Too much yeast?

[ibpick]

Hi all. Will be brewing an imperial porter with 12 lbs of LME. The guy at local shop recommended 2 vials of WLP002 due to the amount of extract. His reasoning was that 1 might not be enough for that amount of extract. I previously did a I2PA clone with similar amount of extract and only 1 vial. It seemed to do the job. My question is, what is the risk of 2 vials of yeast? This will only be my 4th batch so still new to this. Thanks in advance

 

[Hammy71]

If your not making a starter, than I would surely pitch 2 vials for an Imperial Porter. Hopefully that will be enough. What is the expected OG?

 

[Yooper]

If your not making a starter, than I would surely pitch 2 vials for an Imperial Porter. Hopefully that will be enough. What is the expected OG?

With 12 pounds of LME, I think even two vials is underpitching if you're not making a starter. According to mrmalty.com, an OG of 1.082 with fairly fresh yeast needs closer to four vials of yeast without a starter.

 

[GuldTuborg]

12lbs LME in 5 gallons is going to get you closer to 1090 than it is 1080, so this will be a big beer for sure. That's without the other grains you'll no doubt be adding. Make a starter. Even 2 vials is most likely underpitching.

Edit: Ninjaed! I'll need to type faster from now on.

 

[ibpick]

Thank you all for the replies. Expected OG is 1.081-1.084. Haven't done a starter before. Always a first.

 

[ibpick]

Update: All the posts I see about starters are with DME. My kit has LME and I have no DME on hand.
1) Would I use an equivalant amount of LME to do a starter?
2) Do I just use the 1 vial I have for the starter?
3) I suppose I could use the other later down the road with another starter even if it is passed it's Best before date?

Thanks again in advance

 

[kh54s10]

You don't really want to take the LME away from your kit. It will change that beers profile. But with 12 lbs you could probably spare a little.

I am not sure but I think you would need about 10% more LME than DME to get the same results. You could put the ingredients into a calculator like Beer Calcluls on Hopville.com to see how much you need. You would want 1.030-1.040 for your starter.

mrmalty.com is a good source for information on starters and how much you need for a given gravity beer.

You could use one vial or possibly use both and make a smaller starter.

Look into making a stirplate. You should be able to do it for less than $20. That way you can make smaller starters and do it faster.

 

[MrManifesto]

2000ml of starter isn't going to make a difference in your beers profile. go with what you have.