Large yeast starter for 2bbl brew

[westchesterBrewer]

Wanting to do a 2 bbl brew on our club's large system next year to fill a 60 gallon wine barrel. Shooting for an OG of 1.072 and producing around 62 gallons. Yeast calculations are coming in at around 3 Trillion yeast cells for a proper pitch.

How on earth can I can produce a yeast starter large enough to produce that much yeast? My 2L and 5L flasks are not going to cut it...nor is buying 30 packets of yeast.

Thoughts?

 

[jtratcliff]

What about using the entire yeast cake from a 5 or 10 gallon batch? Or maybe from a couple 5 or 10 gallon batches? Those would be the ultimate starters, wouldn't they?

 

[bigdawg86]

According to this calculator you should be fine with a 10 gallon starter on a stir plate!

http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php

 

[DurtyChemist]

Create a larger starter. 5 gallon starter batches should work well. My club did a brew where everyone brewed on their systems, fermented at home then filled the barrel and aged it. Came out great.

 

[madscientist451]

You sure you want to do primary in a wine barrel? What style of beer are you brewing?
I think a better plan would be to ferment clean, rack off the dead yeast and then go to the barrel for aging, wood character or whatever it is you are trying to achieve. You could then fill the barrel up and avoid problems associated with too much head space. If you still want to use the barrel for primary, I'd ferment three, 5 gallon batches and use the yeast slurry from all three in the barrel. Good Luck!