Hefe- Yeast Starter

[Evets]

Just a quick question regarding a Hefe starter. I'll be using WL 320 American Hefe yeast. For a starter, do I need wheat DME, or is plain old Light DME ok?

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Really, anything fermentable is fine. I used the same yeast last week and made my starter with straight (barley) light DME.

 

[Evets]

Thanks for the lightning fast reply, Yuri! And thanks for the answer I was lookin for!

 

[andre the giant]

FYI, I made a starter with Light DME a few weeks ago, and I pitched some WL 320 I had stored in my fridge from the last time I made Hefeweizen. I didn't really think about it, and the yeast became active and started bubbling. THEN I realized that the last time I brewed Hefeweizen was in the fall of 2005. The yeast is well over 1.5 years old. Its been sitting in the back of the fridge for this long working up an appetite.

I brewed the batch on Wednesday and within 12 hours I had good blowoff tube activity. Good yeast!

 

[Evets]

Well, that's good to hear. I didn't check the date when I bought mine, and it expired in April. I'll get a starter going tonite and see what's what.

 

[EdWort]

FYI, I made a starter with Light DME a few weeks ago, and I pitched some WL 320 I had stored in my fridge from the last time I made Hefeweizen. I didn't really think about it, and the yeast became active and started bubbling. THEN I realized that the last time I brewed Hefeweizen was in the fall of 2005. The yeast is well over 1.5 years old. Its been sitting in the back of the fridge for this long working up an appetite.

I brewed the batch on Wednesday and within 12 hours I had good blowoff tube activity. Good yeast!

Please let us know how it turns out. I'm brewing a Kolsch tomorrow with yeast saved from March.

 

[Evets]

OK, well my two month expired yeast took off about as usual and I'm now in the middle of my first ever protein rest, enroute to my first ever decoction. I'm brewing the "Paulaner" Hefe recipe in the BYO 150 clones magazine.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

OK, well my two month expired yeast took off about as usual and I'm now in the middle of my first ever protein rest, enroute to my first ever decoction. I'm brewing the "Paulaner" Hefe recipe in the BYO 150 clones magazine.

Does that recipe really call for WLP320? I would guess that WLP300 would be more appropriate for a Paulaner clone. Do they suggest to ferment at rather high temps with the American hefe yeast?

 

[Evets]

No. It calls for Wyeast 3638 or WLP380, but all I had on hand was the 320. I'm sure it won't be acurate but I've never had a real Paulaner anyway, so as long as it tastes ok, I'll be happy. This is my first Hefe so I'll learn what I can and go from there.
Brew-day went pretty well, I thought, but my efficiency kinda sucked for some reason. Was looking for .056 but only managed .045. I'm over it already
I'm looking to ferment in the 70- 74 range.

 

[andre the giant]

So far, the blowoff smells very much like Hefeweizen. Krausen appears to be normal. Stuff is churning around in the carboy. fingers are crossed.

 

[drayman86]

I did my batch of Heffe with a starter grown in typical light DME, about 2000 ml at 1.075 SG. The starter was placed in a small dark closet for constant temp. control, and pretty soon the closet had that nice banana Heffe odor.

The Heffe itself turned out really nice.