Yeast starter madness.....

[--Dom--]

I just read a recipe where someone was suggesting pitching a 32 Liter yeast starter for 15 gallons of beer.... I realize that 15 gallons of 1.094 beer would require a lot of yeast however. 32 Liters by my math would be about 8.5 gallons....... Is this person actually suggesting pitching 8.5 gallons of yeast starter into 15 gallons of beer? Or is there something I'm not understanding about the terminology here. I just made an IPA that was 5 gal with 1.076 og and
pitched a starter I made with 3 cups of small beer a pinch of nutrient and one Wyeast smack pack on a stir plate for 36 hours and it finished at 1.011 as most all of my beers do. Someone please rationalize this for me because I have seen things like this a lot on this site.

 

[MaxStout]

Sounds like a typo. Maybe missing a decimal point?

 

[TimmyWit]

If they are doing a simple starter with no stir plate, that looks about right for 15 gallons according to MrMalty. You wouldn't pitch the whole thing though. You would want to cold-crash it and decant it.

Here's a calculator for your reference:
http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[kh54s10]

MrMalty suggests 18.93 liters and 2 vials with intermittent shaking, assuming about a week old yeast. 32.81 liters and 2 vials with no shaking. With a stirplate it is still 12.3 liters and 2 vials. You can make smaller amounts by doing a stepped starter.

So it depends on the age of the yeast and how the starter is made.

If you would so this large a starter you would not pitch the full 32 liters into the beer. You would chill, decant and pitch only the yeast. That way it would not be a very big volume.

Remember this is a big beer and 2/3 more volume than your average 5 gallon batch.

 

[PoppinCaps]

That's a ridiculous amount, and I've got to agree with the OP. However, healthy, stirred starters are key to get cell counts up to more efficient 150-200mil/ml numbers. Otherwise just make a beer and use the cake, a starter of half the volume of the target beer in a recipe just confuses people new to calculating yeast numbers.