Yeast Starter on Beersmith 2

I completed my Karl’s 90 shilling, it’s in the primary with a blow-off hose and there’s something in Beersmith 2 I don’t get. In the yeast starter section, with 1 liter of starter, it says I need 17 packets of yeast. That’s Wyeast. I used 1 packet of 1728. Hard to believe I’m supposed to use that much. I’m now wondering if I should even pay any more attention the Beersmith.

Must be a typo somewhere. Viability set to 8% instead of 80%, or something like that.

OK, that makes sense. I checked it before I left for work tonight, and there’s already a nice 2" kraussen and it’s blowing nice bubbles in the sanitizer.

BS2 has always shown similar suggestions on starter size as mrmalty.com for me. So Sean is probably right about a typo somewhere. Is the manufactured date of the yeast entered correctly?

That’s one thing I didn’t check. I got it from NB right before I brewed, so I just assumed it was fresh.

For some reason on Beersmith most of the yeast defaults its date back to early 2011 which brings its viability way down. You can manually change the date if you want or just use a separate calculator.

Yeah, I just went back and looked. I didn’t even think to do that. Next time.

Having the same issue with a recipe I’m working on. Checking Smith against Malty, the latter wins. Also, Smith doesn’t have WY1450 or several other ingredients like Golden Promise etc. Maybe I’m missing an update somewhere but… Any others find this?

Step, make sure you enter the packaged date correctly (including year) when you add the yeast to your recipe. The date is used to calculate viability and will affect the suggested pitching rate.

The special release yeasts are not in BeerSmith. I had to add one manually when I needed it.

You can click on the add ons tab and there are grain add ons so you can be more specific in your planning and can use actual brands rather than just generic types of grain. Golden Promise is in there.

Other than the calender I’d have to say that the yeast function is one of the worst features on here…