Crazy Beersmith pitch rate?

[maplemontbrew]

Just getting my beersmith software up and running and started with my hefeweizen recipe. Five gallon all grain batch, 8.75 lb. grain bill, Wyeast 8036 yeast. Beersmith calling for 216 billion yeast cells needed. Does that sound correct or have I made a major blunder imputing my data? Final pitch rate number from Wyeast website for 3068 with 2qt. starter and stir plate is 16.39 billion. Help!

 

[disney7]

216B could be a little low actually. What is your OG?

You must be entering something wrong on the WY web site. 16B is way too low for a 5 gallon batch of anything. The smack packs start out at 100B before they start dying off from age.

 

[Begin2Brew]

Just getting my beersmith software up and running and started with my hefeweizen recipe. Five gallon all grain batch, 8.75 lb. grain bill, Wyeast 8036 yeast. Beersmith calling for 216 billion yeast cells needed. Does that sound correct or have I made a major blunder imputing my data? Final pitch rate number from Wyeast website for 3068 with 2qt. starter and stir plate is 16.39 billion. Help!

216B is pretty close. I checked my Beersmith Hefe and for a 5.5 gallons at 1.054OG I need 254B.

 

[maplemontbrew]

216B could be a little low actually. What is your OG? You must be entering something wrong on the WY web site. 16B is way too low for a 5 gallon batch of anything. The smack packs start out at 100B before they start dying off from age.

OG is 1.047. If wyeast starts out at 100B then I should be ok with 24 hour starter using a stir plate ?

 

[maplemontbrew]

Here is the screen shot of the starter page I am looking at. I understand the yeast cells needed but that is about all.

 

[BreezyBrew]

216B could be a little low actually. What is your OG?

You must be entering something wrong on the WY web site. 16B is way too low for a 5 gallon batch of anything. The smack packs start out at 100B before they start dying off from age.

This! I'd say around 250 would be my estimation.

 

[disney7]

Probably, but it depends on how old your yeast is.

I use either http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html or http://yeastcalc.com/

Mr.Malty says you need a 1 liter starter (w/stir plate) for that OG if your yeast is 97% viable (need 165B cells). You'll need a bigger starter if your yeast is older.

That's for 5 gallons. Keep in mind that if you put 5 gallons in your fermenter, you're going to wind up with less than that in your keg or bottles. I lose half a gallon when racking off the yeast cake. So I make 5.5 gallon batches.

Don't sweat it too much though. As long as your yeast isn't ancient (3.5 months or so) and you are making a 1 to 1.5 liter starter with a stir plate you are going to be in good shape. You might overpitch a bit, but in my experience that amount of possible overpitch won't cause any problems in your average ale.

 

[disney7]

Oh, and I'd go 36 to 48 hours on the starter. If you can't, 24 is better than nothing.

Mine are generally done and starting to drop out by 48, but they are often still going at 24.

 

[zeekage]

The reason Beersmith is saying you're only going to end up with 30B cells is because it's saying your smack pack is only 5% viable (i.e. you're only starting with 5B cells instead of 100B). If you want to use beersmith as the calculator for your starter then make sure the correct packaging date is set for the yeast so it picks the right viability %.

 

[disney7]

The reason Beersmith is saying you're only going to end up with 30B cells is because it's saying your smack pack is only 5% viable (i.e. you're only starting with 5B cells instead of 100B). If you want to use beersmith as the calculator for your starter then make sure the correct packaging date is set for the yeast so it picks the right viability %.

+1 to the above

Also, WYeast puts the packaging date on their packs. White Labs puts the expiration date on theirs, so you have to deduct 4 months to get the packaging date.

 

[chickypad]

Just getting my beersmith software up and running and started with my hefeweizen recipe. Five gallon all grain batch, 8.75 lb. grain bill, Wyeast 8036 yeast. Beersmith calling for 216 billion yeast cells needed. Does that sound correct or have I made a major blunder imputing my data? Final pitch rate number from Wyeast website for 3068 with 2qt. starter and stir plate is 16.39 billion. Help!

You're comparing apples to oranges. MrMalty, yeastcalc, and Beersmith show how many billion cells needed for your batch. Wyeast is showing the pitch rate in million cells/ml.

 

[maplemontbrew]

Ok. I. See where went off the tracks! Thanks!!

 

[causeimthesquid]

I don't know if your calculations account for style but I do know you generally want to under pitch hefe to increase ester production.