How to Make a Yeast Starter

In this video we show you how to make a yeast starter for homebrewing. If you’re buying dry yeast, you usually don’t need to make a yeast starter because you’ll have a lot of viable yeast cells. Liquid yeast is more common and has less yeast cells, so you’ll sometimes have to buy more yeast to make a recipe. Yeast starters are important if you want more yeast for less money. A lot of liquid yeast costs $6 or more, but making a yeast starter will only cost you pennies. The tutorial in this video is one that anyone can follow, no matter your brewing experience. The equipment needed involves items that most homebrewers should already have. If you don’t have everything, investing in new equipment will ultimately save you money in the future. It’s important for all homebrewers to learn the process of making a yeast starter since yeast is so important to the fermentation process. Yeast is responsible for turning the sugars in wort into alcohol during the fermentation process. If you under pitch your yeast, you may not have enough yeast cells during fermentation and your beer won’t turn out like it should. If you really mess up, you may not even be able to call it beer. Yeast also provides a lot of the flavor and aroma compounds in beer.

You can also use this process to reuse harvested yeast. This is important for saving money, but also for wild yeast that you can’t buy at the store. Check out the links below for videos about harvesting yeast and making a yeast starter with harvested yeast. Check out our article linked below for a full written process of the tutorial in this video.

For full written details, view the article: https://goo.gl/kfFVr7
How to Harvest and Wash Yeast: https://youtu.be/g7q5P9kEsX0
How to Make a Yeast Starter With Washed Yeast: https://youtu.be/I8jhJI_teYU
Brulosophy Yeast Starter Experiment: http://brulosophy.com/2019/03/28/yeast-pitch-rate-direct-pitch-vs-yeast-starter-in-an-amber-ale-the-bru-club-xbmt-series/

Suggested Equipment

Gas burner or an electric hotplate
Sauce pan (optional)*
Scientific flask
Small funnel
Sponge stopper
Scale (and dish for weighing)
Magnetic stir plate
Magnetic stir bar
*The bottleneck of flasks greatly increases the risk of boil over. This potential is compounded on electric burners which cycle intense heat on and off. If you’re worried about boil over, use a sauce pan to boil the ingredients and then transfer into a sanitized flask after.

Ingredients

You’ll also need a few ingredients to get the starter going. We’re assuming that you’re making a starter from a store-bought yeast packet. However, harvested yeast can be used as well. Follow the same process. Also, dry malt extract can be purchased at any decent homebrew shop. Here are the necessary items.

1 package of liquid yeast
Dry malt extract (DME)
Water
Process

Once all of the equipment and ingredients have been gathered, simply follow the steps below to make a yeast starter.

Add 1200 ml of water to the flask.
Weigh and add 100 grams of DME to the flask.
Add the stir bar to flask (it gets boiled to sanitize).
Apply gentle heat and bring to a boil (stir occasionally).
Boil for 10 minutes.
Remove flask from heat and cover opening with foil.
Submerge flask in ice bath and allow to cool.
Add 1 package of liquid yeast to cooled wort.
Transfer flask to magnetic stir plate.
Turn on stir plate and allow to sit for 24-48 hours.
Once the yeast starter is complete, pitch directly into cooled wort or transfer to a refrigerator for use at a later date. Making a yeast starter can double and even triple the amount of active yeast in a yeast packet, so it’s always a great idea. After all – no yeast, no alcohol!

Music by Joakim Karud http://youtube.com/joakimkarud