pitching straight from the vial?

[David20Hersch]

just bought a vial of wlp300, as all of you know it says on the vial that you can pitch straight from the vial. i know i know that its not recommended but i am going to make a 4 gallon batch so if i pitched the whole vial would it be enough??
its still before its expiration date

and if i do make a starter for a 4 gallon, OG 1.050, batch what size of a yeast starter do i need

 

[m00ps]

Im not one for doing actual cell counts, but I always make a starter of at least 1.5L for my 5gal batches. This also allows me to harvest from the starter to save yeast for next time. That being said, you should be fine with a low OG 4 gallon batch with just the vial> worst case is youll have a slightly longer lag time so be sure your sanitation is on point

 

[YeastMode]

With that starting gravity, you can just pitch the vial so long as it is before the expiration date by a reasonable margin, especially with a 4g batch. I have pitched a vile on a 5.5g batch with low starting gravity without an issue. When you get too far north of the 1.160s on 5g batches, then I would start moving towards a starter. That said, it is always better practice to make a starter.

To directly answer your question, a 1L starter would be more than sufficient for your batch, but there is a calculate provided by Mr. Malty that will give you a precise answer if you are interested in it, just goggle it and enter your information.

And as a tip, if you are going to pitch from the vial, let it get up to room temp before you pitch it, and spray the outside of the vial liberally with starsan about 5-10 minutes before pitching. Give it a good shake and let'er rip.

 

[midfielder5]

After shaking it, don't open the vial 100% right away!
Crack the seal and let the carbonation/foam settle down.
Or open it over the FV so the yeast spray goes in.

 

[pvpeacock]

Check this out:
http://brulosophy.com/2015/04/20/yeast-pitch-rate-single-vial-vs-yeast-starter-exbeeriment-results/

 

[YeastMode]

^^ That was an interesting read and seems to correlate my my experiences. I usually just pitch 2 vials when I don't have time to make a starter, and I usually see the same results as if I did make a starter.

 

[David20Hersch]

if i wanted to harvest the yeast afterwards wouldn't the yeast come out healthier by using a starter instead of a vial? mrmalty said that i needed a vial and a half for a good fermentation with 4 gallons of wort, that is pitching directly from the vial. i only have 1 vial . is the yeast really that sensitive??? ill be fermenting around 65-68f

 

[ScrewyBrewer]

if i wanted to harvest the yeast afterwards wouldn't the yeast come out healthier by using a starter instead of a vial? mrmalty said that i needed a vial and a half for a good fermentation with 4 gallons of wort, that is pitching directly from the vial. i only have 1 vial . is the yeast really that sensitive??? ill be fermenting around 65-68f

Do a little research on 'under pitching' yeast and you'll see that it does have it's place in brewing some styles of beer. I'm not talking about severely under pitching your yeast to the point where there are so little cells that you end up with a stuck fermentation though.

During the growth phase cell budding produces esters that bring out the yeast flavors that are desirable in Belgian beers for instance. This same approach would not be advisable when attempting to ferment a Lager beer, where the goal is to produce a beer that's yeast neutral, crisp and clean tasting.

 

[DrunkleJon]

If you are worried about potentially underpitching at the very least make sure that you provide adequate oxygen for the reporduction phase. Shake the everloving sh*t out the fermenter to oxygenate and you should be okay. Unless of course this is a lager or ungodly strong RIS or something. You will probably be better off with a starter but you will still make good beer.