BigdogMark
Well-Known Member
I've been propagating yeast for myself and my brew buds, primarily WLP-001 California Ale and WLP-530 Abbey Ale. I started with 1 liter starters, going through the step-up process to get multiple jars containing our typical requirement of 200 billion cells. This typically works out to about 75ml of compacted yeast cells in my pint jars. I use a stir plate, pure oxygen blast at the start, and loose foil cover over the flask. Recently I have experimented with going directly to larger starter sizes, up to 4 liters with no measurable decrease in the resulting volume of yeast compared to the predicted yeast growth. And, it made great beer!
I've been using the YeastCalc.com calculator with the K.Troester stir plate option. It predicts a 4 liter starter (1.037 specific gravity) will yield 660 billion cells.
So why the recommendation to do stepped starters and all those additional steps? What am I missing?
I've been using the YeastCalc.com calculator with the K.Troester stir plate option. It predicts a 4 liter starter (1.037 specific gravity) will yield 660 billion cells.
So why the recommendation to do stepped starters and all those additional steps? What am I missing?