understanding yeast starters???

Sorry for the noob question, but I had to buy a wyeast smack pack because my lhbs did not have WL yeast. Mr. Malty pitch calculater can be confusing with the whole "less yeast, more starter" option. I want to have enough yeast to ferment a pale ale OG of 1.060. I put 1 smack pack in 3300ml starter of 1.040 wort. It will be on stir plate for 48 hours, I'm not going to crash and decent, I'm gonna pitch whole starter. How do I know if its enough yeast? Should it have been 2 smack packs in a smaller starter?

Eastside

The Wyeast packages are designed for 1.060 without a starter. Making a starter is always a good idea with liquid yeast. By making one you are guaranteeing your yeast is healthy and ready to go. So you should be fine.

That's an awful big starter to not decant. I usually don't bother cold crashing my starters. I just turn off my stirplate the morning that I'm brewing and let it sit. By the time I'm ready to pitch, most of the yeast has settled out and I can decant most of the liquid before I pitch.

A simple equation is X*Y*Z = Yeast Cells Needed.

X= pitch rate in million cell per ml (for ale about 0.75 M/ml, double that for lagers)
Y=total wort volume in ml (5 gallons is about 20,000ml)
Z=degrees Plato (roughly the last digits of the OG/4, so 1.060 = 15°)

Plug it all in...

0.75*20000*15=225,000 or 225 billion cells

Now, we need to know how many cells/ml are in our starter.

Luckily, there plenty of research and information out there. This article is my favorite.

It's got a stir plate prepared starter having between 180M and 360M cells/ml. That means you'll need about 1L of starter.

How big is this batch? You've got about 3 times as much as the calculator is telling you.

I would stick it in the fridge for a day or so. It will drop down in temp slowly and won't shock the yeast. Then decant and pitch.

I decant any starter that is over 1500ml.

Here's the link to the Yeast Starter show on Brew Strong epsiode on The Brewing Network with Jamil, John Palmer, and Dr. Scott.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-12-22-08-Yeast-Starters

stevo155 said:

How big is this batch? You've got about 3 times as much as the calculator is telling you.

I would stick it in the fridge for a day or so. It will drop down in temp slowly and won't shock the yeast. Then decant and pitch.

I decant any starter that is over 1500ml.

Here's the link to the Yeast Starter show on Brew Strong epsiode on The Brewing Network with Jamil, John Palmer, and Dr. Scott.

http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/shows/Brew-Strong/Brew-Strong-12-22-08-Yeast-Starters

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Just when I thought I was being thorough, Not!! it is a 10 gallon batch, it the American Ale II, never used it before. You think I'm still okay? Thanks for the input guys.

Eastside

Eastside Brewer said:

Just when I thought I was being thorough, Not!! it is a 10 gallon batch, it the American Ale II, never used it before. You think I'm still okay? Thanks for the input guys.

Eastside

Click to expand...

Ah...that makes more sense. If you're not going to decant, I'd go with another pack and a smaller starter. 2 packs on a stir plate for 10 gallons of 1.060 wort would need about 1.65 liters. One pack would require about 4 liters, which you definately wouldn't want to just dump in your beer.