Another Starter Question...sigh

[user 22118]

Dead horse beating here...

So I harvested some yeast about three weeks ago. According to the Mr. Malty calculator, I should be able to pitch 400ml of the stuff into wort and make beer. I don't want to chance it too much, so I made up a 1.5L starter with 1.040 wort and about a cup of slurry. I let it go for a day and it was at full krausen, but I don't know if it will be enough for 10 gallons of 1.060 wort or if I need to pitch a packet of S-04 in there just to make sure I have enough yeast. The Mr Malty is great for starters with packaged yeast, just not with slurry.

Thoughts?

 

[TipsyDragon]

while starters are an extremely good idea and you should do one if you can, they are not 100% necessary. I routinely put just one vial of liquid yeast onto a 5 gallon batch with no ill effects. so, that 1.5L starter is WAY better than what i usually and if its not exactly the right amount its not going to hurt your brew. if your at all worried about the cell count then go ahead and add the extra yeast it wont hurt your brew if you over pitch.

 

[kanzimonson]

I think you'll be fine with the starter you made.

And I find I like the calculator's "repitched slurry" section. You can punch in the date you harvested the yeast and it'll tell you how many ml of slurry you need. Of course, the calculator works backwards from TODAY, so if you're planning for a brew one week in advance, you actually need to select your harvest date as one week older than it actually way to get an idea of how much you'll need.

If I don't have as much slurry as the calculator recommends, I'll look at the "liquid yeast" tab, put the manufacturing date as my harvest date, and then make the size starter it recommends. Maybe not perfect but leaps ahead of just throwing in a vial.