How-to: Yeast Starter

[MedPretzel]

You take

<UL>
<LI>one old marmelade/pickle glass.
<LI>One packet of yeast of your choice.
<LI>A pinch of nutrient, energizer.
<LI>2 tablespoons sugar.
<LI>1/2 cup of lukewarm water.
<LI>1/2 cup of orange juice (or any fruit juice).</LI>[/list]


Here's a big Vlasic pickle jar:

Make sure it doesn't smell like vinegar or pickles!

Rinse it out and sanitize it to make sure. Take a whiff, and if it's good, then use it.

Add the lukewarm water and orange juice together in the marmelade glass. In this tutorial, I used a bit (1/8 cup) of the concentrate and 1/2 cup of lukewarm water I was using at the time.

Add sugar. Stir well. Add a pinch of nutrient and energizer.


Sprinkle yeast on top.

Punch a hole in the lid with a corkscrew. The camera was shocked, and shuddered as I did this:

The hole need not be big, just so that the fermentable CO2 can escape and you don't have exploding pickle jars!

Make sure the hole goes all the way through the lid.

Put the lid on, and let itsit overnight.

By the next morning, you should see active fermentation. Stir gently, wait 8 hours.


Add to the must.


If you have more than one 1-gallon batch starting, you may split this yeast starter equally for both batches, but make sure you stir gently before you do so, so that both musts get enough yeast.


For stuck fermentations, instead of adding directly to yeast, ease the stuck must to the marmelade jar. (Here, the larger the jar, the better. You see how helpful the huge pickle jar is. I get about 3/4 of a gallon in that thing!
<UL>
<LI>Add about 1 cup of your stuck must in the morning to the yeast starter.
<LI>Watch for fermentation by the evening.
<LI>If it continues to ferment, add 1 cup in the evening.
<LI>Repeat until the jar is full and fermenting well.</LI>[/list]


Then you can transfer the amount into the must, and it should be okay.


If you like, you can actually leave some leftovers in the jar (or a smaller one, but make sure there's a hole in the lid) and put in the fridge for later use. If you decide to do this, however, please let the starter warm up to room temperature before adding, or even add some of your must to it and let sit overnight to ensure fermentation.Edited by: MedPretzel

 

[MedPretzel]

Would you know it? Murphy's law...





The yeast starter didn't take off.

Starting another one. If that one works, I'll post a picture.

 

[PolishWineP]

It was the pickle jar! You know you're breaking your own rule!

 

[bilbo-in-maine]

Probably camera shy...

 

[MedPretzel]

We've had a couple of stuck ferments lately, so I thought I'd bring this back up to topic.





Seriously, the pickle jar is fine, ONLY IF there is no HINT of pickle smell in it!