scohop

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I used the calculator on mrmalty.com to find a good yeast starter size for my brew, and it said I needed an 8liter starter.

What does that mean? (I know that sounds like a dumb question). Does that mean I need to add 8 liters of starter wort to my beer when pitching (that seems like an awful lot of non-recipe wort to add into a fermenter...)?

thanks,
scott

Orfy

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I'd say you never need more than 1 litre for normal brews.
But I never use one so what do I know.

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kvh

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I use a quart milk bottle to make mine, and don't even top off the thing. Basically, I believe if you can get it bubbling for a few hours before it goes into the fermenter, you're in good shape.

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EdWort

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That's over 2 gallons of starter? How big is your batch?

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DeadYetiBrew

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I wanna know what in god's name you're brewing that you got to have 8 liters of yeast starter, i was just messing around and got 1.212 as the OG of something that would need 8 liters... You shouldn't need 8 liters... i use a 2 quart container and never fill it more than halfway...

FlyGuy

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Aside from the issue of why one would need 8L of starter, I would guess that nobody would ever actually pitch that whole thing into their wort. For big starters, it is almost a necessity that you crash chill the starter after it is fermented, get the yeast to settle out, decant, and pitch just the slurry. Is that what everyone else does?

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scohop

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The (target) OG was 1.103 in 6 gallons. I hit about 1.090 in 6.5. Note the sliding bar on the bottom that determines how many vials of liquid yeast you're pitching.

So I wonder: does anyone actually pitch the "right" amount for big beers? Or, do you guys pitch the "right" amount for *any* beers?

I find it hard to believe anyone would put 8liters of starter into a big beer. I must not understand something here.

FlyGuy

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I doubt anyone makes an 8L starter. Instead, most (myself included) brew up a low gravity beer (like a mild), and pitch the higher gravity wort on the yeast cake.

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DeadYetiBrew

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You're 'suppose' to supposedly... lol, that sounds funny... I personally just pitch all of the liquid just before fermentation dies down in the starter (AKA just before it starts to clear)...