Yeast Starter Needed?

To everyone! Happy Memorial Day!

These boards are invaluable, I have learned so much.

I have a rare opportunity tomorrow morning; SWMBO was called into work, and I have some free time, so I figured great time to brew. I want to brew Northern Brewer's 115th Dream Hopbursted IIPA, and luckily my local home brew store has all the ingredients necessary and will be open early. One problem no time for a yeast starter.

The recipe call for an O.G. of 1.08 so this is on the heavier size. It is calling for either the Safale US-05 Ale Yeast (Dry) or Wyeast 1056 American Ale (Liquid).

If I am brewing tomorrow morning and I can't do a yeast starter, what is my best option at this point?

Use the 05 dry yeast. Probably 1.5 packets. Happy brewing!

For beer that large I would suggest 2 packs of dry 05 or 3 packs of 1056 and this assumes the 1056 at a month old as is usually the case IME

You can go to Www.yeastcalc.com

And plug the numbers to verify but I'm guessing at least 250-300B cells required

Let this be a lesson.
If you can collect some trub-free yeast, save, wash and freeze ala Palmer, or, info on this site. Go get small bottle of glycerol/glycerine at WalMart, and freeze under 10-15% gly/water. Good luck.

I'll throw in my vote for 2 packs of 05

Agree.
This is high gravity beer so you want to pitch with higher pitching rate than you would normally do.

You could always do a staggered pitch too... +1 for the US-05. I just did a barleywine with an OG of 1.146 and I pitched one packet then another 3 days later to avoid losing TOO much to blowoff.

Have you ever used Go-Ferm to reconstitute dry yeast? That would be my recommendation. If your LHBS has Go-Fern, give it a try. I am always amazed at how much better the yeast seems to behave. I began using it for my wines (most of which start over 1.080) and I am a believer now.

Plus three for 05. Two packs should do the trick.