2l Starter Enough For A Big Belgian?

[JaseH]

I took the easy way out - called past Keg King on the way home and grabbed a 5L flask $36 cash, figured it was a good deal.

 

[davo4772]

I took the easy way out - called past Keg King on the way home and grabbed a 5L flask $36 cash, figured it was a good deal.

I had a look at those last time I was there. I think they have a curved bottom?? Wasn't confident that the stir bar would sit properly.

Mr Malty is excellent although you have to fiddle with it to get what you are after.

With a stir plate.

If you split the pack into 2 you will need a 1.8L starter to get you to 200 Billion cells, which is equal to 2 packets of yeast.

Then with your equivalent to 2 packets of yeast (200Bil cells) You feed that into a 1.5L starter and you will end up with the required 400 billion cells. Plus you can keep the other half of your original yeast although you would'nt want to keep it too long.

Or
Use the full packet of yeast with a 3.8L starter, gives you over 400 billion cells

 

[JaseH]

I had a look at those last time I was there. I think they have a curved bottom?? Wasn't confident that the stir bar would sit properly.

The outside bottom is reasonably flat, the inside is a little uneven. My stir bar is spinning fine, albeit a little noisy. It'll do the job for the price.

 

[JaseH]

Ok, I think this will work.

I've thrown the whole pack into a 3L starter. Its dated 17 Feb production date so viability is getting a bit low, I figure it wont hurt to build it back up instead of storing some as is.

I'll ferment this out, then split off half the resulting yeast and store it for later, place the other half back into another 3L starter and according to yeastcalc.com this should give me my 400+billion cells I require.

 

[manticle]

Another alternative is to pitch the lot then top crop. Won't be gen 0 but it will be nice, healthy yeast and you won't have to do 2 3 L starters..

 

[JaseH]

Well I whipped this one up yesterday.

I split my original 3L starter last night after brewing, put some of the yeast in fridge and used the rest to make another 3L starter with wort from the actual beer, sat it on my stir plate overnight and pitched it into the fermenter this morning.

A quick question for those that have done sugar additions during primary fermentation. At what point is it best to add? Do I wait for fermentation to visibly slow? At a certain gravity reading?

 

[manticle]

I add mine in when it's either right at the end or finished.

I add in increments usually around 200g at a time, ferment that out, then add the next one.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

I have done a few big saisons and tripels of late and my fermentation was all good. I usually split a wyeast pack into 3 20ml vials then pitch the rest into a 1 litter starter and put it on the stir plate for 18-24hrs. I then make a 4 litter starter and pitch the yeast slurry from the 1 litter starter. I then just let the 4 litter starter go for 24hrs and put it in the fridge till ready for use. I pitch into 45L of 1.080 wort with this amount and my fermentation is clean. I have been doing this method for a while with all my beers (ales) although might have a think about the next lager I do as i'll need a shite load more yeast for 50L of pilsner which is what im planning for my next lager.

 

[JaseH]

Well my method for making the starter appears to have worked well so far. I got a good amount of yeast in a sample jar in the fridge for later and the beer shot from ~1083(estimated OG with the sugar additions during fermentation) down to 1010 within 6 days. Looked like a tornado in there - shit flying around everywhere! Thats a little lower FG than I expected.

Tastes really good at the moment - a little hot from the alcohol, I'm guessing its gonna need a while to condition up. :icon_cheers:

 

[stux]

You want the yeast from a starter, not necessarily the whole thing.

You can make a 2 litre starter and let the yeast drop out, then add another 2 litres of wort, crash that, pour off the supernate and pitch the yeast.

Better yet, crash the first 2 litre starter a couple of days before you brew and on brew day draw a couple of litres from the boil after 10 or 15 minutes, cool it and pitch the yeast from the starter into that.

When that takes off pitch it into your brew. This way you are pitching an active fermenting starter that's the same composition as your main wort.

"n. also supernate (spr-nt)
The clear fluid above a sediment or precipitate."

What a great word

Yeah yeah, iana chemist

 

[stux]

I had a look at those last time I was there. I think they have a curved bottom?? Wasn't confident that the stir bar would sit properly.

I use a stirbar with a pivot ring on my 5L, but I use normal stirbars on my other flasks which have flat bottoms

 

[RobW]

"n. also supernate (spr-nt)
The clear fluid above a sediment or precipitate."

What a great word

Yeah yeah, iana chemist

ex- microbiologist here but the jargon's the same


I like tyndallization too