Best Pitching rate for session ale

[uright]

Hey Guys!

I'm planning to brew a 5.5g batch of 1.037 OG Irish Red this weekend. This will be the smallest beer I've made to date and I'm interested to know what pitching rates you are using for session ales.

Mr. Malty uses a rate of .75mill/ml/plato or 144billion cells for this batch. Seems a bit high. Requiring a starter to grow a vial.

Northern Brewer recommends .5mill/ml/plato for beers under 1.055. That would be 96billion cells. Pitching from a new vial.

What are your experiences with pitching rates for session ales?

 

[duboman]

Hey Guys!

I'm planning to brew a 5.5g batch of 1.037 OG Irish Red this weekend. This will be the smallest beer I've made to date and I'm interested to know what pitching rates you are using for session ales.

Mr. Malty uses a rate of .75mill/ml/plato or 144billion cells for this batch. Seems a bit high. Requiring a starter to grow a vial.

Northern Brewer recommends .5mill/ml/plato for beers under 1.055. That would be 96billion cells. Pitching from a new vial.

What are your experiences with pitching rates for session ales?

I use Www.yeastcalc.com and make starters for all my beer! A lot has to do with initial viable cell count based upon the date of the pack so visit this site, plug in the numbers for your beer and make the appropriate sized starter

 

[phenry]

For a beer that small, if I'm not worried about a prominent fermentation character (aka any Belgian right around 1.040), I just go ahead and pitch the smack pack or vial straight into the wort. If I want a clean fermentation though, I follow Mr Malty's guidelines.

 

[Ryush806]

I'm in this boat too right now. I'm going to brew a 1.034 dark mild on Monday. According to the date I had ~88 billion cells and the calculator said I needed 120 billion and told me to make a 0.5 L starter. It seemed almost ridiculous to me to make that small a starter. My stir bar felt the same way as it wouldn't stay on center and kept getting flung (presumably due to the lack of sort covering it). I guess if nothing else it proved the yeast wasn't dead.

 

[isurf]

Safale-05 or Nottys Ale. More than you need