Newbie question about mixing yeast

I searched for this but could not find anything so I am sorry if it appears elsewhere.

I was wondering if anyone could tell me if it would be advisable to mix two yeasts by pitching two different strands into the wort?

It couldn't hurt, but what are you going for? Why are you wanting to?

If there is an effect you are desiring to get there is no reason why you can't. I'm not sure why you would want to though.

well. I am brewing a porter that will have a fairly high starting gravity. I have one propagator yeast packet that is not the original strain I wanted to use. I have never made a starter wort before, I have only used the activator packs. So knowing that I would rather avoid making a starter (Lazy, yes) I know that I need a higher pitching rate than just the one propagaotr pack, so I figured I could just special order the yeast strain that I orignially wanted and combine the two to make the correct pitching rate. So how outrageous is my idea?

Im not an expert by any means but I think the faster yeast would take over and do its thing before the other yeast has a chance to do much.

Making a starter takes about 15-20 minutes so it really isn't an issue. Not to pick on you but when people say they are to lazy to make a starter but will spend hours brewing it cracks me up.

Well I guess its not because Im lazy, but because I havent done it before. I even have the pyrex beaker and all. Im just kind of scared of doing it because I havent done it. I guess my more appropriate question at this point should be. Do you think that I could make a starter and create a large enough pitch rate from one propagator package to pitch to a 5 gallong batch with an estimated OG of 1079?

Without a doubt yes. I made a starter the night before brewing a 1.070 brew and fermentation started in 5 hours.

Thanks for your help. I will now start reading on how to go about doing that. I appreciate it.

If you have the means you could split the batch and add one yeast pack to each half. Should make for an interesting experiment to see the difference in flavor profiles.

greenleaf said:

Well I guess its not because Im lazy, but because I havent done it before. I even have the pyrex beaker and all. Im just kind of scared of doing it because I havent done it. I guess my more appropriate question at this point should be. Do you think that I could make a starter and create a large enough pitch rate from one propagator package to pitch to a 5 gallong batch with an estimated OG of 1079?

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Yes, I think you should make a starter. I'm not sure why you're worried about making a starter if you have already made beer. Starters are just small worts with some yeast (check out www.howtobrew.com for detailed instructions).

Make a quart starter today with your propagator, step it up another quart tomorrow, brew on Saturday or Sunday. I made a 1qt starter for a 1.089 brew and it took off like a house on fire.

greenleaf said:

Thanks for your help. I will now start reading on how to go about doing that. I appreciate it.

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Got ya covered.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Starter

Wow. I am surprised at how quickly you have all been able to help me. Thanks again!!

you will be impressed with the effects of a starter. My beers have been having 12-24 hour lag times, and the first one never appeared to even have a krausen. Last batch i made a starter from some yeast i washed, and i woke up to activity in my blowoff. It reached my expected FG in 3 days too.