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I have made around 5 homebrews and have heard of yeast starters but have never used one. I have always used smack packs or dry yeast and just pitched that directly into the fermentation. They have all turned out fine, so now I am curious why I would use a yeast starter? Does it make for a better or faster brew? Do I only need it in certain situations? What other advantages could I be missing to using a yeast starter instead of not.

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Plain and simple is that you don't NEED one if you just rehydrate the yeast and pitch you'll be fine.

The scenario where you would need to make a yeast starter is when brewing a high gravity beer and you are concerned that your yeast will not be as efficient as you would like, so you make a yeast starter to raise the cell count.

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