I need yeast cell help

[DublinOhioBrewer]

Okay so, I'm going to be brewing a 5-gallon Pliny Clone All Grain batch via biab tonight. I had intended to do a Yeast Starter however, due to some complications I was unable to do so. According to yeast calc I need 274 million yeast cells to ferment this beer which has an OG of 1.08. Since a starter is not possible, I definitely need to pitch at least two packages of yeast. But the question is can/should I pitch 3? Or would that be over pitching? I'll be using white labs wlp001. Any advice anyone can give me would be greatly appreciated

 

[bigdawg86]

You are fine pitching two... one will work, but probably have a long lag time.

 

[Kent88]

Why is a starter not possible? Just because you can't let it work for as long as you'd like?

If you get a starter going before you start brewing you'll at least know that it has a couple hours to wake up, you might even see some evidence of that.

And this might be helpful.

Edit: I think I meant to link this.

 

[DublinOhioBrewer]

I guess I could get a starter going but it would only be going for two or three hours at Best. Then it comes down to do I pitch a one liter starter for a 2 L starter? I only have a 2000ml flask

 

[Kent88]

I'd guess that a couple vials of yeast put into enough starter wort to make 2000ml wouldn't starve in 3 hours.

 

[DublinOhioBrewer]

Part of the problem with me is that I've never done a Yeast Starter. I mean I have a stir plate and a 2000 ml flask but I've never actually done one. So I'm assuming I just boil up some starter wort oh, I would have to determine how much dry malt extract I need and how much water, and then pitch both packets of yeast into the starter? Or just one? Sorry, I'm stupid when it comes to yeast but I appreciate the guidance

 

[Kent88]

Do you have a refractometer?

Here is a video about making yeast starters that I used the first couple times I made starters (I know, they're trying to sell stuff, but there is some helpful info in here):

 

[DublinOhioBrewer]

yes I do. I'll take a look at it when I get home. I assume I can just use the yeast calculator online to determine how much starter Ward I need to make?

 

[myndflyte]

Yeast starters are easy. Take a half gallon of water and half a pound of DME and about a 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient. Boil for 5 min, cool, add to your sanitized flask, aerate (shake the crap out of it or hit with O2) and pitch the yeast.

Adjust your volumes/DME accordingly based on your needs (1 gallon water = 1 lb DME). That ratio will get you close enough to 1.04.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I just made my first started yesterday.
I used https://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/
Boil the calculated DME with filtered water & nutrient, cool, add to sanitized flask. Aerate, pitch, cover, stir.
Seemed easy enough for a fellow newbie.

Supposedly even if it goes for a few hours instead of the full 24-36h it'll still decrease the lag time and improve fermentation.

 

[Kent88]

There are plenty of calculators to tell you how many cells to pitch.

If you have a refractometer, just try to make a starter with a gravity somewhere between 1.020 and 1.030. If you have a kitchen scale, 5 ounces DME should make a 2L starter at 1.025.

And yeah, if you can add a pinch of yeast nutrient to the starter, I'd recommend it, but don't worry if you don't have any.

 

[whovous]

I recently pitched a single package of San Diego Super, which is a lot like your yeast, into 3.5 gallons at 1.084. It took close to a day to get started, but it reached 1.009 in just over a week. Try the same thing. If it does not work for you, pitch another package.

 

[couchsending]

I’d you want to brew better beer I’d suggest getting better with yeast. It’s by far the most important part.

You still don’t have 274 million cells with 2 packs of wyeast or white labs. A significant underpitch in that high of a gravity wort is not going to give you good results.

Starters are so unbelievably easy

For a 1.040 wort you just need 10g per 100ml of water. Put it in your flask, boil it in the flask (watch it, it’ll boil over), cover it with foil, stick it in an ice bath. Cool to less than 80*, pitch your yeast that is at room temp and turn on the stir plate.

 

[RPh_Guy]

How do you boil it in the flask?

Is it ok to just bring it to a boil and then start cooling?

How important is aeration if I have a stir plate?

How do I prevent messy blow-off? Fermcap?

 

[Brewsit]

How do you boil it in the flask?

Is it ok to just bring it to a boil and then start cooling?

How important is aeration if I have a stir plate?

How do I prevent messy blow-off? Fermcap?

If it’s a real Borosilicate flask you can put it on the stove directly. If you have an electric burner that works too, just turn the burner off when it starts to boil or you will get a boil over.

Stir plate is your aeration, basically. If you want you can shake it up too. Put tin foil loosely over it and there will be enough oxygen exchange while keeping flies and what-not out.

You won’t prevent a messy blow off if it’s strong enough. It will bubble over, fermcap won’t do much. Just put it somewhere you are ok with sludge oozing on to. For a first starter it’s likely it won’t overflow, but a second step up will.

 

[couchsending]

As soon as you start to see bubbles form turn the heat down to low, that will help to prevent it from boiling over. I’ll stick a wooden spoon in the flask to keep it from boiling over as well. Keep it boiling for 10 minutes, then everything is sanitized.

The stirplate is your aeration. You don’t need a crazy vortex.

In a 2000ml flask, depending on the yeast you won’t have to worry about blowoff with anything less than a 1200ml starter. Anything bigger you’ll start to need a bigger flask. I use my 4000ml flask more than any other.

 

[DublinOhioBrewer]

I went ahead and did the starter like everyone suggested even though it only sat on the stir plate for 4 hours. I got to be honest, I hit my OG exactly! And I'm willing to bet that I probably had between 200 and 300 million yeast cells which is great. So thank you to all of you for chiming in and help me out. This beer is going to be damn good

 

[DublinOhioBrewer]

my post boil gravity was supposed to be 1.07 and I hit 1.071. That's like, 85% efficiency. Totally awesome.

 

[Kent88]

Let us know when the airlock starts going crazy.