I have been brewing lately from Jamil's book classic styles. I have been following the pitch rates recommended. Well, I have been learning more about yeast as result. A recipe calls for four or five yeast packs, making a yeast starter for a brew needing only 200 billion cells is easy. Two litter starter and bingo. The trouble I am having, is all the yeast calculators are different. They all come up with about the same cell requirements but the method of arriving at the specified cell count are all different. You can plug in 5 packs in a 2L starter and come up with a number, I know that is not realistic the yeast has to have room, food and such, to grow. I am searching for what is the best calculator and what the limits are on starting cell count to starter size ratio's. I have had great success with Jamil's book and with my digging in to why so much yeast I have learned the way you can change a beer by pitch rates for different styles. I have ordered his book Yeast, hope it helps. I am hoping to get some additional thoughts on this.
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yeast starter and pitch rate
- Thread starter condog
- Start date
brewfun
Grandmaster Brewer
Since you're enjoying the book, why not go to the source?
Jamil's calculator (als available at for iPhone and Android) is on his website. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
Jamil's calculator (als available at for iPhone and Android) is on his website. http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html
philm63
Grandmaster Brewer
The various yeast calculators are, in general, a good guide to getting the right size pitch for a given brew, although they each may use different methods to arrive at the starter volume based on your input. There is some debate right now regarding growth rates, and this is discussed in the updated version of "Yeastcalc". Beersmith has it's own take on growth rates but is still essentially consistent with MrMalty and other calculators, all things considered.
What's more; there are differing opinions on viability factors, which greatly determine your starting cell count. Some calculators say the yeast declines very little over the first few weeks then the decline picks up speed; others say it is pretty consistent starting from day one. This is the big difference I see when comparing calculators.
Unless you are going to practice the fine art of cell counting (none for me, thanks...) suffice it to say, if you just follow one calculator and are getting good results, then stick with it. Oh, and the book "Yeast" is well worth the price of admission, IMHO.
What's more; there are differing opinions on viability factors, which greatly determine your starting cell count. Some calculators say the yeast declines very little over the first few weeks then the decline picks up speed; others say it is pretty consistent starting from day one. This is the big difference I see when comparing calculators.
Unless you are going to practice the fine art of cell counting (none for me, thanks...) suffice it to say, if you just follow one calculator and are getting good results, then stick with it. Oh, and the book "Yeast" is well worth the price of admission, IMHO.