Mr. Malty reckons on 1 litre starter for 11 litre batch. Really?

[welly2]

Just had a look at the Mr. Malty pitching rate calculator for a brew I'm going to cook up this weekend. I'm making an IPA with 3.20kg of 2 row pale ale malt, 350g of Special B in an 11L batch. Estimated OG is coming in at 1.068 and estimated ABV is 6.5%. Using White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale yeast.

Mr. Malty is reckoning on 1L of yeast starter. That seems a lot of starter for an 11L batch. Almost 10% of the overall beer! What do you guys reckon?

 

[Mardoo]

I would definitely drop the yeast and dump the starter wort if using that large a starter.

 

[adamh]

i always use the starter calculator in Beersmith over Mr. malty as Mr. Malty always says I need 2 packs. Bugger that

 

[Yob]

Sounds about right to me

 

[Black n Tan]

How old is the yeast? Otherwise flying blind with our advice.

 

[welly2]

Just got it today so 2 days being shipped here plus however long on the store shelf/warehouse. I'll have a look on the vial when I get home.

 

[huez]

I find beersmiths yeast calculations way off, my beers improved alot after starting to use mr.malty.

Black n Tan is on to it with how old the yeast is i'd say. If your making a starter anyway it's no harder to make a litre then it is to make half a litre

 

[welly2]

My main concern is sticking a litre of dme (and yeast) into 11 litres of delicious wort might dilute it.

 

[Yob]

Let it finish, drop clear and then pitch

 

[manticle]

Sounds fine to me if the yeast is healthy. Make some wort starters then add when active and never worry again.

 

[whitegoose]

Whenever I do starters I let it settle and decant as much of the beer off the top as I can... so for a 1L starter I'd probably only pitch 300-400 ml at a guess

 

[welly2]

Cheers guys, something to think about. I'm going to be brewing on Saturday - is it too late to make a yeast starter or am I still good?

 

[Black n Tan]

Not too late at all. I prefer to pitch just the yeast but at less than 10% of volume I think you will be fine pitch the lot. Otherwise get it on tonight and then cold crash tomorrow night and just pitch the yeast. A starter less than 1L can leave the yeast is worse health than they started, so if you are going to do a starter best to think of 1L or more, otherwise just pitch the pack.

 

[Rocker1986]

Whenever I do starters I let it settle and decant as much of the beer off the top as I can... so for a 1L starter I'd probably only pitch 300-400 ml at a guess

Same. If I was going to pitch an active starter I would use some of the wort from the actual batch, rather than diluting it with unhopped wort.

But since I harvest yeast from my starters it's unlikely I'll make them from anything other than DME and water, so the crash and decant method will continue.

 

[Black n Tan]

Same. If I was going to pitch an active starter I would use some of the wort from the actual batch, rather than diluting it with unhopped wort.

It is usually a mater of timing: if you have the wort then best to pitch ASAP rather than making a starter from the same wort and waiting to pitch. If you are concerned about hops, why not just add more hops to the wort to compensate i.e. 10% starter add 10% more hops? But if time is not an issue, I am on the same page and prefer to pitch just the yeast.

 

[Rocker1986]

Yeah, fair points. I hadn't really though of it like that. I no-chill my batches so I suppose time isn't really an issue for me personally. I can ferment them whenever, so when I decide to begin fermenting one I make the starter a few days beforehand so I can crash and decant it.

The other problem in my case would be increasing the batch size too large for the FV. They're already 25 litres as it is. I could get around it by making the batch smaller to account for the size of the starter as well as increasing hops to account for dilution, but then I wouldn't fill my cube fully either.

I think I'll just stick with what I've been doing. :lol: It works well enough.