Just found out I'm brewing 12 gallons on Saturday, not 6

[Paradigm]

Hi all,

Long story short, I bought yeast today to make a starter for a wit I'm brewing on Saturday. Low O. G., 1.048, but I only have ~66 bil cells and need 406.

I have a stir plate and a 2L flask, do you think I have enough time to get 400? I'm planning on doing a 1.5L tonight and then decanting into a milk jug for a step up tomorrow.

Two other questions are if putting a milk jug on a stir plate works and when stepping up do I dump the liquid or just add more dme?


Thanks

 

[b-boy]

If you just bought it today, you'll have a hard time getting it ready for Saturday. I'd recommend either getting another pack of yeast or pushing your brew day till Sunday.

I like 1 day to cold crash the starter before I pitch my yeast.

I usually add my entire starter to a new volume of fresh wort.

I've never used a milk jug. I can't see why it won't work.

 

[philipCT]

Hi all,

Long story short, I bought yeast today to make a starter for a wit I'm brewing on Saturday. Low O. G., 1.048, but I only have ~66 bil cells and need 406.

I have a stir plate and a 2L flask, do you think I have enough time to get 400? I'm planning on doing a 1.5L tonight and then decanting into a milk jug for a step up tomorrow.

Two other questions are if putting a milk jug on a stir plate works and when stepping up do I dump the liquid or just add more dme?


Thanks

No worries. Make your starter now. It won't be ready to pitch right when you finish filling the fermenter. Just let that sit in the fermenter until your starter is ready to pitch, then aerate and pitch.

I frequently do this [due to poor planning] and pitch a day or tow after I brew the wort.

Brew on!

 

[TennBrewer]

Hi all,

Long story short, I bought yeast today to make a starter for a wit I'm brewing on Saturday. Low O. G., 1.048, but I only have ~66 bil cells and need 406.

I have a stir plate and a 2L flask, do you think I have enough time to get 400? I'm planning on doing a 1.5L tonight and then decanting into a milk jug for a step up tomorrow.

Two other questions are if putting a milk jug on a stir plate works and when stepping up do I dump the liquid or just add more dme?


Thanks

+1 on bumping back the brew date, adding a second pack of yeast. A milk jug on a stir plate won't work unless the bottom of the jug is flat, otherwise it will just throw the stir bar. I've tried lots of other vessels (glass coffee pot, jars I thought looked pretty flat), flask works the best and most reliable. There's nothing more frustrating than leaving a starter on the stir plate overnight and discovering the stir bar was thrown off sometime during the night. When stepping up, decant the liquid as best you can and add a fresh helping of DME. As stated earlier, you need to let it sit at least overnight in the fridge for the active yeasts to drop out of the solution. You do not have enough time to do this, use more yeast packs.

 

[Paradigm]

Bumping back the brew date isn't really in the cards (which is why I found out that I was doing a 12 gallon batch) because it's with a group of people. I'll make my starter now and buy another pack. I only need ~400 billion cells, and a 1.5 starter should get me to ~350ish, so I'll just pick up another pack on Saturday.