Counting Yeast Cells

[r_star61]

Fairly new to brewing and I want to start using my own yeast. I understand about making a starter but everything I see say make sure you pitch x amount of cells. How do you count yeast cells?

 

[boydster]

Most of us use estimates from pitch rate calcs like yeastcalc.com to get as close as possible with a starter. If you don't have a microscope and the equipment/patience necessary to do actual cell counts, the calcs work well enough. Otherwise, you would use methylene blue to stain the dead cells in a small sample and count how many live cells remain.

 

[flars]

Eureka Brewing has some good information on how to count cells if you really want to do that.

 

[r_star61]

Yeastcalc.com looks like a winner. Might be trying that soon.