je52rm

Recipes 

I have the newest version of beersmith and I have a question about the yeast starter tool. I totally understand how it works for using liquid yeast or dry yeast to make a starter but I do not understand as far as using slurry. It does not give you the size starter that is necessary it only gives you the amount of slurry needed. Is it just telling you the amount of slurry that should be pitched directly into the wort (without a starter) or is that the amount of slurry needed to make the starter? If so how large should the starter be using slurry?

day_trippr

Recipes 

Slurry presumes you have more than enough to meet the batch needs. No starter required...

Cheers!

je52rm

Recipes 

That's kinda crazy cause what if u had washed the yeast and have had it in the fridge for two weeks or so? Wouldn't it be beneficial to make a starter (with the washed yeast slurry) to "wake up" the yeast that was taking a nap in the cold fridge in order to get a quick fermentation?

day_trippr

Recipes 

I'm not going to defend BS2 (lord knows there are times I'd like to shoot that program right in the face ) but if you had an adequate quantity of properly maintained two week old yeast slurry to meet the needs of the batch, not only is there no need to do a starter (you already have enough yeast!) there's no need to "wake up the yeast", either.

Bring the slurry to pitching temperature and have at it. The yeast will wake up just fine...

Cheers!

je52rm

Recipes 

Thanks man I appreciate the info. I actually just checked the beersmith website and it said the same as you did about just pitching the slurry without a starter. However they just talked about pitching slurry 2-3 days after being harvested and didn't really go into yeast that was collected weeks or months previous. I was just wondering after reading Bernie Brewers sticky yeast washing technique and how he uses yeast that was washed and stored for many months. He talks about then making a starter with that yeast but doesn't go into starter size. Once again thanks for the info I appreciate it big-time!

day_trippr

Recipes 

With respect to the age of the slurry verses viability and hence volume requirements for pitching, the Beer Smith 2 Yeast Starter tool does apply an aging factor to the slurry, as measured from the Production/Harvest Date that you set, to "Today's Date", and using the Slurry Age Rate from the Yeast Starter Settings sheet (with the Slurry Stating Viability factor from that sheet applied as well).

So it's not like BS2 overtly simplified the whole slurry-pitching thing. There's some intelligence there that should result in an adequate pitch. And if it showed you that you didn't have enough slurry given it's age and/or volume, then you'd get into the starter process...

Cheers!