room.
Is this how it works?
Sorry if this has been answered

I am thinking if you go to all the trouble of sterile procedures with your starters you may as well aerate your starter as you would your brew and use a bung and airlock??

 

[Steve@PMF82]

Awesome tech.
One thing I have tried with the last couple of smack packs is give the pack a wipe over with 70%metho and *** the side with a 20ml syringe, draw off the yeast and store the syringe in the fridge.
When I make a starter I just get a syringe out, flame the tip and squirt it into the starter wort.

That is an interesting idea

Another thing I have been meaning to ask when using a stir plate...I know most use foil over the mouth of their containers which to me is ok if you have positive co2 pressure. But when using a stir plate wouldnt it suck air in?
I go to all the trouble of making sure everything is sterile and then sit it on the stir plate with foil over the mouth of the flask, turn it on and watch it suck in every mould spore / wild yeast spore in the room.
Is this how it works?
Sorry if this has been answered

Yes dust, airborne bacteria, wild yeast tend to float on the air, i would not think that any air being sucked in to the flask would be strong enough to suck up and under a piece of tightly wrapped foil.

I am thinking if you go to all the trouble of sterile procedures with your starters you may as well aerate your starter as you would your brew and use a bung and airlock??

 

[Tony]

I had a feeling i pid a post on this a while back.

Oh well... here is a more indepth article on the subject for those who missed it

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showarticle=192

 

[Tony]

I am thinking if you go to all the trouble of sterile procedures with your starters you may as well aerate your starter as you would your brew and use a bung and airlock??

I find there is more risk with an airlock and the water in said airlock being sucked back into the brew.

Trust me, the foil works fine!

I have left fermented atarters sitting for up to a month with just foil and they have been fine!

cheers

 

[lickapop]

thanks. I never thought about the vortex sucking water back through the airlock.
I know foil works, just thinking out of the box

I dont know yeast all that well yet. It must be aggressive and dominate because if I tried this with mycology the mould spores and bacteria from the air would dominate the mycelium(vegetating growing part of the mushroom) before it had a chance to grow.

 

[Midnight Brew]

Just split my first smack pack and got 3x 25ml tubes of pure yeast and then 50ml straight into a 1L starter on a stir plate. This is so economical when it comes to splitting a pack and if its an older pack the best part is that you're gonna need a starter anyway.

 

[Arghonaut]

Are proscitech still the best option for vials? Prices seem to have gone up, was going to cost me $35 delivered. Any cheaper options as i dont really need 50!

 

[stux]

I find there is more risk with an airlock and the water in said airlock being sucked back into the brew.

Trust me, the foil works fine!

I have left fermented atarters sitting for up to a month with just foil and they have been fine!

cheers

I've left unfermented wort, boiled and covered in foil for weeks with zero activity.

re-boiled anyway before pitching.

Louis Pasteur nailed this one a little while ago

"Some of Pasteur's preparations are at the Pasteur Institute, Paris where they continue to remain sterile for more than 100 years."

(not the actual flask)


When you put foil over your wort and boil it, you're doing the same thing.

 

[Wolfy]

When you put foil over your wort and boil it, you're doing the same thing.

... in theory.
In practice most home/home-brewing procedures are not quite sterile so a level of infection might be expected.

 

[Tony]

I made a starter of Farmhouse ale using the methods detailed earlier on.

I let it ferment and put it under my bar until i got around to pitching it on a cube of hibiscus ale.

I never got around to it and found the starter about 3 weeks later...... still fine.

Stepped it up and pitched it into my Saison and its done in 4 days..... and tastes great.

The longest i have left one sit under a foil cap is 2 months and it was fine.

cheers