Yeast Starter - How long good? ... Pitch?

[FloydSki]

I have a good yeast starter going but due to unforseen circumstances; I will now not be able to brew for 11 to 12 days.  My question is: Is it best to put the starter in the fridge now?  ..... if so; how shall I "re-activate" the yeast?  Or do I need to?  ... or can I just pitch the yeast from the fridge into the wert when I brew, 11 to 12 days from now?  I assume it would be best to bring the yeast to 70 deg or so and perhaps even introduce it to an additional pint of Dry Malt Extract + water to get it active; then pitch??  Opinions or experience with this anyone?  Thanks.

[ozzynelson]

I would put it in the fridge now, then just bring out with enough time to warm to your fermentation temp. I've done this several times.

[MaltLicker]

12 days is fine.  Pull from fridge on brew day in time to raise to pitching temp.  I sometimes pull 8 oz of the wort at about 30 minutes, and by the end of boil, cooling, and 30 mins whirlpool rest, that wort has cooled to about 70F and I use that to "wake" the yeast and get them used to the actual wort they'll be eating. 

Once cooled, I decant the old DME starter liquid and add the fresh wort and put on stir plate until needed to pitch. 

[Wildrover]

12 days is fine.  Pull from fridge on brew day in time to raise to pitching temp.  I sometimes pull 8 oz of the wort at about 30 minutes, and by the end of boil, cooling, and 30 mins whirlpool rest, that wort has cooled to about 70F and I use that to "wake" the yeast and get them used to the actual wort they'll be eating. 

Once cooled, I decant the old DME starter liquid and add the fresh wort and put on stir plate until needed to pitch. 

How long after you pitch the new wort into the new starter to you pitch the yeast into the new batch?

[MaltLicker]

Depends on my timing, but usually between 30 and 60 mins.  It's not so much a "grow cells" maneuver, but one geared toward aeration and getting cells used to the new wort profile. 

[Wildrover]

Depends on my timing, but usually between 30 and 60 mins.  It's not so much a "grow cells" maneuver, but one geared toward aeration and getting cells used to the new wort profile. 

Do you aerate the new wort before putting it in?

[CR]

Yeasts will survive for an inordinately long time  if kept in  distilled water (which is how a lot of them are shipped)

When I say an inordinately long time: I mean years.

The packages say six months (I believe) but if you can get a starter culture up and bubbling you are golden.

[MaltLicker]

WR

Yea, I hit most batches with 25-30 secs of O2 just prior to pitching.  And my transfer from boiler to carboy is fairly splashy, with a diverter inside a fine mesh bag, so it's fairly O2 rich at pitching.

[Wildrover]

Maltliker

I'm not sure I asked that right.  I meant to ask if you aerate the 'get used to wort' you add to the starter yeast before pitching? 

[MaltLicker]

Not with O2 or violent splashing, but on a stir plate for those 45-odd minutes.  I decant the starter wort off the yeast slurry, add the fresh wort, and put on stir plate until I pitch the entire fresh solution. 

I try to time it so the yeast is on the plate before I start the 30 minutes for whirlpool/settling.  By the time I transfer, aerate, it's usually 45 to 60 minutes on the plate.

I try to make starters well in advance, so they've been sitting at ~50F for a couple days before brew day, so this is their warm-up and wake-up process. 

If I'm using dry yeast, I find the timing is similar if I boil the plain water at about 30 mins, it cools to ~86F at about the time I start the whirlpool 30-minute rest, so it's proofed when I'm ready to pitch. 

[Wildrover]

Does this process wake the yeast up more than just pitching your starter?  I guess what I'm trying to ask is what advantage does this process give you over simply pitching the starter, provided the starter has been at the right temp for the right amount of time?

[MaltLicker]

It's probably negligible, but I've pulled out the starter in the morning, and forgotten to do this, and found the starter was still well below my desired pitching temp, and the slurry was viscous and tough to pour. 

When I remember to do this step, it's warmed to pitching temps and more easily poured.  In theory, it's had that time to get used to that sugar profile. 

[Wildrover]

I'm curious about doing this (If you can't tell) I'm wondering if there has been any work that has looked at the potential benefits of this?  How did you hear about doing this? 

[MaltLicker]

A ribbon-winning, technical-minded friend that does 11-gallon batches does it.  I shamelessly copied him.  He may have started it just because his stir plate is sitting there on the work bench. 

I've never seen any bona fide literature mention it.  Doing a starter and aerating are far more important, but this step doesn't cost me anything but time.  And it keeps my "yeast prep" process similar with both liquid and dry yeasts, as I'm pulling hot wort or boiling water at 30 mins left in boil.  I also like the notion of taking the yeast from the old spent DME environment and giving it some (lower) SG wort before pitching into a full batch of higher SG wort later (after the remaining boil-down and before any late DME/sugar/syrup additions).