Size for Yeast Starter Kit

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jpc8015

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I am wanting to buy a yeast starter kit that will be used for brewing higher gravity beers such as RIS with O.G. as high as 1.10 or slightly more. I may even move into lagers eventually.

Is a 2000 ml Erlenmeyer flask big enough for this or would I be better off just biting the bullet and getting the 5000 ml flask?
 
Depends how many cells do you start with- do you have to step it or not (because of inoculation rate)
If you have to step it eg. 1L- 4L then smaller flask would be desirable (since there will be too shallow level of wort in 5L jar and I"m not sure will it work).
 
With all due respect, bull honkey. 1L of wort will ferment in a 5L vessel. Yeast will grow, and beer will be made. I say if you have to pick a "middle of the road" size, go with a 1 gal vessel. But honestly, if you're planning (or thinking of) lagers, go bigger. Imagine stepping up to 2.5 gal in a 2000ml flask.
 
So if I have 3 liters or so of fluid is it best to chill the starter overnight and decant the fluid before I pitch the yeast? It just seems like adding nearly a gallon of that stuff to your beer would impact flavor.
 
I have a 500,1000,2000,4000 and 5000 ml flasks I use for starters. By far I use the 2000 more than any of the others.
 
With all due respect, bull honkey. 1L of wort will ferment in a 5L vessel. Yeast will grow, and beer will be made. I say if you have to pick a "middle of the road" size, go with a 1 gal vessel. But honestly, if you're planning (or thinking of) lagers, go bigger. Imagine stepping up to 2.5 gal in a 2000ml flask.

I didn't meant it wont ferment.. but just that stir bar may drop out in shallow wort level, I had problems with big jar and small volume of wort, solved it by puting another adapter (5V) to decrease stirplate speed.
 
I have 2L, 3L and 5L flasks. I use the 3L most often since I've been stepping my starters up to about 2.2-3L in size (from around 1-1.5L on first step). With fresher yeast, you could get away with a 2L flask. But, I'd rather have more space above the starter in the flask than less.

I was hoping to be able to fit my 5L flask into the fridge where I've moved to. But, the shelves won't allow it. I'd need to remove one completely in order to get it to fit. I might do that at some point, but only when I actually NEED to use that flask. For now, doing two, or three, steps gets me far more yeast than using the larger flask.
 
So if I have 3 liters or so of fluid is it best to chill the starter overnight and decant the fluid before I pitch the yeast? It just seems like adding nearly a gallon of that stuff to your beer would impact flavor.

Yes, when doing starters that large it is ideal to crash and decant as that's a lot of wort to add as well as throwing off your volumes.

If you really are planning on moving to big beers and lagers definitely go big or you will be doing a lot of stepping up and taking a lot of time doing so making planning your brew sessions somewhat tedious IMO of course:)
 
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