Starter for saved yeast cake

I recently brewed a cascadian dark ale with a combo of WLP810 and WLP005 and it is awesome! When I transferred, I just took my cake and split into some clean mason jars without washing. I transferred this Tuesday, and will brew either tomorrow or Monday. Would I need to make a starter? Also, how much should I throw in for a 1.075-1.080 beer? Should I use Mr. Malty calculator to get a ballpark figure (25% non yeast material)?:rockin:

No starter needed.

Yep, use mrmalty set to 25% non-yeast % and set concentration a little north of the middle, say around 3 to 3.5. That should get you close enough.

Thanks LLbean. Appreciate the advice.

I jsut did a similar thing... I just racked my SPA and the yeast cake was fairly clean.. I decanted the little beer from the top swooshed it around in the primary.. and poored about 1 or 1/2 cups into my starter flask.. then i made the normal 32oz to 1cup of DME starter malt boiled it cooled it then added it to the flask.

I too plan on brewing in the next few days... but didnt feel like leaving my yeast cake in the primary for 4 days. and I wanted to clear my SPA for a day or so i had to move it to the secondary and added my gelatine.

it works fine.

Good to know. Thanks. Do you ever just just throw your yeast cake in without the small starter? I was figuring to make a small starter the morning of brew day, throw in some cake, and then drop it in the afternoon when the beer is ready. Depending on how i feel, I might just throw it in without a starter an go with that. Either way, it should be fine. Do you use the calculator for amount to throw in?

I havent done that yet.. I have read about guys doing that but i think they brew the day they rack off or keg/bottle their previous batch.. so the yeast is fairly healthy and moving along for most part depending on how long it was fermented. so thats fine. I like to give my yeast cakes some fresh 1.040 malt to get them going again.. (just in case they are "hungover" from the previous batch). I am not brewing on rack day so i'll let them eat for a few days and pitch them when they are all happy in my flask...

i've also done starters 24 hrs to the night before brew day and it works out fine. I dont generally measure the amount of yeast i just make sure its a little more than what comes in those White Labs test tubes but not too much more than that though... for my next brew i'll end up with probably just about 2 cups of yeast and add that to my 5.5gal batch once I decant the liquid from my starter.

Appreciate the response.

I've made a starter from a saved yeast cake, here is the link to the math I used which needed two yeast pitching sites. I ended up over pitching though, it's so hard to tell how much yeast is really in those cakes

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/putting-washed-yeast-into-starter-295944/index2.html

Interesting thread. I like it.

I really want a cheap microscope and a cell counting chamber, and the guess work is all gone.
Viability and enumeration in one swoop! I saw one recently for about $78. It goes up to
400x, which is what you need. I will post the link when I find it again.

Here it is.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O0XVTS/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20