Pitchin' Yeast

[timotb]

Im thinking about using a single 55 gallon carboy instead of the many 5 gallon carboys this year. In the past I would add a single packet of dry yeast to each 5 gallon container. This worked fine.

If I use the 50 gallon container can I use a single (or 2 or 3) packet for for the whole large batch or do I need to add a single packet for every 5 gallons? In this case 10 packets?

My understanding is yeast is alive and will multiply to fill the container, so only one should be necessary.

 

[Yooper]

One package is generally fine for up to 6 gallons, but if you were doing a 50 gallon batch you'd be severely underpitching. The yeast would reproduce, but they'd get very stressed before fermentation even started.

Yeast is like, $.59 a pack, for the cheaper varieties. I'd spend the extra $4.00 and get enough yeast.

 

[Jrod]

Make a big starter and pitch that.

 

[timotb]

I was thinking of pitching 4 packs to be safe. Not sure how to make starters. Might have to search here for an article on that.

 

[roadymi]

I used 15 gal barrels for my primaries, pitched 1 packet ea from a starter.

For my starter I dissolved the packet in a cup of lukewarm water, I then added that to 2 qts cider in a container with tsp energizer and shook the crap out of it. After 4 hours I added 1/4 cup sugar, waited another 4 hours and pitched.

That was on sunday, It has been blowing out the blowoff tube almost violently ever since. My recipe has 2/3 cup sugar per gallon in 1 batch and 1 lb honey / gal in other batch.