So I routinely make starters and step them up for the sole purpose of harvesting yeast. My process goes something like this...1L starter with fresh vial of yeast on a stir plate for 36 hours. Crash for 24-48 hours. Decant and add yeast to a 2L starter for 36 hours. Crash again for 24-48 hours. Decant off as much liquid as possible. Pour yeast slurry into sanitized White Lab vials..it usually takes 6-7 vials. Once done the vials look "identical" to a fresh White Labs vial. Using various yeast calculators I should be generating roughly 500 billion cells or approx. 70-80 billion cells per vial. Here is where I wonder where my yeast went....
I had two different yeast samples counted and analyzed. They were different strains but used the same exact process. My counts averaged 1 billion cells/ml...which means my vials only contained on average 30B/ml..... or less than half of what was predicted by the yeast calculators. So rather than ending up with almost 500 billion cells I ended up with 180-210 billion cells total cells. Obviously that is a HUGE difference!!! So where did my yeast go??!!
When I make starters I use 3/4 cup DME for a 1L starter and 1.5 cups DME for a 2L starter.
I had two different yeast samples counted and analyzed. They were different strains but used the same exact process. My counts averaged 1 billion cells/ml...which means my vials only contained on average 30B/ml..... or less than half of what was predicted by the yeast calculators. So rather than ending up with almost 500 billion cells I ended up with 180-210 billion cells total cells. Obviously that is a HUGE difference!!! So where did my yeast go??!!
When I make starters I use 3/4 cup DME for a 1L starter and 1.5 cups DME for a 2L starter.