I just wanted to make a quick post about the importance of a yeast starter. While I am preaching to the choir on this one, since it is universally accepted that yeast starters are important for building healthy hardy colonies and can really help your beer get off to a good start. I am also going to go out on a limb and say that for mainly 2 reasons we don’t make them; first reason is some people don’t know how or why it is so important to make a yeast starter, and second, some times we’re all a little lazy.
While I cannot help you be more motivated I can give you a little background on my weekend of brewing. Last week I started working on a stir plate, a simple DIY project with a few spare parts, that will only run you $15 rather than $35-75 store bought version. The idea was simple build a stir plate, learn why yeast starters were important, make a yeast starter and compare the results from my prior brews. I went to work and made a yeast starter and threw it up on the stir plate for about 20 hours. I brewed a simple ale and pitched my yeast; to my surprise I had activity in the airlock within 2 hours. I am excited to see how the beer will come out as a result of using the starter, I will keep everyone posted.
Pro tip: Remove the stir bar from the flask before dumping the yeast into the wort. ::sigh::
If you are looking to learn more on making starters head over to brew365 or howtobrew.com
Cheers
Charlie