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Yeast Starter Question

JimForbes

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I have been reading with interest the blog "Making a Yeast Starter for your Beer".  Not sure this is the correct place for this question, but hopefully it is or someone can direct me to where I should post it:)

When making a yeast starter, for say 15gal beer do need to start with 3 packs of yeast or can I use 1 pack and make up the correct volume of yeast starter from that single package.  Note when I make my larger batches they go into separate 5gal fermenters as unfortunately I don't have a single that size yet :(

Cheers
Jim
 
You can start with one yeast package just use step starters.  One yeast package to make an initial starter, then rinse and bump to a larger starter, repeat until you have enough yeast to do 15 gallons.
 
Either way you choose, stepped starter or multiple vials, it is important to remember that just like your final brew; yeast starters have their preferred pitching rates, too.

If you were, say; brewing a 15-gallon batch with an OG of 1.060, popular yeast calculators will tell you that you'll need a little more than 600 Billion cells. 3 healthy vials by themselves are only going to get you part of the way there.

You'd typically start with a vial in a liter or so of wort, ferment, crash, decant, and put the slurry into about 3 liters or so of fresh wort and ferment again. Assuming a stir plate was used for both of these steps, and the viability was in the high 80's, you'd end up with just over 600 Billion cells - just about right for your 15 gallons of 1.060 wort.

I highly recommend the book "Yeast" by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff - this book really opened my eyes to the fermentation process and will spell it all out nicely for you.
 
philm63 said:
Either way you choose, stepped starter or multiple vials, it is important to remember that just like your final brew; yeast starters have their preferred pitching rates, too.

If you were, say; brewing a 15-gallon batch with an OG of 1.060, popular yeast calculators will tell you you'll need a little more than 600 Billion cells. 3 healthy vials by themselves are only going to get you part of the way there.

You'd typically start with a vial in a liter or so of wort, ferment, crash, decant, and put the slurry into about 3 liters or so of fresh wort and ferment again. Assuming a stir plate was used for both of these steps, and the viability was in the high 80's, you'd end up with just over 600 Billion cells - just about right for your 15 gallons of 1.060 wort.

I highly recommend the book "Yeast" by Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff - this book really opened my eyes to the fermentation process and will spell it all out nicely for you.

+1

Exactly, right.
 
m80802.jpg


http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
 
Here's a multi-step starter calculator I use a lot for old vials of yeast. Go to http://yeastcalc.com/
 
durrettd said:
Here's a multi-step starter calculator I use a lot for old vials of yeast. Go to http://yeastcalc.com/

I use this as well.  The only think I'm unsure of is if the production date is the same as harvest date?  3 month old yeast that was harvested/fed is more viable/healthy than a 3 month old smack pack. 

Mark
 
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