Yeast Starter Question

[JimForbes]

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

[Humble Brewer]

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.

[philm63]

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.

[tom_hampton]

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.

[Skippy]

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

[durrettd]

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

[merfizle]

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