No DME for starter...thoughts?

[noeldundas]

I know that it is not ideal, but I would take a stab at some of the dried yeasts out there, especially if you are making some beer with a lot of character. Pitching rates are easy to hit with dry yeast and you can brew most american and british styles with them.

Makes me feel fortunate to have a great LHBS!

Yeh, my LHBS is good, in general. I do use Nottingham for some english ales and stouts (which I brew often). In fact I'm just conditioning a pretty neutral blonde ale that i fermented with 1056 and Nottingham separately, so that experiment will let me know how I like it for lighter ales.

[Pseudolus.]

Nothing at all wrong with using LME for starters. (You'll just need to use a small bit more LME than you would DME, just the way you would in a recipe.) I think most people just use DME because it's more convenient.

[ApresSkiBrewer]

As for this... I like it. Few questions though.
I usually brew once a week. So, if I run off and collect enough wort for a starter you're saying that I can make the starter right away (i.e. put the yeast in there) and keep it for up to 14 days before I pitch it into my brew?

Can I run-off extra wort and freeze it, and then boil it closer to brew day and make the starter then? That seems more flexible to me, being that I often don't know what yeast I will require for next brew day.

If you are letting your starters finish out, and putting them in the fridge to help with flocculation, and then just pitching the slurry; leaving that starter in the fridge for an extra 7 days won't be too bad.

About saving wort and boiling it at your earliest convenience... having wort just hanging around, frozen or not makes me nervous. I would go with LME before trying that out.

My 2¢s.