Start of a Starter FAQ

[jhall4]

Hello. I am pretty new to homebrewing. I am making a beer that is going to be about 1.110 OG. I calculated that I'll need about 360 Billion yeast cells from the 1 billion cell pack, about 8-9 doublings. I have a stir plate and a 2L flask. How do you figure out the size of the starter you need and how many times/how often do I need to decant and then refill with more DME wort?

I could find calculators for yeast cells total but nothing for how to get to that total.

First of all, wyeast packs are 100 billion and white labs vials range from 70-140 billion so averaging about 100 billion (with some rounding) That means you're looking at 3.6 doublings if you use one pack.

However, using Mr. Malty's calculator (http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html) it looks like you should pitch two packs into a 1.21 liter starter (assuming you have a stir plate) and you'll be good to go!

 

[dongemus]

Thanks, I don't know why I was thinking 1 billion instead of 100 billion. N00bs will be n00bs

I was trying to find out how to get away with just one pack/vial... I just stumbled onto this post and it really makes it easy. I guess it's called "Stepping up"

 

[jhall4]

Thanks, I don't know why I was thinking 1 billion instead of 100 billion. N00bs will be n00bs

I was trying to find out how to get away with just one pack/vial... I just stumbled onto this post and it really makes it easy. I guess it's called "Stepping up"

That is another option. If you have the time (you're basically making two starters, so it takes twice as long) I'd do that to keep your costs down.