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Preparing a Well-Rested Starter for Pitching

philm63

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Ok so I have "step 2" of a stepped starter winding down now but I don't plan on pitching 'til this coming weekend so it's gonna have to chill in the fridge all week. This is my WLP002 from an earlier thread. I started with around 45 Billion cells and stepped with 0.6L, then again with 2.1L hoping to get up to around 311 Billion cells.

My question is this; after I drain-off the old wort on brew day, is it ok to wake this starter back up in, say, 1L of fresh wort? Could I get away with less? Should I use more? I plan to bring it to high krausen before pitching and knowing what I know now about this strain, krausen doesn't seem to make an appearance unless there's ample food at the party. My fear is that I may overstress the yeast using too small a volume, while at the same time I'm not necessarily trying to increase the cell count nor do I wish to pitch 3 liters of starter into my 5-gallon batch. I suppose I could pitch 2L - that might not be so bad as long as I keep it off the stir plate... Suggestions?



 
I just did almost this exact thing with CalAle, except I was repitching from another batch.  My pitch was 193 b cells.  The morning of brewday, I decanted it and woke it up in 400 ml of starter wort.  600 ml should work for you.

Definately use the stirplate!  It will improve vitality before pitching.  After sitting in cold storage for a week, they will have depleted some of their reserves.  The wort and O2, 6 hours before pitching will allow them to rebuild their reserves.  That way they can get right on with the growth phase when they hit your fresh beer wort.  In order to avoid any possible issues with Krausen overflow, do this in a 2 L vessel. 

I had minor activity (small bubble every second or two) in the airlock this morning 12 hours after pitching. 



 
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