Double up with a starter?

Yeast & Fermentation
1

My OG is 1.078 for this Imperial IPA I am brewing and according to Mrmalty.com I should pitch 4 liters of starter. Unfortunately I used a generic yeast starter recipe and I am worried I don’t have enough cells.

I pitched a yeast starter with 2 cups (~500ml) of water and 1/4 cup of LME. I had to do some rough conversions from DME since I don’t have any on hand. I used a white labs california yeast vial.

I’m not sure how to calculate how many yeast cells I have but it seems like I need more.

I am thinking of letting my yeast starter flocculate overnight in the fridge and then pouring off the beer. Then letting it warm up and pouring in some more wort to double up on my cell count.

Does that seem like a good idea? Any reccomendations?

2

[quote=“yeasterday”]

I am thinking of letting my yeast starter flocculate overnight in the fridge and then pouring off the beer. Then letting it warm up and pouring in some more wort to double up on my cell count.

Does that seem like a good idea? Any reccomendations?[/quote]

I would highly recommend that you do at least that. How old was your initial yeast?

3

Getting the cell count up is a good idea. I’d do about 2 L for the second stage.