Growing yeast

[trbig]

I am wanting to start a pear wine and didn't have the yeast I wanted, 71B-1122 (Brew store is 100 miles away and we're currently snowed in) and currently have some fermenting in some banana wine. I made a starter with some cut up pears and sugar water I boiled first, then opened up the ferment bin and took a couple big ladle scoops out of the banana wort and put it in the starter. How long should I let this go to grow enough yeast to throw in with a 6 gallon batch of pear wine? Temps are @ 68 degrees in the house and the yeast is working the mixture well at the moment.

 

[Riot]

Two or three days is usually enough time, or like 24 hours if you have it on a stirplate. I may be wrong with wine yeast however, I have only worked with ale/lager yeasts so far. Either way you should see it stop bubbling and start to clear when it has run out of fermentables though.

 

[TimelessCynic]

Two or three days is usually enough time, or like 24 hours if you have it on a stirplate. I may be wrong with wine yeast however, I have only worked with ale/lager yeasts so far. Either way you should see it stop bubbling and start to clear when it has run out of fermentables though.

My problem with yeast plate starters is i never feel confident that they yeast has consumed all
of the sugars. Since it is always swirling it never gets clear. If it is a 1 liter starter i feel good after 24 hours. But what if i make a 4 liter starter? Can I assume the same yeast in a 1 liter can eat all of the 4 liter wort in the same 24 hours?

 

[Riot]

The larger starter might take a bit longer to ferment out, it really depends on conditions in that individual starter. If you turn the plate off for half an hour or so you can usually see the yeast settling out when it's done. Also, if you hold a flashlight up to the flask you can see tiny bubbles coming to the surface if its still active.

 

[TimelessCynic]

Good ideas. Thanks riot

 

[05m50dan]

you dont really want the yeast to completely eat all the sugars. High Krausen is the best time to pitch yeast from a starter. You want the yeast to stay in the propagation phase as you are stepping up cell counts. If you have a 1 gallon jug, I'd suggest filling it about 1/2 way with the unfermented pear wine and add your starter to that for 24 hours before pitching into your full patch.

 

[TimelessCynic]

Whats the gravity on that in fermented pear wine?

 

[Riot]

I know with beer yeast you want the OG of the starter at about 1.04. I imagine you could go higher with wine yeast due to the increased alcohol tolerance, but I have no idea what ideal would be for healthy yeast.

 

[trbig]

All this is a moot point since the roads openned up today and I was able to go pick up a couple packs of 71B, BUT.. I also had to shake my head at my own stupidity. When I got the couple ladles full of the banana wine liquid, all I got was what yeast happened to have been in suspension at the time. Face/palm... Why didn't I get my siphon hose right down there to the bottom and get some of that good abundant yeast off the cake? Probably would have gotten enough to start SEVERAL batches.

Anyway, thanks for the responses everyone. No idea what the OG of the pear wine will be since so much of the sugar is going to be locked away in the fruit. I picked up a new food processor to play with and am going to shred the fruit first to make it more accessable to the yeast. I've even got several jars of canned (Mason jarred) pears that I'm going to throw in there as well. I'm hoping to get max alc that the yeast can do and still have some residual sugars leftover... but.. That's for another thread I guess. lol.