Remember in chemistry class when you'd boil some caustic solution on a bunsen burner? And then you'd take off the hose from the table mounted gas shutoff and use it like a flame thrower? Remember sitting in the principle's office and going home early? Anyway, Erlenmeyers can be placed directly on a flame, and then plunged directly in cold water without cracking like untempered glass. Because of it's lack of moisture, DME actually stirs in better at lower temperatures.
Steam from the boiling water can cause it to clump as it goes in, and make it harder to dissolve which could lead to some scorching. In a small opening like an Erlenmeyer flask, a clog is almost inevitable if you add the malt too late after starting to heat the water.
In our case, we were making several large starters at once, so we used a large stock pot to make the wort, and then split it into different flasks. For your purposes at home, preparing a single starter in the flask works just as well. Make sure you dissolve all of the DME into the wort. Undissolved DME can fall to the bottom of the kettle and scorch.
Depending on how you pitch your yeast more on this below this won't necessarily affect the flavor of your beer, but it is going to affect the amount of fermentable sugars in the wort for the yeast, and isn't that the whole reason you're making this thing in the first place. When making the starter in the flask, vigorous swirling as you add the DME should be enough to dissolve it. Using a stir plate is recommended for best results. Once the boil is over, sanitation will be paramount.
But before we cover the flask with a stopper for the cooling or the wort, we're going to have to explore some laws of thermodynamics. We have to cool the yeast to get it to pitching temperature and the best way to do this is to submerge it in an ice bath.
However, as its sitting there cooling, the air inside the flask is going to gradually lose volume and create a negative pressure. Since nature abhors a vacuum, air from outside the flask is going to try and get in. If we were to use a regular air lock during this process, liquid from the lock would get pulled into the flask.
It's not the end of the world in small amounts, but I think we can all agree that this is not ideal. As an alternative, consider using some sanitized aluminum foil wrapped tightly around the top of the flask. Or a foam stopper which allows for the passage of air in and out of the flask, but helps filter out bacteria and other airborne particles.
Homebrew Yeast Strains Chart. Make A Yeast Starter. Pitching Rates for Fresh Yeast. Troubleshooting Chart. This website uses cookies to improve your experience. You can opt-out if you wish. Accept Reject Read More. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website.
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Luckily, the pitch rate calculation is built in to the calculators. The major yeast manufacturers say their vials or packets contain sufficient yeast, billion cells on average, for a 5 gallon batch of 1. This equates to roughly 0. The vials and packets, if manufactured recently, tend to contain very healthy yeast capable of fully fermenting your beer. About hours ahead of your brew day, prepare your yeast starter. The process:. You should see activity in your starter within hours, evidenced by krausen or foaming on the liquid surface.
The starter should smell bready and yeasty. Occasionally, starters can smell tart or sulfury. If you are confident in your sanitation, the odor is probably fine. You can always taste the wort, if you would like. I prefer to chill the starter after fermentation so the fresh yeast settle to the bottom of the flask.
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