I didn’t make a starter… Is my beer gonna suck?

Yeast health is certainly one of the most important aspects of making good beer. Without a healthy, active pitch of yeast there is a much higher chance for off flavors like Acetaldehyde or Diacetyl. When using liquid yeast, a yeast starter on a stir plate is a great way to ensure a high cell count of active yeast. Do you really need one? Maybe… here’s what we know.

How much yeast do I need?

Without the correct number of cells yeast can get stressed and create off flavors as they struggle to replicate in the wort. The amount of yeast we need depends on the type of yeast we’re using. Ale’s require half the amount of yeast that lagers do. This is due to the colder temps that lagers work at (most of the time).

  • Ales: 750M cells per liter per degree Plato*.
  • Lagers: 1.5B cells per liter per degree Plato*.

*1 degree Plato is around 4 standard gravity points (1.004)

So let’s say we have a 5 gallon batch of American Pale Ale with an original gravity of 1.048. A gallon is just under 3.8 liters but to keep things simple, and make sure we have enough yeast we’ll say that there are 4 liters to a gallon. So now we have:

750M cells * 20 liters of wort * 12 degrees Plato = 180B cells

How can I get enough cells without a starter?

In the example above we needed about 180 billion cells. Your average yeast pack (White Labs, Wyeast, etc..) have 100B cells per pack. This means you can just pitch two packs and you’re more than good right? You could even pitch one pack of Imperial Yeast since they have 200B cells.

To be honest this is how most homebrewers start and it’s not a bad option. There are enough cells and, under the correct conditions, they will begin replicating and ferment the wort. One issue is that since they aren’t actively fermenting out of the package there will be a delay in activity that can allow time for spoilage organisms to start acting on the wort.

An additional issues is the age of the yeast packet. If the yeast is only a month or two old you should have the right cell count. As the yeast get older there are less viable yeast left alive. So we aren’t going to be pitching as much yeast as we think we are. I’ve seen stats saying 20% of the viable yeast in liquid yeast packets are lost per month of storage. That seems high to me but using that as part of our calculation will only result in more active yeast in the end.

How do I make active yeast?

Healthy, active yeast ensure that the process of fermentation gets completed and no off flavors are left behind. Some brewers believe that having active yeast is even more important than the cell count that pitched.

A vitality starter is way to active your yeast and get them acclimated to the specific conditions of each batches wort. Making a vitality starter is easy. A small amount of wort, about half a liter, is pulled after about 10 minutes in the boil and cooled to room temp. Add your yeast to it and aerate by shaking it vigorously. Once the main wort is cooled and in the fermenter it’ll be ready to pitch.

But what about cell count?

So a vitality start won’t give us the 180B cells we need for our 5 gallons of Pale Ale. As I mentioned, some brewers don’t think that count is as important as active yeast but, I’m a real belt and suspenders kind of guy. I like to not only pitch active cells but also the proper number. To do that I make an actual starter.

I begin the starter about 36 hours before I plan on pitching and put it on a stir plate. This allows me to pitch my starter while it’s still actively fermenting. It may not have reached it’s full potential for cell count but I’m in the ballpark and they are still replicating.

This gives me the best shot at not stressing the yeast and having as little lag as possible between pitch and vigorous fermentation.

So my beer is gonna suck without a starter?

No, many good beers have been made by pitching directly from the package and yours certainly isn’t doomed. However, all of the methods mentioned above take very little effort or equipment. A starter can be reliably done with out a stir plate. The Shaken Not Stirred method is like a combo of a typical starter and a vitality starter and just might be the best middle ground of all the methods above in terms of effectiveness and ease.

So I guess I really need a starter?

As I mentioned before, no you don’t. But, making a starter is one of the top 3 things that I’ve done to improve the consistency of my homebrew. It made my fermentations more reliable and finish faster. If you are serious about improving your brewing using the methods outlined above will definitely make your brewing more consistent.

Whether you make a vitality starter, standard starter or a shaken starter my favorite utility for calculating the size of starter and cell count needed is Homebrew Dad’s Yeast Calculator. You input the type and age of yeast being used as well as the type of starter your doing and it will tell you everything you need to know. Including how to perform a multistep starter for older packs of yeast.

How do I make a yeast starter?

There are a few different ways to do it but you can find the basics in the video below. Genus Brewing is a brewery/home brew shop in Oregon and their videos are fantastic. This is one of their earlier ones but I encourage you to check out some of the latest ones. They are entertaining and filled with good info.

I really don’t want to make a starter.

Ok, if you don’t want to use any of the techniques I’ve mentioned I would suggest the following to get consistent fermentation:

  1. Use Dry Yeast: Packets of dry yeast contain way more cells than a liquid yeast packet and, at least at ale temps, don’t require rehydration. Just sprinkle and you’re good to go. For lagers I’d recommend heating about 250ml of water to around 90F and sprinkling in the yeast about a half hour before pitching it.
  2. Try Kviek: Kviek is all the rage and comes in both liquid and dry form. There are a lot of amazing things about this type of yeast that I’ll go into in another blog post but for our purposes here the cell count needed for a viable pitch is WAY lower than typical beer yeasts. Usually about 1 billion cells per liter for a 15 to 20 degree Plato wort. That’s about 4 billion total cells in an average gravity wort instead of our 180 billion mentioned above.

You do you.

To sum things up:

  1. You can make good beer without making a starter.
  2. Making a starter will reduce the possibility of fermentation flaws.
  3. It’s homebrew, your friends will probably drink it anyway.

Did I miss anything? Any tips on making starters? Additional Question? Make a comment below and let me know.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *