As an entry level brewer I did little more than buy a Whitelabs vial, bring it to 70ish degrees, gave it a good shake and pitched it into a carboy full of cool wort. Voila! It worked. Eventually, curiosity, evolution, the desire for better beer, or whatever we are calling it today, took over and I started really researching and experimenting with my process. I quickly (after about 2 batches) made the switch from extract to all-grain. I soon realized how much I really didn’t know about brewing and how many areas of my process needed attention.
I read through John Palmer’s How to Brew, and The Complete Joy of Home Brewing by Charlie Papazian. At the time, I figured the easiest change that I could make would be to start making yeast starters. I constructed a few stir-plates and began making starters with dry malt extract (DME). My fermentations started much sooner and typically finished more completely and with lower final gravity readings.
From DME to Real Wort For Starters
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