Starter Cell Count

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JakeFegely

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I will be brewing my first lager on Friday - a 1.057 O-fest. 2 different sources are giving very different numbers for the amount of starter needed. Palmer's How to Brew book says about 200 billion cells. mrmalty.com says about 400 billion. I'll be aerating with pure oxygen and using a stir plate.

I'd appreciate any input from experienced lager brewers.

Thanks,
Jake
 
Assuming you are talking about a ~5 gallon batch, you will want 400 billion cells. Don't forget to adjust based on the viability/manufacture date as this can make a big difference if the yeast is old.
 
Also note there are two schools of thought on lagers. You can either pitch ~70 degrees and drop temp to your lager fermentation temp (48-52 deg), or you can pitch cold, ~43 degrees, and let the temp rise to your fermentation temp.

The advantage of the former is that you get your yeast propagating in the wort, so you don't have to pitch *quite* as much yeast. The disadvantage of the former is that you have the yeast propagating in the wort, so you might get some undesirable flavors from that process and might not have *quite* as clean of a flavor as if you'd pitched cold.

Either way, though, IMHO your pitch rate on a lager is very important, so if you don't have the ability to grow enough yeast to pitch cold, it's probably better to pitch warm and cool it from there.
 
Thanks everyone. I guess it just surprised me that Palmer had bad information. I bought 2 vials of WLP838 late yesterday. Per mrmalty, those 2 in a 1.6L starter should give me the 400 billion cells I need. Got the starter going last night and it looks good so far.
I plan to grow the starter at about 68 F, then chill in the refrig, and decant before pitching into cold (hopefully) wort.

This will also be my first decoction mash so it should be an interesting day.:rockin:

Thanks again
 
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