Yeast starter, guess the number of cells?

[kpr121]

This is from Bells Oberon dregs, 8 bottles worth. Starter was approximately 800 ml at 1.020. Wort finished bone dry, around 1.005. No stir plate, only the ‘shake when you walk past’ method.

I’m trying to get an idea of how much yeast is in here so I can plug it into a starter calculator. Plans are to pitch this into 11.5 gallons of Oberon Clone at 1.057 OG, which means I need about 460 billion cells.

 

[Smellyglove]

This will by no means give you an exact numer, but at least a ballpark.

If you used DME for your starter, convert the amount of DME used into grams, multiply it by 0.75, then each gram equals to about 1 billion new cells (that means not accounting for what you started with). You'll most likely calculate an amount of cells which is on the lower end of what's actually in there.

 

[IslandLizard]

Is that a 2l flask? You're probably barely there likely a bit short. 1.020 is thin and without a stir plate half of it ferments out.

I weigh the empty flasks (write the "gram" weight down for each) and after cold crashing and decanting most starter beer, I swirl it back up. That slurry would be considered a "thick slurry" a la MrMalty. I weigh it again. The difference is the slurry in grams, which is about the same in ml.

 

[PoppinCaps]

Keep going...

Just kidding, but yeah you're going to need at least another step up. If the yeast are healthy, make a 4 liter starter, decant and add these to it. I wouldn't lose any sleep over starter calculators, 1.057 isn't that big. My general rule is 1L starter for 5gal reasonable OG on a stir plate, 2x that without a stir plate. Hasn't failed me yet.

 

[kpr121]

Is that a 2l flask? You're probably barely there likely a bit short. 1.020 is thin and without a stir plate half of it ferments out.

I weigh the empty flasks (write the "gram" weight down for each) and after cold crashing and decanting most starter beer, I swirl it back up. That slurry would be considered a "thick slurry" a la MrMalty. I weigh it again. The difference is the slurry in grams, which is about the same in ml.

Yes, 2L flask. Thats a good idea about weighing the empty flask to get a slurry weight/volume, thanks!

Keep going...

Just kidding, but yeah you're going to need at least another step up. If the yeast are healthy, make a 4 liter starter, decant and add these to it. I wouldn't lose any sleep over starter calculators, 1.057 isn't that big. My general rule is 1L starter for 5gal reasonable OG on a stir plate, 2x that without a stir plate. Hasn't failed me yet.

Yea I didnt make it explicitly clear, I definitely plan to step this up at least one more time, I just wanted to try to come up with some reasonable number of cells to plug in as a 'starting count' since I dont consider getting the dregs up and going much of a starter. Thanks for the input! I've gone ahead and split this slurry into two 1000 ml starters last night. I *think* that will be around the ballpark but wasnt sure. Maybe I'll add another liter to each tonight since I have the headspace in them now.

I need to get my stir plate back up and operational.

 

[IslandLizard]

Good plan. Save some of the final slurry for next time.

 

[PoppinCaps]

Got it. I would use the typical 50million/ml estimate for non-stirring starters then, which is right around Smellyglove's calculation.

 

[kpr121]

Once I brew up this Oberon clone, I'll have all the yeast I want in the slurry from ten gallons. Gonna use it for an IPA (THA maybe?), Blonde, Pale Ale, maybe stout even.

These bottle dregs kicked up quicker than I've ever seen before, I had activity less than 4 hours after pitching. So I think I've got a pretty healthy/early gen yeast.

 

[JonM]

Once I brew up this Oberon clone, I'll have all the yeast I want in the slurry from ten gallons. Gonna use it for an IPA (THA maybe?), Blonde, Pale Ale, maybe stout even.

Bell's house yeast is awesome in a stout, esp a rich oatmeal stout.

 

[TheCADJockey]

Aww, I thought this was going to be one of those giveaways. Whoever guesses the number of cells wins a six pack of home brew.

 

[kpr121]

Aww, I thought this was going to be one of those giveaways. Whoever guesses the number of cells wins a six pack of home brew.

We can do that. Gotta be exactly the number, we're not doing that closest Price is Right BS.

And I'm gonna need some assistance counting!

 

[kpr121]

As an update, I ended up not adding the additional liter to each starter. So I had a 2000ml starter that I pitched into about 7 gallons of wort. I used US-05 on the rest of the batch.

30 seconds of O2 blast

Had active fermentation/krausen in less then 12 hours on the bells. Took over 48 hrs for the US-05.

Both are fermenting away nicely at about 68F.