yeast starter size

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

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

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.

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

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...

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?

DeadYetiBrew said:

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...

Click to expand...

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.

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.

FlyGuy said:

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?

Click to expand...

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)...