Propogating for a 40 gallon ferment...

[morrillt]

Hey guys, any tips regarding propagating yeast for a 40 gallon ferment? I have a wyeast packet from kolch manufactured in january. Is it just a matter of stepping it up 20x? Any tips special considerations?

Mr Malty says i need 1347 billion

and my yeast pack probably has 1/2 alive, at 100 billion.

I was thinkkning of doing a 1000L starter than repitching in a 5000, multiple times until the step calculator, http://www.yeastcalculator.com/, says i am done. Am i missing something? Can i make enough yeast from 1 pack for this? and reuse into the future?

Thanks
Todd

 

[Mike_kever_kombi]

Why not make 10 gallons of a small beer, and collect yeast from that.

Then you get yeast and beer.

 

[sudbuddy]

Why not make 10 gallons of a small beer, and collect yeast from that.

Then you get yeast and beer.

+1 to that

 

[sandyeggoxj]

What is your og? 1347bil seems low depending on og and pitch rate.

But I agree that you just need to make a small beer first. Or you could brew a 10 gallon batch and then brew the next 30 barrels a few days later and put it onto of the fermenting 10 gallons during high krausen.

 

[Brettomomyces]

You'd basically need a 3-4g starter...I think brewing a 10g batch and harvesting the entire cake is a good idea as well.