Liquid Yeast

[ECH]

Quick question on liquid yeast, like Wyeast, Yeast Bay, White Labs.

Do you need to make a starter? Or can I just pitch it in the fermentor.

I know it needs to stay cold before use, so do you just take it out of the fridge, and let it warm up to room temp. before pitching? Or is that the whole point of a starter to get the yeast going from cold, so it's ready to pitch.

Just in the process of picking up a couple of partial mash kits from OBK, and they all give an option for liquid yeast of some sort, just wondering if it just works the same way as the dry? Just you have to keep it cold before using?

[feldmann]

I use this to calculate pitching rate: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

A starter isnt to do with temperature, its to do with pitching the right number of healthy yeast cells. Dry yeast contains a higher cell count than liquid yeast so generally liquid yeast requires a starter.

[Roger]

I agree with @feldmann when using liquid yeast always use a starter before pitching that's the only way to be sure you have the proper pitch rate. Not just for temperature but there's no way to know how the yeast culture was handled before it got in your hands. If you want to learn about yeast @Chris Craig has a great yeast book for sale.

[pliny]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSrbukazO_Q&feature=youtube_gdata_player

I agree with what this guy says. There are some others out there.
- buy some dry malt extract (dme) at ng
- 100grams of dme for 1litre of water
- boil 10 mins
- cool to under 80f
- stir plate? Flask?

There are a few other guys out there with small variations but that's generally it.