Growing Yeast

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y2jrock60

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I have been homebrewing occasionally for the last few years and have finally gotten back into it after a 2 year hiatus. I always use a yeast starter but never with re-harvested yeast. I'm thinking about harvesting and washing the yeast from my Pale Ale at the end of the week. I understand the process and watched numerous videos on the subject.

I plan on making a Double IPA in the next month and I understand that I'm going to need more yeast than I normally would since the OG will be 1.090 or higher. I heard I will need 1 cup of yeast slurry for a beer that big. I will likely harvest and wash enough yeast from my Pale Ale to achieve this, but what if I don't? Is there anyway to increase and grow the amount of yeast? Would it be possible to make a starter, dump off the converted wort after a few days and add fresh wort repeating the process to increase the amount of yeast?

I'm not really sure how to grow yeast. I'm pretty sure I've seen the process of growing yeast before, but can't remember exactly how to do it. Or maybe it isn't possible.

Would a large starter with about a gallon of wort work for a big ale? Or am I only concerned about the amount of yeast I pitch?

I'm just really confused about how to increase and grow yeast. I've asked about 6 questions in the post. Sorry if it's hard to understand. I haven't been feeling well the last few days and I'm really confused about the subject. Thanks your help in advance.
 
I'm similar to you. Just got into yeast starters in the past year and do them for all my beers now. The process you described (in question form) is what I do...use new or harvested yeast and make a small wort (roughly 16oz water and 1cup DME), wait roughly 24 hours, then decant (basically, pour the wort/beer off the yeast cake, leaving the yeast behind), then step up the starter by adding another small wort. Step up the starter up to the total starter amount you need based on OG. If I'm doing a high OG beer, I begin my starter a week before brew day and step up the starter every 24, 36, or 48 hours, getting up to about a gallon starter by the end. You can use yeast calculators and go crazy with numbers if you want (I think Mr. Malty is one, don't know), but I just use a general rule of thumb...OG around 1.040, I do about 1/2Gal starter...OG at 1.090 or higher, I do a 1Gal starter. Everything else falls somewhere in between there.

You are definitely on the right path. I have found that it is much easier than I orginally expected. And most research I did described the basic starter process but not the step up methods. I hope this helps.
 
To answer a couple of your other questions....there are a couple of things you can do. You can have your Double IPA brewed and ready to go, then move your Pale Ale off the yeast (assuming out of the primary, either to bottles/keg or into a secondary), and pour your Double right onto that yeast cake. You would certainly have enough yeast there for the 1.090 Double. Make sure you have a blow off tube, though.

Or if you will have a time gap between moving the Pale Ale and brewing the Double, you can harvest the yeast (sounds like you've read/viewed enough on that process) and store it until ready for the Double. Depending on the timing there, I would recommend you do a yeast starter with that harvested yeast to ensure you have enough cells for the high OG. Folks say one week is okay for yeast viability in the fridge, but after that you probably need a starter to grow more cells.

Again, hope that extra info helps. Good luck with the Double IPA. My high OG beer was at 1.110 and I used a 1 Gallon starter. The fermentation started very quickly. When I transferred to the secondary my gravity was stuck at about 1.030, but got down to 1.020 (where I wanted it) after several months in the carboy letting the yeast do their thing. It's a Belgian Dark Strong Ale and came out at 11.7% abv...drinking it now and it's awesome!
 
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