Large BatchYeast Requirements

[Archer]

A friend and I are contemplating making our first large batch(s) of hard cider this fall. We are thinking 200-275 gallons in an IBC. Hopefully, together we can exceed the 200 gal legal limit, otherwise we will split it in smaller vessels. My question, however, is how much yeast and yeast nutrient we should pitch into that volume of juice? We are thinking of using either Nottinham or WLP English Cider or English Ale yeasts and can't seem to find any information on their websites about this. (Hard to believe a normal packet or a single vial would produce enough yeast for that quantity of cider.) Any one able to help us out on this?

 

[ColoHox]

This is exactly the same as growing yeast for anything else. Of course a single packet/vial is not enough, you will have to either purchase a ton of yeast and pitch, or purchase less than a ton and grow it up in a starter. Use the Mr. Malty calculator to get an estimate of the numbers you will be needing.

 

[Archer]

On the Nottingham website I found a reference to floating 100g of yeast for 100 liters of wort when making ale...not sure if that math carries over to a bigger batch, say ten times that size, as 250 gal is about 1000 liters. Per the MrMalty (if I used it correctly) 250 gal with dry yeast would require 468 grams...half the above dose!!

 

[ColoHox]

It really depends on your cells/ml/plato.

If you shoot for 0.5 million cells/ml/plato, you will pitch ~590 grams.

On the other hand, if you go up to 1 million cells/ml/plato, you move up to ~1173 grams.

Try out the Brewers Friend calculator

If you get right between those numbers, you will be fine. What is the estimated S.G.? That number will probably determine if you should go higher or lower. My recommendation would be on the upper end of the scale.

 

[MindenMan]

Nottingham yeast comes in 500 gram foil packs. The last time I purchased a 500 gram bag of yeast, it was really cheap. It was Red Pasteur, and it was $28.00. Just a thought.

 

[podz]

My guess is that you want to grow a starter to 1/10th of your total volume, i.e. 20-30 gallons starter.

It's pretty easy to do. Simply start a handful of 5 gallon vessels with a normal cider recipe, i.e. one pack of dry yeast and about 750 grams of sugar per vessel using store bought apple juice if you don't already have juice on hand. Let them ferment for about four days until the yeast is very heavy in suspension, then just empty them straight into your larger vessels, slurry and all.

This is nothing more complicated than making 5 gallon starters... Five packs of dry yeast is a whole lot cheaper than fifty packs of dried yeast.

 

[Archer]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. Thinking I will just purchase a greater amount of yeast and pitch directly to the main batch per the suggestions above, but Podz your starter idea intrigues me...how would I know how many cells the starter will have once its ready and if its enough to pitch into the main batch?

 

[podz]

Thanks everyone for the good advice. Thinking I will just purchase a greater amount of yeast and pitch directly to the main batch per the suggestions above, but Podz your starter idea intrigues me...how would I know how many cells the starter will have once its ready and if its enough to pitch into the main batch?

Yeast cell count is never more than a WAG (wild ass guess), not accurate at all. It's sort of like trying to estimate the number of stars in a given sector of outer space.

I look at it like this: I have made plenty of 20 litre batches with a 2 litre slurry from the previous batch and it always starts blowing C02 within about half an hour.

But don't let me try to convince you, do what you feel will work best. If I were going to make 200 gallons, you can bet that I'd make a 20 gallon starter instead of buying 50-60 packs of dry yeast.