I have prepared starter cultures on and off over the years, but usually simply pitched with multiple smack packs with decent (but variable) results. I had always used dry malt extract and some hops to prepare a boiled sterile wort to use to start the yeast culture. This extra work often caused me to forgo the preparation of a good yeast starter culture.
With my system, I use a counter-flow chiller to cool the beer on the way to the fermenter (a 27 gallon conical fermenter in a freezer controlled by a dual temp thermostat). Even with the counter-flow chiller, the finished wort in the fermenter is too hot to pitch the yeast right away, so I usually wait until the next day to pitch. Therefore, I would prepare my starter the same day as I brewed. One day it suddenly hit me - why am I preparing a separate wort specifically for the starter when I have just prepared ~18 gallons finished wort that day? Why don't I take a gallon or so of the finished wort and use it as a starter?
This works great. On the way into the fermenter, I take off about a gallon of the finished/cooled wort into a gallon jug. Because the volume is only 1 gallon, it does not take this long to cool to pitching temp - usually by the time I finish cleaning up. Once cool, I pitch yeast from a pre-swollen smack pack into the gallon of cooled wort, affix a blow-off tube and let it go over-night. I even incubate the starter in the fermentation freezer with the cooling fermenter. The next day, I simply pour the gallon of actively growing yeast into the fermenter and everything takes off.
I really like this practical way of preparing a starter culture. Because it uses the same wort I prepared for the beer I was brewing, there is no extra work. This encourages me to use a good starter every time I brew and my fermentations have been going great. When there is no extra effort, its easy to follow best practice!
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| Note the starter in the gallon jug in front of the conical fermenter. |
