Yeast help for Double IPA

[jskennedy1979]

I am brewing Northern Brewer's Cascade Mountain West Coast IIPA in about 2 weeks. LME with specialty grain.

Link here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/WestCoastImperialIPA.pdf

I bought this kit about a month ago. I refrigerated the yeast upon receipt. When I run it through Beersmith, the yeast (American Ale II - Wyeast 1272) has a viability of 42.4%. My LHBS sold me a vial of yeast that was supposed to be similar to American Ale. Link: http://www.jasperyeast.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14:jy85-local-pale-ale-yeast&catid=10:yeasts&Itemid=101

I ran the second yeast through Beersmith as AA2 and the viability is 67.4%.

Yeast Cells Needed: 291B
Yeast Cells w/ Starter(est): 330B

Questions:
1) Should I pitch both yeasts into a large starter? Would you also decant and re-feed the yeast?
2) Scrap both yeast strains and pitch dry yeast?
3) Since I have about 2 weeks til brew day, should I propagate both yeasts separately, cold crash, and store for brewing?

 

[watermelon83]

I am brewing Northern Brewer's Cascade Mountain West Coast IIPA in about 2 weeks. LME with specialty grain.

Link here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/WestCoastImperialIPA.pdf

I bought this kit about a month ago. I refrigerated the yeast upon receipt. When I run it through Beersmith, the yeast (American Ale II - Wyeast 1272) has a viability of 42.4%. My LHBS sold me a vial of yeast that was supposed to be similar to American Ale. Link: http://www.jasperyeast.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14:jy85-local-pale-ale-yeast&catid=10:yeasts&Itemid=101

I ran the second yeast through Beersmith as AA2 and the viability is 67.4%.

Yeast Cells Needed: 291B
Yeast Cells w/ Starter(est): 330B

Questions:
1) Should I pitch both yeasts into a large starter? Would you also decant and re-feed the yeast?
2) Scrap both yeast strains and pitch dry yeast?
3) Since I have about 2 weeks til brew day, should I propagate both yeasts separately, cold crash, and store for brewing?

1) I wouldn't, you'll never know the unique characteristics of either.
2) I wouldn't, not before at least trying to step them up seperately. There's no reason both shouldn't be fine.
3) This sounds like a good idea. If you have two weeks why not just pick one of them and try stepping the cell count up. If it works, you have a spare vial, if not try the spare vial.

I wouldn't sweat the time in the fridge, yeast go to sleep at fridge temps. You may want to find out the cell count in the Jasper yeast vial. A quick spin around their website and those of the two places carrying the brand came up with zero information. Point being, you may not need a starter, like the Giga yeast gold pitch packs.

 

[corycorycory09]

I am brewing Northern Brewer's Cascade Mountain West Coast IIPA in about 2 weeks. LME with specialty grain.

Link here: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documentation/beerkits/WestCoastImperialIPA.pdf

I bought this kit about a month ago. I refrigerated the yeast upon receipt. When I run it through Beersmith, the yeast (American Ale II - Wyeast 1272) has a viability of 42.4%. My LHBS sold me a vial of yeast that was supposed to be similar to American Ale. Link: http://www.jasperyeast.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=14:jy85-local-pale-ale-yeast&catid=10:yeasts&Itemid=101

I ran the second yeast through Beersmith as AA2 and the viability is 67.4%.

Yeast Cells Needed: 291B
Yeast Cells w/ Starter(est): 330B

Questions:
1) Should I pitch both yeasts into a large starter? Would you also decant and re-feed the yeast?
2) Scrap both yeast strains and pitch dry yeast?
3) Since I have about 2 weeks til brew day, should I propagate both yeasts separately, cold crash, and store for brewing?

I would only use one yeast. You can freeze the other and it will stay good for a while.

I would just refridgerate the yeast you want to use, then make a starter in about a week. If you are worried about viability, you can make a bigger starter than the calculator reccomends. Overpitching really isn't a concern unless you go way way overboard.

 

[photobru]

If you decide to freeze the yeast, don't just put it in your freezer as this will kill it. You need to add glycerine to it first. It may be more than you want to deal with, but there is plenty of info on the topic here on HBT. For an in-depth post: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f13/guide-making-frozen-yeast-bank-35891/

 

[jskennedy1979]

Thanks for the feedback to all! It looks like I will give option 3 a try.

 

[jskennedy1979]

Update and opinions needed...

The brew day for this double IPA has been pushed back further than I anticipated. I took a little time between batches to review notes, research the flaws from my first 2 batches, etc. I am targeting either Sunday or next Tuesday to brew. But back to the yeast...

Per this thread, I decided to stick to one yeast and step it up. I chose the local yeast from Jasper. Here is the link again (http://www.jasperyeast.com/index.ph...cal-pale-ale-yeast&catid=10:yeasts&Itemid=101) and I confirmed that these vials initially contain 100 billion cells. Now that I am approaching brew day, I decided to make a starter. One problem is I intended to pitch two vials into a 2L flask. The yeast is currently unavailable. I even contacted the owner of the yeast lab (who was awesome to work with) and he confirmed that he was growing more but the local hbs was out of stock.

Last night I boiled 2 cups of light dme in 2L of water and pitched the single vial of yeast after cooling. It is currently on the stir plate at ~24hours of constant, slow vortex.

Here is my dilemma:
According to Beersmith -
Yeast Cells Needed: 297.9 billion
Yeast Cells with Starter (and stirplate): 327.8 billion

According to Brewer's Friend -
Yeast Cells Needed: 484 billion
Yeast Cells with Starter (and stirplate and 2 steps) - 594 billion
- Only one step up brought me to 350 billion

Do you think I need a second step up? Am I wrong in thinking the Beersmith calculations are more accurate since they are incorporating other factors (equipment, malt profile, etc.)?

 

[andy6026]

Sounds to me like you're well within the ballpark. If you're concerned and have the time then by all means step it up, but if you have a brew day planned and this is only foiling your plans to make everything absolutely perfect then I would be happy to pitch what's there.