Home

After making a starter, is any additional yeast required before pitching the starter into the wort?

Sep 09, 2007 by nipsy3 | Posted in Beer, Wine & Spirits

So I made the mistake of briefly freezing my vial of white labs belgian wit, though only for a couple of hours. I was advised to make a starter to ensure the yeast was still okay and to at least wake it up if it was. I'm getting suspension and CO2. Is

The way you describe it, it sounds like you definitely have viable yeast. If you want, you can aerate your starter (sealing it securely and shaking good and violently) to help oxygenate it to help the yeast multiply and give it another 12 or so hours

How to Make a Yeast Starter

Step by step instructions for making a yeast starter for homebrewing beer.

How to Make a Yeast Starter

Homebrewing. Simple. Stir Plate optional. web page on stir plate: www.donosborn.com Some links on harvesting yeast after primary fermentation: www ...

Sourdough Adventures…

I previously mentioned, in another post, that I recently took an artisanal bread making class at the Brooklyn Kitchen. It was taught by Nathan Leamy, who recently completed a year-long fellowship traveling the world tasting food and baking bread. He did an awesome demonstration, was kind enough to give us a bit of his sourdough starter to get us going, AND even promptly answered a panicked email from me on Friday morning at 8:00 am. After 18 hours between Friday night, and Saturday afternoon, thanks to his advice, a little elbow grease, and a little luck, I was left with two delicious loaves of sourdough bread made completely by hand!

I won’t pretend to be an expert, I am certainly a bread novice, but for those of you who do not know, sourdough is a yeast based bread. Sourdough bread needs yeast to rise and be delicious. This type of leavening is referred to as biological leavening, because it uses yeast, which is indeed alive to rise. Other kinds of breads we eat like quick breads, biscuits, cookies and cakes are leavened either chemically with baking powder or baking soda, or mechanically leavened with butter (referred to as creaming).

The wonderful thing about sourdough is that it is made using something called a starter. This is a slurry of equal parts of flour and water, where yeast has developed and grown. This starter is not much different from a pet or a small child, it must be nurtured and cared for (awww… my little yeasty friends, they grow-up so fast!), by feeding it flour and water (or many other things yeast like to eat, more on my experience with that later…).The starter must be fed on a daily basis, and placed in the refrigerator when it is not used regularly (and must still fed regularly).

To make bread, the sourdough starter is combined with flour, water and salt. The dough goes through a long process of kneading, resting, kneading again, proofing (or rising), shaping, retarding (refrigerating to stop the growth and enhance flavor), and then it is finally baked. When I mean this is a long process, this can be quite time-consuming. However, if its something you are interested in, you need to commit to it! I spent 18 (only about an hour of this was active prep) hours of labored love on my first attempt!

Read more...