starter for dry yeast to reduce lag time?

[Miraculix]

Well, I have to say, this beer came out super fricking awesome! Super clean, 75% attenuation, absolutely no heat for 9.5% ABV (dangerous). For high gravity beers where I want a neutral profile, I'll continue to follow this protocol.

Also just kegged an imperial stout 1.090 OG & 1.022 FG using the same starter method. Was active within 5 hours from pitching. Sample tasted great today. This one's going on oak for a few months.

Glad to hear that! Works also for me every time. Even when I work with an expressive yeast. They don't get muted in my experience. But clean yeast really gets even a bit cleaner then normal. I also do this with my warm fermented lagers, this works really well.

 

[Unicorn_Platypus]

Glad to hear that! Works also for me every time. Even when I work with an expressive yeast. They don't get muted in my experience. But clean yeast really gets even a bit cleaner then normal. I also do this with my warm fermented lagers, this works really well.

In terms of using a calculator to estimate cell count I'd find it confusing for a more expressive yeast.

Lallemand says there's 5 billion cells per gram of yeast which would mean there's 55 billion per 11g pack. Most yeast pitching calculators treat 11g packs of dry yeast as having 200 billion. Which numbers do you use when calculating start cell count for your starters?

 

[Miraculix]

In terms of using a calculator to estimate cell count I'd find it confusing for a more expressive yeast.

Lallemand says there's 5 billion cells per gram of yeast which would mean there's 55 billion per 11g pack. Most yeast pitching calculators treat 11g packs of dry yeast as having 200 billion. Which numbers do you use when calculating start cell count for your starters?

I don't calculate. I go by first guessing from experience what should theoretically work and then I check if the result is what I wanted. Overpitching isn't really an issue. Underpitching however is a real thing. So erring on the high side is ok in my books.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Lallemand says there's 5 billion cells per gram of yeast which would mean there's 55 billion per 11g pack. Most yeast pitching calculators treat 11g packs of dry yeast as having 200 billion. Which numbers do you use when calculating start cell count for your starters?

They don't say there's 5 billion per gram - they guarantee at least 5 billion per gram. Big difference.

Somewhere on the interweb there's a guy who counted viable cells in several packs of dry yeast and was typically coming up with numbers of 22 billion/g IIRC - so trust the calculators.

The big exception is New England which hates being dried so Lallemand only guarantee 1 billion/g IIRC - and one might assume the real-world number is 5-10billion.

 

[Bassman2003]

The perpetual unknown. Yeast companies have been lying to homebrewers since day one. "Sure, you can direct pitch 50-70 billion half dead cells..." Only in recent years have the new entrants been truthful and forced the 'old guard' to improve their ways. I would be shocked to see 242 billion actual and viable yeast cells in a single 11g packet of dry yeast. The starter method seemed to work well and probably evens the score vs liquid. The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

 

[Miraculix]

Well said.