Did my LHBS underpitch?

Let me start out by saying that the guys at my LHBS are great. They have taught me half of what I know about brewing. The other half I've learned here.

A few weeks ago we did a group big brew. The LHBS had four 55 gallon bourbon barrels in which we were going to ferment a stout in. They said each barrel would be filled with about 45 gallons of wort to allow for blowoff. My issue is the starter. They used one Wyeast smack pack. Two days before the big brew, they brewed a basic 5 gallon starter and they split that 4 ways to go into each barrel. I remember thinking that wouldn't be enough but they are the pros so I let it go. When I went to pick up my batch the informed me that I may want to let it sit in the carboy for a while and possible pitch some additional yeast with nutrient as they were measuring a gravity of 1.045.

Does anyone else feel we underpitched this brew? The O.G. was in the 1.110 range.

It seems like it. I've not made any beers that big in gravity or quantity, but if I make a 5 gallon batch (the size of their starter) I still use a .5 gallon starter.

They probably needed to seriously re-engineer their starter, and prop it up from something much small.

I would have done a 2L starter for the 5 gallon starter and used the yeast from a 5 gallon batch for each 55g barrel. At least. I plan to use a yeast cake for 5 gallons of imperial ale, for 55g there's no telling. Mr Malty may have a heart attack with that size.

Haha I tried it out in Mr. Malty. Smallest it goes is 6 vials of yeast in 26 gallon starter, OR 16 packets in a 7 gallon starter. For *each* 45 gallon batch. That seems pretty excessive to me though, then again I know nothing.

johnnyc said:

I would have done a 2L starter for the 5 gallon starter and used the yeast from a 5 gallon batch for each 55g barrel. At least. I plan to use a yeast cake for 5 gallons of imperial ale, for 55g there's no telling. Mr Malty may have a heart attack with that size.

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That's exactly what I would do for a batch with on OG of 1.060.

ya man i have'nt made any beers with that gravity or size before, in fact im very surprised that your stout would have that OG. But they made the starter 2 days before from a wyeast pack? It doesn't matter if it was in 5 gall. thats not enough time for creating large amounts of yeast. You know the yeast cake at the bottom of the carboy when your done with a batch? for 45 gall. I would want to pitch a minimum of two of those cakes, and thats a lot of yeast.

Off topic, but why FERMENT in the barrels? Wouldn't you want to just AGE in the barrels?

Honest question, I am not saying they did it wrong, I am curious.

Like said above, I probably would have made a 2L starter and then make that into a 5 G starter then decant and pitch.

chefmike said:

Off topic, but why FERMENT in the barrels? Wouldn't you want to just AGE in the barrels?

Honest question, I am not saying they did it wrong, I am curious.

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I cannot speak for beer, but with wine fermenting on oak lends different flavor profiles than aging on oak.