How much yeast?

[Camride]

First of all this site is awesome! Second of all I'm going to be making my second brew here in a couple weeks (just did my first this weekend, Midwest Supplies Irish Red) and for my second batch (Midwest Belgian Trippel) I randomly decided to opt for the White Labs liquid yeast (the Red came with dry). Now I've been reading up on how much yeast is required for brews and it seems that one vial is not enough unless I'm reading something wrong. Should I be ordering another vial for this batch? Since it's going to have a decently high ABV (~8-9%) and it's going to be sitting for quite a while I don't want to screw it up. If I do need another vial do I have to get the exact same type or can I pick up something similar at a local home brew store? I'm not planning on pitching a starter since I just don't have the time right now, so I'd rather just get another vial of yeast if that will work at this point.

Also if I'm going to have this Trippel sitting in bottles for 6+ months do I need to use those oxygen absorbing bottle caps?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Revvy]

Well, first you'll need to figure out how much yeast you need based on the og of the beer. The Mr Malty Pitch Rate Claculator is the best tool to use to figure it out.

Once you know how much yeast you need, then you make a starter, and feed it to the proper pitching size- Deathbrewer's tutorial is a great illustration of how simple it is to do.

 

[Camride]

Wow, so by those calculations I need almost 3x as much yeast as comes in the kit. Any idea why they would sell the kit this way? Seems like a recipe for over-stressed yeast and an inferior beer....

I originally didn't want to go through the process of making a starter but it doesn't look too bad. That seems like a lot to grow my one vial though.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I originally didn't want to go through the process of making a starter but it doesn't look too bad. That seems like a lot to grow my one vial though.

making a starter according to MrMalty will get the growth you need. it is pretty simple, and just requires a few days of advanced planning to have it ready for brew day. i highly recommend making a starter anytime you use a liquid yeast.

 

[Revvy]

Wow, so by those calculations I need almost 3x as much yeast as comes in the kit. Any idea why they would sell the kit this way? Seems like a recipe for over-stressed yeast and an inferior beer....

.

Because would you REALLY want to pay 30+ dollars in liquid yeast alone?

I think that it is assumed that most folks are going to hopefully be doing some reading before they would want to tackle a beer that big, and would think to do some research by reading books, looking online, or starting a thread asking if there is enough yeast to do the job on an online brewing forum, and being pointed to how to make a starter.