Yeast Starter for 31.5 gal... how big?

[stratslinger]

Thanks! by doing the step up thats defintely more work , that means for sure more work, what about let it work the 3gal starter for half week? i get the DME for 3.7usd 1kg including shipping and 2.9usd 1kg for liquid extract with shipping and if i use dry yeast i will spend 30usd or more because it doesnt inlclude shipping

Well, here's the thing: doing the starter in 2 steps would generate significantly more growth than doing it all at once (seriously - just go and play around with the calculator at yeastcalc.com for about 20 minutes and you'll see for yourself).

But here's the other thing: going by woodlandbrew's figures, which seem a heckuva lot more reasonable and more easily attainable, it looks more like you could hit it with two steps of 1.25 gallons each, with 467g of DME in each starter. That'd leave you with a cell count of just a hair over 900 billion. For comparison, if you did just a single starter of 2.5 gallons, it'd only give you 653 billion cells.

If you could rig up your aeration stone for constant aeration the whole time the starter is going, you're closer to 1.1 gallon each step and 411g DME. If you had a stir plate big enough for the task, you could get down to .83 gallons each step (310g DME).

 

[atreid]

Just make a 5g batch first and pitch the yeast cake. Should be good. But I don't see how 5 packs of dry yeast could be more expensive than a 20 liters of beer. Then again, you have the beer to show for it.

A good starter is aerated whether it's from stir plate, intermittent shaking or constant O2. An oxygenated fermentation is no fermentation, it's propagation, so there's no "beer" to show for it.

If it's drinkable, it's not a good starter...

 

[Bierliebhaber]

a good starter is aerated whether it's from stir plate, intermittent shaking or constant o2. An oxygenated fermentation is no fermentation, it's propagation, so there's no "beer" to show for it.

If it's drinkable, it's not a good starter...

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahha

 

[atreid]

lol...

Kind of an oversized reaction to a simple truth... ;-)

 

[jbguzzi]

I think for that size batch, barring having the proper equipment, use an appropriate amount of dry yeast. I just recently discovered go-ferm which is a yeast nutrient designed for rehydrating the yeast. It worked great. I also used fermaid k in addition added in the lag phase and then after brew is about 2/3 done. Dry yeast is a lot better than it used to be. If it was me, all dry for that size. Good luck!