How big of a starter do I need for my washed yeast.

[Anonguest]

Hi there,

I'm attempting to re-pitch my first batch of rinsed yeast. It was rinsed on 9/25 giving it 22% viability according to Jamil's calculator. Unfortunately I only have a small amount of the stuff. I had four jars but other jars got tossed out. I managed to save this one from imminent death by drain. Judging by the attached photo I took there looks to be about 20ml of dense packed yeast at the bottom of my 400ml jar.

For the brew I am working up next (Ale, 1.052 @ 5.5G) Jamil's calculator says I need 200B cells.

I nearly gave up and threw this away but I figured I wouldn't learn anything so I'm going to see if I can't figure out a way to turn this tiny amount of yeast into some beer.

Questions:

1) How many yeast is in my (estimated) 20ml of yeast? Can that be accurately estimated?
2) How big should my starter be to grow my value from #1 to 200B cells? single starter or stepped?


Bonus Question:

1) Jamil's calc says it uses the harvest date as a starting point to assess viability but if you're the type to keep your beer in the ferment for 6 weeks over 2 weeks wouldn't that make a difference?

 

[solbes]

I just did this with a Kolsch that didn't have many cells (my first wash from spring). I stepped it. First did a 1 pint starter, let that go for 48 hours, and then did 2 quart and let that go for 3 days. Cold crashed for 2 days (Kolsch doesn't want to drop very easily), decanted, and pitched. Had a prettly low lag time, maybe 6 hours. Fermenting away really well now.

 

[ThickHead]

See here

Edit: Oops...I see from your bonus question you have already researched the above.