Building up an appropriate starter

[bendog15]

I'm interested in building up an appropriate size starter for a 10 gal batch. I've got a 2000ml Erlenmeyer flask, stir plate, plenty of DME, and one small vial of yeast.
I don't wanna buy a 5000 ml flask, too expensive. Can I use a glass milk jug, or 1 gal mason jar to do this? Yeast calculators online show me I need a bigger container.

 

[sandyeggoxj]

A flat glass jar is really all you need. Just don't direct heat anything that isn't borosilicate glass.

I have a 5l flask and stir plate and I have to do a 2 step starter for my next 2 brews. I pitch high gravity at 1.25mil/ml/°P.

 

[flars]

My container for large starters is a plastic 1.1 gallon Rubbermaid storage container. I have also used large pickle jars. The container just needs a flat bottom so the stir bar is not thrown.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/new-yeast-starter-container-61619.html

 

[philosofool]

You will probably be best off doing two starters. Make one, put the yeast in a mason jar (sanitized, of course), then make a second one. Pitch it all into the beer. Each starter will probably need to be a stepped starter. Back of the envelope: you need 800 bil cells for your beer at 1.050. If you really want to save money, you can make one starter, put half in a mason jar and make a second starter with the other half, put that in a jar and then make another starter, with just one vial. It's going to take a week to propagate this much yeast with a 2L flask though.

 

[user 141939]

You will probably be best off doing two starters. Make one, put the yeast in a mason jar (sanitized, of course), then make a second one. Pitch it all into the beer. Each starter will probably need to be a stepped starter. Back of the envelope: you need 800 bil cells for your beer at 1.050. If you really want to save money, you can make one starter, put half in a mason jar and make a second starter with the other half, put that in a jar and then make another starter, with just one vial. It's going to take a week to propagate this much yeast with a 2L flask though.

800 billion? Wow you pitch a lot of yeast. The calculators would say around 350.

 

[Natdavis777]

800 billion? Wow you pitch a lot of yeast. The calculators would say around 350.

Agreed... 800 billion is rather high