Pitching Rate For 1.080 ?

[Silo Ted]

Put brew in the cube last weekend that's a double chocolate porter/stout, and in the process of culturing up yeast. Using Cali Ale 001 and aiming for 100ml or so of yeast before planned pitching this weekend.

Any ideas if this is big enough? hoping for it to ferment out to at least 70%AA.

The recipe included 250g brown sugar and 100g cocoa, whether that makes a difference I don't know.

 

[peas_and_corn]

Here is a yeast pitching rate calculator that is quite handy.

 

[Silo Ted]

If only there was a way to know how many yeast cells are in a sample. What sort of optimum heath does the calculator formula assume? And under what production parameters?

For that reason I have never been a fan of that calculator, or Jamil for that matter on the subject of pitching rates.

 

[Kai]

Forgetting the calculator for the moment, do you have over 100g of yeast settled out to the bottom of your starter culture? If so, perhaps still underpitching a bit for a 1.080 brew. I'd double it.

 

[Silo Ted]

Forgetting the calculator for the moment, do you have over 100g of yeast settled out to the bottom of your starter culture? If so, perhaps still underpitching a bit for a 1.080 brew. I'd double it.

Hard to say. Its a sizeabe base on the bottom of a 3L flask. Going to transfer into smaller bottle tomorrow and let it settle, in order to measure the volume. Then kick it off again.

What I have now, is probably good for pitching, but I want to make sure.

Any need to add yeast nutrient to the wort ?

 

[Scruffy]

my house brews are somewhere between 1.110 and 1.090 (you know, some days you dont' feel like hammering it... ...)

So, the yeast needs to be firing when it hits... - thin blokes and fat blokes prolly both like cheesecake, but a fat bloke (who's used to cheesecake) could probably put away more...

Scoop a litre of your wort out, build the starter with that... pour yeast and wort into a 2l PET bottle maybe... shake... Aerate the rest of the stuff stuff before you pitch... bit of nutrient during the boil if you remember... ). dont be worried about knocking it a bit if it appears to stall early on... watch the temperature too - keep it in line (my beer is an IIPA 'style', so 18C to start, raising to 21/22C toward the end of two weeks)... geeky bit too is note the pH, yeasts like it lower than water - but you'd have sorted this already...

With really high gravity wort, i've sometimes started it off with a weaker solution/smaller volume (like ten litres 1.110 wort and 3 litres water), and added the rest of the 1.110 over 4 or 5 days - i also aerate for the first 4 days, if i can be arsed - but more usually, a big yeast pitch (four times your usual) and leave it in the fridge.

Good luck...

 

[Silo Ted]

my house brews are somewhere between 1.110 and 1.090 (you know, some days you dont' feel like hammering it... ...)

Of course you only have one a night, yea?

This one's my biggest. I generally prefer the 4 - 6 % range myself.

So, the yeast needs to be firing when it hits...

An active starter is my intention.

Scoop a litre of your wort out, build the starter with that... pour yeast and wort into a 2l PET bottle maybe... shake... Aerate the rest of the stuff stuff before you pitch... bit of nutrient during the boil if you remember... )

Why the recommendation to use the wort from the batch? Easy way to go, I could just make a 1L starter from DME, at 1040 SG and pitch the lot after a day. In this recipe a bit of dropped gravity powder-malt beer aka wort (really, starter & cultivation wort runnings are just about beer, despite the lack of carbonation) isn't going to matter much, being the first of it's kind for me, a high gravity beer, and with many other flavours from grain and adjuncts. So much so that I decided on WLP001 for it's reputation of neutrality.

geeky bit too is note the pH, yeasts like it lower than water - but you'd have sorted this already...

Not by design, let me tell you There's been no conscious planning to examine & alter pH, apart from compulsive window-shopping sessions on Ebay, and the cheap testing tools available.

i also aerate for the first 4 days, if i can be arsed

I'm using a stir plate and 3L flask for this yeast.

 

[MeLoveBeer]

An active starter is my intention.

Why the recommendation to use the wort from the batch?

If you're using a decent size active starter then you're pitching the whole lot into your fermenter... doing this can alter the flavour of your brew if you're using a starter made from DME.

 

[Pennywise]

Helps the yeast get used to the environment they'll be fermenting in, rather than stressing them going from growing in 1040 to having to eat 1080