I’m planning to brew a 1.052 O.G. Helles soon. I have a WLP 830 starter going. I made a 650 ml starter with a cup of DME, oxygenated and fermented that out on a stir plate. Today I stepped it up to a 1400 ml starter with 1.5 cups DME (same drill with O2 and stir plate). Do I need to step it up one more time? I have a 2L flask, so probably 1800 ml is do-able, but would be cramped. Just curious how close or far off I am?
IMO, get a gallon jug and make a 3/4 gallon starter. Why do 3 step starters. Do one and be done.
I have some 2 gallon pails from the donut shop that work great for larger starters. Also know as small batches.
What you have done should be fine, but you could have simplified with a single larger starter.
You don’t need to step up again. You’ve got plenty of yeast cells already for a 1.052 beer. Also I agree with the one and done philosophy.
Thanks for the advice and mostly thanks for the fact that no one simply posted a link to the Mr. Malty calculator…
I usually try to time lager starters with brewing an ale and making an extra gallon. The double step is admittedly redundant.
[quote=“Haasfilm”]Thanks for the advice and mostly thanks for the fact that no one simply posted a link to the Mr. Malty calculator…
[/quote]
mrmalty suggests you use half a gallon with intermediate shaking. .84 gallons without. I agree with nighthawk about the gallon jug.
considering nighthawk and mrmalty are pretty close. what do you have against mrmalty?
Absolutely NOTHING against the Pope! Jamil is awesome and responds to email personally. I use the tool and recommend it. I just meant the inquiry as more anecdotal, as though you were at a club meeting and asked “what do you think of this”?
For me, I can’t stand that it doesn’t provide an output yeast count. I know it will not be dead on, but it would be nice to know how much of a yeast count you will approximately have. It would also be very nice to know what the actual target yeast population is.
Have you seen this…?
http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html[/quote]I have - another nice tool. As far as I could tell I am RIGHT on the edge. However I could only select Stir Plate OR O2 (I did both). Also I didn’t understand the inoculation rate field? How is it determined?
Have you seen this…?
http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html[/quote]Nope, i had not seen this. I like this much more
Thank you.
Have you seen this…?
http://www.yeastcalc.com/index.html[/quote]I have - another nice tool. As far as I could tell I am RIGHT on the edge. However I could only select Stir Plate OR O2 (I did both). Also I didn’t understand the inoculation rate field? How is it determined?[/quote]
There should be 4 options for aeration; O2 injection, intermittent shaking, constant aeration, and stir plate.
The inoculation rate determines how much growth you get from the starter. If you pitch a ton of yeast in a small starter, you will not get much growth. Subsequently, if you pitch a small amount of yeast in the same starter, you will get more growth. Basically it’s a function of pitch rate divided by volume.
