Starters - To Decant Or Not

[Moray]

I'm just wondering what people do with large starters.

1. Take them off the stir plate and let the yeast precipitate out.
Then carefully decant off the liquid and just pitch the remaining slurry.

2. Same as above, but chill the starter prior to decanting.

3. Just pitch the lot

 

[rich_lamb]

I take it off the stirplate after fully fermenting; about 3-4 days (just a guess).
Then chuck it in the fridge for a day or so and it's good and precipitated.

On Brew day, I remove from fridge and decant off all but the last 500ml. Let it warm up slowly while I do my brew, and when I pitch I swirl up the dregs and chuck it in.

- I wouldn't pitch the whole thing (typically 2-3 litres) in my beer as it would throw off the flavour and gravity significantly.

- I pour off the excess while it's cold as the smaller volume will warm faster. I try to pitch at similar temperatures but I'm not anal about it.

 

[Darren]

+1 Decant

cheers

Darren

 

[mika]

Ales, I generally only pitch 1L starter in a 20L batch (probably underpitching, but works for me) and I just chuck the lot in.
Lagers, if I've controlled the temp of the starter from pitching, I'll pitch the lot, if I've ramped the temp up a bit to get the yeast ready on time, I'll chill it for around 8hrs prior to pitching and pour off as much as I think I can get away with (before losing yeast) and then aerate with pure O2 and pitch.

 

[mikem108]

Decant most of it

 

[hockadays]

For lagers I grow the starter up to 1- 1.5L then chill and decant. then I top up with a litre or two of the next batch and get that going on the stir plate while the rest of the wort comes down to 8degc. Usually overnight then I pitch the whole thing into the brew.

 

[SJW]

I take it off the stirplate after fully fermenting; about 3-4 days (just a guess).
Then chuck it in the fridge for a day or so and it's good and precipitated.

On Brew day, I remove from fridge and decant off all but the last 500ml. Let it warm up slowly while I do my brew, and when I pitch I swirl up the dregs and chuck it in.

- I wouldn't pitch the whole thing (typically 2-3 litres) in my beer as it would throw off the flavour and gravity significantly.

- I pour off the excess while it's cold as the smaller volume will warm faster. I try to pitch at similar temperatures but I'm not anal about it.

+1.
I did a English Bitter with 1968 on the weekend. Smaked the pack on Friday night. Pitch into a 1 litre stater on saturday night after it swelled and by sunday after being on the stirplate for near 24 hours it was close to being finished. So I stopped the stirplate and did my brew. By the time Sunday night I poured off the liquid and added a couple of liters of the cooled wort and put it back on the stirplate to mix up again (as this yeast drops out and packs down harder than the Wallabies in a world cup final) and pitched it all at about 22 deg C.
After 12 hours it was going nuts.

Steve

 

[cubbie]

I only ever build up to 1.5 litres and normally pitch 1l and split the remainder. I have always wondered how this effects the profile of my beer, but never given it much research. If you have the time to decant I can't see why this would not be a preferred method, in fact I may do it myself from now on.

 

[Brewer_010]

I take it off the stirplate after fully fermenting; about 3-4 days (just a guess).
Then chuck it in the fridge for a day or so and it's good and precipitated.

On Brew day, I remove from fridge and decant off all but the last 500ml. Let it warm up slowly while I do my brew, and when I pitch I swirl up the dregs and chuck it in.

- I wouldn't pitch the whole thing (typically 2-3 litres) in my beer as it would throw off the flavour and gravity significantly.

- I pour off the excess while it's cold as the smaller volume will warm faster. I try to pitch at similar temperatures but I'm not anal about it.

I also do this and the results are a pretty fast starting starter,
Sometimes my starter may sit in a fridge for a day or two but never had any probs getting a good start

 

[KHB]

I used to pitch a 2ltre starter but today i pitched the slurry after leaving in the fridge overnight. Warmed it up as i was brewing and after 2hr it has kicked in

 

[mckenry]

Have only ever piched 1L for ale & 1.5L for lager. Never decanted but am going to try it next time. Never really thought 100g (150 in lagers) LME in a 22L batch would change the profile or Alc appreciatively. Does it? :huh:
I did a side by side APA with Wyeast American Ale - one new smack pack - started only inside the pack, (as a test as they state it can be pitched directly) against the same strain made up to 1L starter. The started one fired earlier, but no taste difference in end beer that I could notice. Was a pretty big hopped beer though. Maybe I should do the same test with lagers...

 

[Batz]

I just turn off the stir plate for a couple of hours,by then I have ample yeast settled out.Pour off the stale beer brewed at the wrong temperature (get my drift? I don't want it in my brew) give the stater a swirl,and chuck it in.


Batz

 

[Moray]

Thanks everyone for your replies.

Seems the consensus is to decant, which I'm glad about
as I have been doing this for the last few brews.

Like Batz mentioned above I was concerned about stale beer in my brews.