Beer Forum

I did a 3000 ml starter for my 1.091 O.G. Belgian Tripple. I have a great fermentation holding at 74-75 degrees. My real worry is that 3000 ml of DME will hurt the flavor of my Tripple.

Has anyone ever used that much DME in a beer of this nature and did you or do you think that all that DME will hurt?

Thanks

I have never put the whole starter into my beer before, but I don't think that you will notice. If your worried about it make your starter a little earlier next time and put it in the fridge night before brewday. On brewday take it out to let it warm up and when it's time to pitch pour most of the liquid off. I leave just enough liquid to swirl the yeast back into. Then pitch that.

Travis

Travis,
Thanks alot. Jamil was saying on one of the shows that doing that might hurt the reserves of the yeast. He recommended pitching it while it is rockin'. I see the logic in that and really who am I to argue with him.

It just seemed like a lot of liquid. Thank you though for puting my mind at ease.

Carlo

I'm certainly not goint to tell Jamil he's wrong. I just don't like adding that much liquid to my beers. A lot of times I do 1gal starters for my big beers and I don't want to add that much liquid. If I'm doing a smaller beer I'll do Jamil's way.

Travis

Travis,
I am on the same page as you. I hate messing with the wort that I have worked so hard to make good. I think that I might start getting the yeast ready about a week early. Decant the DME and just have a huge slurry.
In a few weeks I have a B3-1550 for doing ten gallon batches. I know that I am really going to need a lot of good healthy yeast.

I just love this.

Carlo

I'm not going to say Jamil is wrong, but I'm going to say I disagree with him (he won't be surprised!) I don't like adding all that stale, oxidized DME to my nice fresh wort, so I decant like the other guys suggested. If you have built up an adequate population of yeast in your starter and aerate your wort well, there's no reason not to decant first.

My impression about what he was saying was that most people under pitch their beers, and that a sufficient volume of active cells could be made quickly using the techniques he described. If you wanted to decant, you need to let the fermentation finish so the yeast can build up their dormancy reserves, so you shouldn't force them into flocculating early by chilling the culture before active fermentation had subsided.

At least, that's the way I interpreted it.

That totally makes sense. I think the next time I do a beer I will start the yeast about a week early. I did hear him say that, but I wasn't exactly sure what he meant. Thanks very much for your help.

Carlo