600ml of slurry. make a starter or pitch it?

[Komocabo]

I harvested some of Denny's Fav 40 (Wyeast) on 12/15 into 4 mason jars. Tonight I was going to make a 1L starter, and step up to 2L on Friday as I'll brew on Sunday.

I decanted the liquid from each jar and combined into one before I made my starter wort. I ended up with about 600ml of slurry, which looks, smells, and tastes great (tasted from an emptied jar-I'm very cautious about sanitation).

So here I am... 600ml of slurry and a 2L flask... Here's what I'm thinking:

1) Cold crash the slurry, set it aside and make a 1.5L starter on Friday night. Cold crash Saturday, and pitch on Sunday afternoon. (Going to brew 11gal batch, and given the amount of slurry, I'm not worried about stepping it up).

2) Make a 1L starter now, and let it sit on the stir plate until Saturday. That would make about 1.6L volume in a 2L flask. Worries here are that I will have a mess to clean up as it may spill out being on there so long.

I'm leaning towards option #1.

Thoughts? Other suggestions?

 

[Komocabo]

I realize now, I probably should have only decanted 1 or 2 jars and saved the others for next brew day... Lesson learned! On a positive note, I'm feeling more and more confident with my yeast handling abilities, especially since I got a stir plate (thanks Santa!)

 

[CA_Mouse]

I would have just made a 2 liter starter and used the slurry from 1 jar. 150ml is about 2x the amount of yeast in a vial (as long as the yeast has been rinsed fairly well).

 

[Komocabo]

I was basically dumped from the fermenter into the jar and not washed or rinsed. Just good old yeast and a little trub. So, should I just maybe pour 1/4 to 1/2 and make a 2L starter and save the rest for later?

 

[jbaysurfer]

I realize now, I probably should have only decanted 1 or 2 jars and saved the others for next brew day... Lesson learned! On a positive note, I'm feeling more and more confident with my yeast handling abilities, especially since I got a stir plate (thanks Santa!)

It depends on what size batch/og beer you're making. But if you decide to step up anyway, harvest some of that yeast into another 2 jars and you'll only have used up 1 generation.

 

[Komocabo]

Thanks for the advice guys. I still staring at the jar and all my stuff... I think I'll make a 1L tonight and maybe get a bigger flask as the last 2L starter overflowed.. probably step the whole thing up to a 3L starter (5L flask) and save some for later. My wife will love seeing more brew equipment suddenly show up...

 

[Komocabo]

Ok, so I pitched the whole 600ml into 1L of starter wort. This is roughly 24 hours later... shouldn't I have more krausen? Does this look ok?