Morebeer sent 2 viles

[sabo38]

So I ordered a oatmeal stout all grain kit from morebeer. The estimated OG is 1.058-62. They sent me 2 viles of white labs English ale yeast wlp002. I am making a 1 liter starter and wonder if u should add both viles? Or should I save 1 for future use?

 

[Hex23]

It depends on your date of manufacture (to estimate viability), but the mrmalty pitch calculator shows 2 vials into 1 liter (5.5 gallon ale, 75% viability and stirred starter). But you might want to plug your data into the calculator yourself: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

But by bumping up your starter volume by only a little you might be able to just pitch one vial.

Is it possible they sent two vials because it's getting old?

 

[sabo38]

It says use by August 10th

 

[Hex23]

It says use by August 10th

Yep, that's getting relatively old. The mrmalty calculator says that's about 32% viability. So, now you're looking at both vials into a 1.75L stirred starter (1.060 and 5.5 gallons).

 

[sabo38]

Thank you very much Hex! This is my first white labs yeast.

 

[EineProsit]

I would use both vials with the starter then if I wanted a second brew with that yeast I would wash the yeast after the primary stage or simply drop new wort onto the cake.

 

[Hex23]

Ya, I just used my first vial of while labs a couple of batches ago. One thing that surprised me was the pressure built up in the vial and the difficulty to get the whole slurry out. These two factors compete with one another - you want to shake to get the slurry stirred, but that will cause the pressure escape to be more rapid. I learned that you have to be very cautious and slowly open the cap, relieving a little pressure at a time. I was doing an experiment with 4 total vials of different yeasts, and my first vial erupted with foam when I cracked the cap. It might be a good idea to slowly release pressure, recap, shake, slowly release pressure, repeat, etc.

 

[erikpete18]

Ha, yeah, I've found if you first release the pressure when its right out of the fridge without shaking, that helps. Then as it warms you can slowly shake it a little and open slowly like you suggest, until most of the dissolved CO2 is out of suspension, then you can worry about getting the yeast shaken up. I definitely made a huge mess my first time around!