Yeast Starter

  • Have yeast ready to harvest while racking to secondary or bottling if no secondary racking
  • Alternately, have yeast smack-pack smacked, liquid yeast on hand, or dry yeast re-activated using 90 degree F. sterilized water
  • Have container such as quart jar, flask, or glass container fully sanitized
  • Have sanitized airlock mechanism on hand
  • For 1 quart of starter, use 1 quart of water to ¼ DME and bring to a boil
  • Once wort is ready, chill to 65 degrees F.
  • Transfer chilled wort to glass container
  • Pitch yeast
  • Shake to aerate
  • Airlock
  • Allow the yeast to do its fermentation process and settle
  • Refrigerate container for up to 1 month
  • When ready to use, remove from fridge and warm to 65-70 degrees F.
  • Carefully pour off the top wort leaving only the yeast cake at bottom and a bit of the wort
  • Pitch contents using sanitized funnel