starter fiasco

[Bugeater]

Honey is fructose and glucose, don't use it in starters. If you put too much simple sugar in a starter it can cause the yeast to stop producing enzymes to ferment the more complex sugars.

i thought meaders make mini-meads as their starters.

The point is to make starters with the same types of sugars as the main batch. Thus honey (and nutrients) for meads and malt for beers.

Wayne

[The Big Hopper]

One pound of liquid malt extract is equivalent to .85 lb of DME (source http://www.liquidhobby.com/Merchant2/me ... ode=BI_DME).

Since the difference is so small, and the amount needed for a starter is very small, I bet you will hit the target gravity you want, or very near. I typically follow the instructions at http://docs.northernbrewer.com/_publish ... tarter.pdf for my starters. Hope that helps!