How much washed yeast to add to a starter???

I have been re-using my yeast and think I have to process down except for one lil part.

How much washed yeast do you add to your starter?
I have been doing 30 grams of dme to 300 ml of water. Then adding a 100 ml of yeast.
Does that sound right? Things I've read say to use much more water/dme. To make it closer to 100grams to 1000ml.
Thanks.

Yeah, that's a mighty teensy starter. You're not going to get much of a final population off of that. 1-2L is more standard.

Arrgghh. Ok. Guess i'll be stepping it up tmrw.

But still.

How much of my washed yeast would I add to 1000ml starter?

JayWeezie said:

I have been re-using my yeast and think I have to process down except for one lil part.

How much washed yeast do you add to your starter?
I have been doing 30 grams of dme to 300 ml of water. Then adding a 100 ml of yeast.
Does that sound right? Things I've read say to use much more water/dme. To make it closer to 100grams to 1000ml.
Thanks.

Click to expand...

All of it....

What are you saving it for? In a week or so after you make your beer you will have more.

Off topic but, I still cant figure out why it is necessary to wash yeast.

[QUOTE

Off topic but, I still cant figure out why it is necessary to wash yeast.[/QUOTE]

Not really saving it for anything. But i figured pitching a pint of yeast on to little amount of wort wouldnt be good.

And "off topic" just save money on the next batch as far as I can tell.

To re-use it or wash it? I'd wash it to get any old trub/break out of it, so you're pitching a clean starter. Re-use it because I think its cool to do...

+1 it's cool. plus, I really think the question is Why wouldn't you re-use it. What the heck else you gunna do with it...wash it down the drain when you clean your carboy?

JayWeezie said:

Not really saving it for anything. But i figured pitching a pint of yeast on to little amount of wort wouldnt be good.

And "off topic" just save money on the next batch as far as I can tell.

Click to expand...

If you washed the yeast, there should be just some yeast on the bottom of the jar with lots of liquid on top. Decant the beer and pitch the yeast (100ml is fine) into a 2L starter, 4L for a lager or big beer.

King of Cascade said:

All of it....

What are you saving it for? In a week or so after you make your beer you will have more.

Off topic but, I still cant figure out why it is necessary to wash yeast.

Click to expand...

I had a few homebrews when I typed this up last night and after reading it this morning, it didn’t really communicate my original thought well.

What I wanted to ask is, why wash the yeast? I just reuse it without washing and it works great. I have never seen a commercial brewery wash yeast before, in fact I asked a brewer friend of mine if he ever washes his yeast and he thought I was talking about an acid wash (A process brewery used decades ago) I think there is too much of a risk of infection to justify doing it. I would rather take my chances with trub vs wild yeast or bactiria.

Anyone agree or disagree...lets hear it.

King of Cascade said:

I had a few homebrews when I typed this up last night and after reading it this morning, it didn’t really communicate my original thought well.

What I wanted to ask is, why wash the yeast? I just reuse it without washing and it works great. I have never seen a commercial brewery wash yeast before, in fact I asked a brewer friend of mine if he ever washes his yeast and he thought I was talking about an acid wash (A process brewery used decades ago) I think there is too much of a risk of infection to justify doing it. I would rather take my chances with trub vs wild yeast or bactiria.

Anyone agree or disagree...lets hear it.

Click to expand...

I think if you brew that same day that's ok. But just leaving all that yeast in a carboy for a few weeks could get to stinkin. Hence the washing. You can break it up into smaller jars and use it a few times for mulitiple batches.

JayWeezie said:

I think if you brew that same day that's ok. But just leaving all that yeast in a carboy for a few weeks could get to stinkin. Hence the washing. You can break it up into smaller jars and use it a few times for mulitiple batches.

Click to expand...

But saving it is not good for the yeast...In the book, The Fungus among us they talk about repitching 12 - 24 hours after the yeast drops or it will start to mutate. I think the best way to store yeast long term is an agar slant.

Still no one has really answered this question on the threads that I have read. The lowest was 7 ml and the highest was all the washed yeast = 4 pints? That is more than the starter! I have made a few and they have worked out OK but I was just guessing on how much washed yeast to use. Also, how clean the washing has varied greatly for me.

PS. I have a 1500 ml starter cooling right now so any quick advice would be greatly appreciated.

Have you checked the slurry calculator on Mr. Malty, to give you a rough estimate of your cell count?

Sulli said:

Have you checked the slurry calculator on Mr. Malty, to give you a rough estimate of your cell count?

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I can't see where the slurry tab gives any info for how much to pitch in a starter. I see how many ml it suggests to pitch in a 5.25 gallon wort.

Sulli said:

use Mr. Malty to get the cell count of your slurry, and then use this to determine the correct amount to pitch. I would recommend keeping the inoculation rate between 50 and 100 million cells/ml.

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Scratch that. Reverse it. Use this to calculate how many yeast cells you need in 1.5 L of starter wort to reach an inoculation rate of anywhere between 50 and 100 million cells/ml. Then use Mr. Malty to determine how much slurry you need to get that cell count. Be sure to set the calendar a couple of days into the future to set the viability at 100%

I have looked at mrmalty's slurry tab and cannot figure out how to manipulate it to tell me my yeast count. I do see where it calculates how much to pitch into a wort.

Am I missing something easy.

I would pitch about 100 billion cells into 1.5 liters of starter wort. Adjust the OG number on Mr. Malty until it says you need 100 billion cells, then adjust the sliders at the bottom accordingly until your happy with the result. Looks like you need roughly 50 ml of slurry.

Well, This batch of harvested yeast was in the refrigerator for a bit over a month so I guess the viability is down quite a bit. I decided to put about 70 ml slurry in. I will look at it tomorrow and see what it looks like. I plan to brew on Thursday. I do have a fresher batch for backup. And also some us05. So no worries on that end. Also my last brew where I was guesstimating looked to be about the same amount and it went well.

Sulli,
Is there any way you can add this procedure to your calculator?

BTW it has been bookmarked, thanks.

kh54s10 said:

Well, This batch of harvested yeast was in the refrigerator for a bit over a month so I guess the viability is down quite a bit. I decided to put about 70 ml slurry in. I will look at it tomorrow and see what it looks like. I plan to brew on Thursday. I do have a fresher batch for backup. And also some us05. So no worries on that end. Also my last brew where I was guesstimating looked to be about the same amount and it went well.

Sulli,
Is there any way you can add this procedure to your calculator?

BTW it has been bookmarked, thanks.

Click to expand...

Not sure where to add it. Suggestion?

Not really since I don't really know what I am talking about. Maybe a separate calculator that will take the date of the harvest and make a calculation of the viability, then come up with a determination on how to use that in what amounts for the starter.

I was looking at the calculator and it is a little beyond my understanding. I started brewing the first of July and have made starters on all but my first 4 batches, up to 10 now.

If I wanted to do a simple one step starter I would just select the method of aeration for the first step?

I have never done a stepped starter but will have to learn since I have started a frozen yeast bank.

There are lots of good tutorials on making and stepping starters.
Here's a couple to get you started.
Care and Feeding of your Yeast

http://www.klob.org/sites/klob.org/files/Yeast%20Starters%20Presentation_0.pdf

kh54s10 said:

I was looking at the calculator and it is a little beyond my understanding. I started brewing the first of July and have made starters on all but my first 4 batches, up to 10 now.

If I wanted to do a simple one step starter I would just select the method of aeration for the first step?

Click to expand...

Hmm. I was hoping it would be fairly self explanatory, there are tooltips that pop up to help explain a few of the more important items. Maybe I should write up an instruction page.

I missed the popups. I was checking it out while we were posting back and forth. I will look at it some more. It is not the program itself but some of the terminology that I have not fully digested yet.

I also took off to the LHBS this afternoon to buy ingredients for a "Winter Warmer Ale"

Thanks for your advice, I will try to get back with you about the calculator if I have questions or can forward any ideas etc.

Your welcome. I look forward to any suggestions or ideas to make YeastCalc more user friendly.