Yeast Starter Question

[horsepowerwhisperer]

I'm doing a 16 gallon high gravity (1.075) Belgian beer this weekend. Last time I did a big beer, I made a 5L starter in a 5L flask and put it on a stir plate. I ended up with a volcano overnight. Using the Brewer's Friend calculator, it looks like I can get what I need if I use six vials of yeast and a 4L starter.
Will this be too much yeast for the size of the starter? In other words, is there a yeast pack/volume of starter minimum or maximum ratio?

Thanks!

 

[porterpounder]

You'll be fine. A starter mainly just wakes the yeast up and gets it ready to go.

 

[Dcpcooks]

I use two pack of yeast in a 5 l starter for most of my beers in the OG range your speaking about. You'll need 900b cells for that beer and two packs in 5 l is enough to ferment that beer. It's from beer smiths starter and I have had great success with it.

 

[rhys333]

it looks like I can get what I need if I use six vials of yeast and a 4L starter.

I haven't brewed to that volume myself, but that sounds like a heck of a lot of yeast. You need about 800B cells? Couldn't you do 1 vial in a 4 or 5 L starter, or do a step up if necessary?

 

[jcav]

Well I checked for you on this site which uses a different rate to get you more in the ballpark of yeast cells. http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php
This site says you need 827 billion cells for a beer of that gravity and of that many gallons. Use three packs of yeast, 4 liter starter in a 5 liter flask, total cells after is 856 billion.

John

 

[day_trippr]

You'll be fine. A starter mainly just wakes the yeast up and gets it ready to go.

While one can actually create a starter that has unity gain, there's much more scope to starters than that...

Cheers!

 

[horsepowerwhisperer]

Great feedback all around. I was calculating using the "Pro Brewer 1.0 (Ale, or High Gravity Ale )" setting in the BF yeast calculator, since the OG is going to be pretty high. I also put the yeast vials at about a month old, since that's usually about their age at my local HBS stores. It gave me a target pitch rate of 1100B cells. Three vials in a 4L starter sounds more reasonable, though.
Thanks, guys!

 

[flars]

Are the vials of yeast from White Labs? You can find the date of packaging here for a little more confidence on viability and starter size estimation.

https://www.yeastman.com/Login/Public/Report/PublicLabQCResult.aspx?AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1