As many homebrewers know, making a great batch of beer requires a lot of effort.  It took me awhile to understand the importance of looking past the actual brewing day.    Focusing on a solid fermentation will be the difference between a good homebrew and a beer, which you will be truly satisfied with.  A wise friend once told me “There is no such thing as a bad beer.  Some are more desirable than others.” Keeping that in mind making a yeast starter along with proper aeration, quickly cooling your wort, etc. you will hopefully be able to achieve these results. 

 When brewing Ales with an Original Gravity of 1.40 or higher, the fermentation process begins 48-72 hours prior to your brewing day.  Session beers or maybe some German wheat beers will not require a yeast starter due to their low gravities. A yeast starter is a small batch of wort that is cooled down and added to your yeast.  This will give them the energy they need to wake up and begin multiplying, while not expending all the strength they have.  The gravity of your starter should be somewhere between 1.025 and 1.040.  Anywhere in that range should work just fine.  We are essentially making a tiny batch of beer that will result in a large number of healthy cells.  There is a difference between giving your wort the number of viable cells it requires and OVERPITCHING. Pitching rates are strain and style specific, but if you overpitch an IPA you will immediately know.  Been there, done that.

           

What will I need to make a starter

•      Stir Plate
•      1 2L Erlenmeyer Flask
•      Yeast Nutrient
•       Dry Malt Extract
•       Whisk
•        Aluminum Foil
•       Small pot to boil starter
•        1 Stir Bar
•        Funnel
•     Thermometer

What should the volume of my starter be?  (Step 1)

It can range anywhere from 1 Liter to 2.5 Liters and greater for high gravity brewing.  To determine the volume of your starter use the mrmalty.com App.  Enter the anticipated OG of your wort, volume of your batch (5.25 Gallons for this batch to yield 5), and the viability of your yeast.  One of the reasons I prefer Wyeast smack packs because the pack actual gives you a production date rather than a use by date.  To calculate viability simply enter the date into the pitching calculator.  Using a month old Wyeast pack will result in 75% viability.  In other words, you know what type of performance to expect. 

  

How much Malt Extract should I use in the boil? (Step 2)

Any free online brewing program should be able to tell you this.  Ill use a current recipe for a Belgian Pale that I am working on for an example:

Anticipated OG:1.054 using yeast with 95% Viability.  1 Liter starter is required with stir plate.  To achieve a starter gravity of 1.036: 1 Liter of Water, 3.5 Ounces of DME, and ¼ of yeast nutrient.  194 Billion Yeast Cells needed.

Procedure

• Pour water into small pot.  Add DME and yeast nutrient.  Bring to a boil and boil for 15 minutes. 
•  After 15 minutes, turn off burner.  Place pot in sink and make ice bath to cool wort to 70° F
•  Sanitize stir bar, 2 L Flask, Funnel, Yeast Pack, Aluminum foil.  Using a sanitized funnel add starter into empty flask with stir bar.  Aerate. Then add yeast.  Sanitize aluminum foil and place over the top of flask.  Poke holes in aluminum foil to give yeast proper oxygen needed to multiply.  Oxygen is critical to yeast growth.
• Place on stir plate with stir bar in the center of the flask for 48-72 hours. 

5   The starter should begin to bubble fairly quick.  If it bubbles too much.  You may have added too much extract, leading to a quick primary.  If the starter appears to be darker or bubbling more than usual. Nothing to stress about.  Use a blowoff tube in a pitcher of Star San.  After you have cooled you wort and properly aerated it, use a funnel to add it to the wort.  Within about 12-24 hours, a krausen should form.  Lag time has been eliminated and your fermenter should look something like this:

I hoped this might have helped to answer some questions.  Happy Fermentations!