Yeast starter plans

[LateraLex]

I just needed some confirmation that this approach makes sense... I am doing the first BIAB this weekend, and it is also my first yeast starter. So, a lot of room to mess this up.

OG: 1.085, 5.5gals. Yeast cells needed: ~319 billion.

Planning to brew Sunday morning, so my plan is:
On Thursday night: Pitch smackpack into 1L of 1.040 wort. Leave on the counter overnight, shaking occasionally.
Friday night: Put starter in the fridge overnight
Saturday: decant all but the yeast and pitch the slurry into a new 2L of 1.040 wort. Again leave on the counter stirring occasionally.

Do I have that pretty close to right? According to yeastcalc, I can't go straight to a 3L starter without a stirplate. Cheers!

 

[Sulli]

By Jove I think you've got it!

I would also plan on an additional day to crash and decant the final 2 liters, that's an awful lot of oxidized nastiness to be dumping into 5 gallons of nectar.

 

[LateraLex]

Awesome. Oh good point about the decant! Does it take a whole day to drop out of suspension? If so, I need to go to the LHBS tonight!

 

[Sulli]

Depends on the yeast.

More flocculant varieties will obviously take less time.

If your using WLP002 it'll be flocc'ed out inside of an hour.

In my experience, even the less flocculant varieties will drop most of the yeast in about 24 hours.

 

[bobbrews]

The smackpack has to swell up first before you pitch it. Sanitize the bag, the scissors, the vessel... everything.

Shake as often as you can. Cold crash the starter the night before brewing, gently place on counter an hour or two prior to brewing. After cooling your wort, decant the clear starter wort, leaving a little bit of the wort behind to create a slurry with the yeast on the bottom of the flask - Pitch the slurry in your 65 F oxygenated wort.