where building a large yeast starter for lager's

[billybrewer]

Hello I going to brew a lager an I need yeast from a 2 gallon to 2.5 gallon yeast starter now my ? is where doing the yeast starter's is it better to step the yeast starter up too the 2 gallon to 2.5 gal . Meaning do I do 2L yeast starte ferment that out an then pitch that into a 2 gal or 2.5 gal yeast starter or can I just take one yeast tube an pitch that into the 2 gal to 2.5 gal starter an ferment that all the way out?????

 

[menschmaschine]

A 2-gallon starter is pretty big even for a lager. Is this a 10-gallon batch or a high gravity lager? Anyway, you need to step it up. Meaning you could pitch 1 tube into 2 liters, then step it up every 2 liters until you reach 2 gallons. I do large starters like this for lagers because I do 11 gallon batches. All I do is split 1 tube into 2 separate containers holding 2 liters each, then step each of them up 1 more time to get to 4 liters each. Remember you'll need to prepare this well in advance of brewing so the yeast have time to grow/ferment.

PS: You could use some punctuation/grammer in your posts. It's difficult to read. We're old-fashioned around here. And if English isn't your first language, well then you did pretty good!

 

[dstar26t]

Aren't you supposed to keep the step-ups under 10 times (at the most) the original volume? For example, a 125mL vial into a 1.25L starter.

 

[TeleTwanger]

I wouldn't step up 2 to 2.5 gallons, what's the point of that? That seems like a silly big starter if it's going into a 5gallon or even 10gallon batch. What's the gravity? Most people take 2L starters and ferment 5 gallons so 2 gallons should be fine.

 

[dstar26t]

The last pilsner I made used a 3 gallon starter for a 5 gallon batch. That's what Mr. Malty suggested for a 1.058 OG wort using whatever age the Wyeast 2056 was. It had 80% attenuation and it was the best beer I ever made.