>>>OG on the starter

[azazel1024]

So I am making a yeast starter for the first time after a long time of dry yeast brewing. I am making a Dopplebock this weekend and didn't bother to read up anything on making starters before making an equipment plunge and ingredient buy. Got a vial of Wyyeast bock yeast and a 1l flask, figuring that should be sufficient for a 4 gallon batch at 1.079OG. Reading up, I should be looking at a 4L starter. DOH!

So, fellow homebrewer suggested stepping up the starter as many times between now and then to not under pitch.

Did my original starter, fermented for about 20hrs, after 26hrs I stuck it in my fridge, decanted the liquid and pitched another starter and neutrient on top. Krausen out the wazoo within minutes! WOW was that thing active. I've never seen a fermentation that active before (in a carboy, with dry yeast and direct pitching I've seen about 2 inches of krausen, this flask had >4 inches of krausen and some over run within 15 minutes).

Now looking at it, I've been using WAY too much DME on the starter, which is completely my fault, instead of measuring weight, I just looked at volume and saw someone say 2 cups water to 1/2cup DME and doubled it for both starters...except that it is more like 1.08OG with that!!!

Did I just over stress the heck out of the yeast? With the first step up, the fermentation was done by morning (5am, started at 8pm). I plan on 1-2 more step ups before brewing on Sunday. Should I figure that I actually cultured up a lot more yeast than I had planned on doing with the initial and first step up and not do any more? Do one very gentle 1.03OG (taking real readings of gravity first and/or using my darned scale!!!) step up to try to get the yeast healthier?

I absolutely don't have the ability to hit the LHBS to get new yeast, nor get the new equipment to do a 4L starter, all by this Sunday. I also don't want to waste the ingredients for a 4 gallon batch of dopplebock and I also don't have an easy way to brew this after this Sunday.

Obv, if I destroyed any chance of using this yeast, there is no point it doing it...but might I have any lucky? I did do a lot of manual agitation of the starter (I don't have a stir plate yet) and I used a ton of yeast neutrient each time.

 

[CorporateHippie]

Is your started still active? if so then I think you are fine. I also think you are seriously rushing a yeast starter by "stepping it up" in 1 day. However, if you run out of space for the krausen you can always use a growler. I think most of us have a growler or two (or 20) laying around.

 

[azazel1024]

Well crud, I do have a 32oz growler and it never occured to me to use it for a starter.

Technically it is every 48hrs. 24hrs on fermentation and then in my brewing minifridge (where I keep supplies and "excess" beer I want kept cold) that I keep at 50F to flocculate out for 24hrs.

My biggest issue is keeping my dopplebock at the proper temp. I can do an water bath that should keep it within 3-4F, but too much of a pain to do for a week or two. So I am brewing it this Sunday and I leave Wednesday afternoon for a week and a half and can turn my basement thermostat down to 58F (which is 55F on the slab) while I am going to get it in the right temp range (high end though) of the yeast. So I'll do a water bath till I leave and then turn the thermostat way down.

 

[azazel1024]

And dang, now I am thinking I didn't massively over pitch. So, DME is 1lb per gallon to yield a gravity of 1.044 right? 1lb of DME is something like 3 cups, roughly (or so it seems based on what I have left after using 2 cups of it, roughly 1-1.4 cups left)?

So it if did 1 cup of DME in 4 cups of water (4 cups is 1 quarter, a quarter of a gallon) that should have actually yielded more like ~1.06OG and not 1.08OG, so only moderately overshooting target OG for a starter.

I know, I know, what I really need to do is measure out the weight of the DME instead of trying to do it by volume and I will next time. Just trying to think happy thoughts that I didn't overstress the yeast and it'll cause me problems.

 

[CorporateHippie]

I think it will be fine. Good luck

 

[WoodlandBrew]

Biomass yield is directly proportional to extract consumption, so with 50% more extract, 50% more cells are grown. 1.060 is high for a starter, but I wouldn't worry about the yeast health unless you were trying to use that gravity to revive bottle dregs. Typical time to 90% cell production is about 24 hours on a stir plate and 3-4 days without a stir plate. So you probably don't have the yield that the calculators are suggesting.

All that being said, I'm sure your beer will be fine.

 

[azazel1024]

Thanks guys! I am going to do one final step tonight, but I am going to go mild at 1.03 or so. I am hoping/figuring in the end I should have close enough that I won't have badly under pitched the lager. That said, since I think the bulk of the fermentation is going to be on the high end of the temperature range with only the first 2-3 days possibly on the low end of it, hopefully it'll be fine.

Live and learn.