Could I Make a Yeast Starter with Festa Wort?

[weir]

I just picked up the Altbier kit this morning, came with Safale US-05. Can I make a starter using some of the bagged wort? If yes how do I figure how much wort I need?

I plan on skipping secondary this time around and just leaving it in the carboy until I reach FG. I'm assuming this and some healthy yeast would make for a better final product right?

[mr x]

You won't need a starter with -05. Try fermenting that one cool, under 60f. That yeast will do that. And you are right to skip the secondary.

[weir]

You won't need a starter with -05. Try fermenting that one cool, under 60f. That yeast will do that. And you are right to skip the secondary.

These are the kinds of things I need to learn, I was under the impression starters made for healthier yeast. So what are the reasons/situations not to make one?

The room is about 64 in the day, 58-60 at night if I keep the baseboard off, that should be fine right?

[mr x]

Those dry yeast packs shouldn't need a starter out of the pack, especially for an altbier OG. If you did a big beer, you'd be better off to double them up than to make a starter I think.

I think that should be ok. The more stable the temp the better though.

[mr x]

Also, at low temps the fermentation time will be longer, so if you are in a rush, go warmer.

[weir]

The finished half of my basement is heated by ductwork I added, so the other half warms through radiation during the day when upstairs calls for heat. The only way to get a steady temp would be to keep the whole house cool, and then my wife would make me move out!

I'd rather wait a bit longer and do it right than unnecessarily rush it. I'll keep it near and outside wall and try to keep the temp down.

[mr x]

-05 is pretty good up to 68f I'd say, maybe even over 70f. But IIRC, an altbier uses an ale yeast at cooler temps (or was it a lager yeast at warmer temps, lol). So keeping on the coolish side would be better IMHO. I've used -05 at 55f, and the beer was great.

[jason.loxton]

You need about million cells of viable yeast, for every milliliter of wort, for every degree plato, for an ale (http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php#s3" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;). That mean's you'll need 182 billion cells for a 5 gallon batch of 1.052 pale ale, for example. A pack of Wyeast liquid yeast has got only 100 billion cells, so you need to double pitch or make a starter to get the ideal amount. (Note: your beer would ferment just fine if you only pitched 100 billion cells into it, but it wouldn't be its absolute best.) But... There are a crap load of yeast cells in an 11 g pack of dry yeast: >200 billion cells. You can use this calculator to find out if you need a starter (and if so, how large): <http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html>.The disclaimer with dry yeast though is that all those cells need to be coddled back to life to be viable. If you aren't nice to them, or the pack is old, you're going to have a lot less than 200 billion cells. Especially if you're pitching into cool and/or high gravity wort, the dry yeast will do a lot better if rehydrated. That said, if you are not confident in your process and sanitization, you'd be safer to direct pitch the dry yeast: even with the higher yeast mortality, it will still ferment out just fine. (And the buffer of the extra yeast cells in that dry pack already allow you so wiggle room to kill some.)

Again though, both the Wyeast and dry yeast packs will both ferment OK as is, if they're up to date and have been stored OK, without a starter. If you're new to brewing and don't want the (minor, but real) extra risk of rehydrating/making a starter, or you live in a particularly dirty environment, just pitch 'em.

[weir]

I ended up rehydrating the package following the Fermentis instructions instead of the Festa instructions. I came out much 'creamier' than my first kit (if that makes sense), the only thing I didn't do was gently stir for 30 mins because I don't have a stir plate, but I have enough odds and ends so I might throw one together this week just for fun.

I took a peek at the bucket this morning before I left for work, it had been on for about 34 hours at 62ºF and it had a very active air lock compared to my first brew which was at a higher temp, and a solid 1-1/2" to 2" krausen on top. I thinking I got it right, I'm going to try and ferment it at the lower temp as x suggested and hopefully it should turn out nicely.