North Texas Homebrewers Association

Let's talk about Yeast Starters.

Cool poll. I put down "Other" because I primarily use Beersmith, but also Brewers Friend(Braukaiser). I believe Beersmith is Chris White, but not sure. Might consider that as an option as well as multi-select, if that is possible.

Oh, I see White now. Duh...sorry. Could tag that as Beersmith if that is indeed what Brad uses.

I use brewersfriend so Braukaiser.

Might want to post a blog and direct membera to this thread.

Beersmith uses the White/Zainasheff model. You can change your responses.

Jimmy Orkin wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 7:46 pm Beersmith uses the White/Zainasheff model. You can change your responses.

Done!

A question when doing multi step starters in the calculators (using brewersfreind but probably applies to all).

On 2nd or 3rd steps, is the volume the total volume or additional volume for the step up?

For example:
If you calculate a 1st step of 2 liters and a 2nd step of 4.5 liters, is the volume after the 2nd step 4.5 liters or 6.5 liters?

I used the step method described by John Palmer in "How to Brew" with one difference, I no longer chill my starter before decanting, just let it settle for couple hours at room temp

Terry,

The Brewers friend calculator just counts the yeast cells. You could either decant the spent beer off the yeast and add fresh wort to the yeast or add wort to the existing volume. The calculator does the same thing.

I refrigerate my starter after each step and pour off the spent beer. When moving up to a larger container, I use some of the new wort to roust the yeast from the previous step.

I also use Braukaiser, since that's the default setting in Brewfather.

Terry Olinger wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:02 pm On 2nd or 3rd steps, is the volume the total volume or additional volume for the step up?

I've always considered it additional volume, but that is a great question.

James Smith wrote: ↑Wed Mar 29, 2023 7:40 am

Terry Olinger wrote: ↑Tue Mar 28, 2023 9:02 pm On 2nd or 3rd steps, is the volume the total volume or additional volume for the step up?

I've always considered it additional volume, but that is a great question.

Played around with the BrewersFriend yeast calculator and it definitely is an additional volume.

To anyone still interested in this thread, my go-to calculator these days is "HomeBrew Dad's Online Yeast Starter Calculator".

Hosted Here:
https://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php

Be sure to adjust your target pitch rate so that its appropriate for lagers/ales/higher OG.

On the method used:
"All growth rate data comes from the work done by Kai Troester of Braukaiser fame. My original intent was to include both the Braukaiser and Mr. Malty calculations, and allow users to pick from both. However, the more I delved into the subject, the more convinced I became that the Troester figures were more reliable. Troester makes his formulae freely available, while the Mr. Malty formulae are treated like something of a trade secret. Troester has published data from multiple experiments that seems to indicate repeatable results to back up his assertions, whereas I can't really find any experiments to back up (or back into) the Mr. Malty figures."

And I don't typically do step-starters though I have in the past. The yeast we get these days usually has high viability. And while I do get that some may want to build a bigger starter from a smaller initial purchase, the price of DME and the additional effort for "stepping it up" seem to degrade any potential cost savings.

I am getting an error for that link. Says the host is down.

Does it work for you Randy?

Worked for me earlier but not now

There was a site called yeastcalc.com that let you select Braukaiser or Jamil. That site is gone.

There is another site that does the same calculations as yeastcalc at http://yeastcalculator.com/

The source for yeastcalculator is here: https://github.com/dboyd13/YeastCalculator