I was supposed to be brewing no later than today, but I at least got my starter going. I pitched both of the vials of yeast I had, so this is a double that I’ll split between two batches. Hope to brew today and tomorrow (Tuesday) with the Foundry, but it might (will probably) be Tuesday and Wednesday.
I’ve made a hundred starters…well, not really, though I have made a lot. But I have to look it up every time; I can never remember the DME to water ratio. Fortunately, I can always rely on John Palmer and the book every new home-brewer should have, How to Brew (also online here).
John says I want 1/2 cup DME (dried malt extract) and 1/2 quart (16oz or about 475ml) water, so I doubled the DME to 1 cup and mixed it with 1200ml of water.
Yeah, I know, that math doesn’t check out; I should have gone with about 950ml, but I figured I’d lose some volume to the boil, and I used a 1/4 cup measuring…er, cup, and they were a little rounded, so I think I came pretty close to the recommended 1.040 OG (original gravity). No, I didn’t check the gravity; MelloMooseBrews is not known for its precision (we’re not known for anything, since we pretty much have one drinker who is me, but I am happy for the most part).
So I washed my Erlenmeyer flask and 2 quart sauce pan. Then I heated the 1200ml of water in the pan while I added the DME to the flask. When the water came to a boil, I poured it into the flask, and, using a glove, swirled the water and DME until well mixed. My stock pot, filled with water and with a metal grate at the bottom, was heating up too, and when that got to a boil, I set the flask on the grate and let it boil for 15 minutes (the picture up top kind’a shows you what that looks like).
After the boil, I covered the top of the flask with aluminum foil (sprayed with StarSan) and put it into cold water (it’s borosilicate, so no worries about extreme heat fluctuations causing it to shatter–don’t try with regular glass!) and impatiently waited for it to cool to about 80ºF. I use an infrared temperature reader (kinda like this; not a recommendation) to check the temp, and added some ice to the water bath at about 85ºF to speed shit up.
Eventually, the temp got down to about 79ºF, so I removed the flask from the water bath, sprayed the rim of the flask with StarSan, dropped in a stir-plate magnet spinny-thing (all of this stuff was washed and sanitized), pitched the yeast, added about a 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient, and capped the flask with a foam stopper. The flask was placed on a stir-plate (again, see above) and now I hope the yeast are viable and ready to make beer in 24-48 hours.
Cross your fingers for me.