2L Starter

[rayfound]

I'm brewing a Belgian Strong Dark today, projected OG is 1.097.

I made a starter with a single vial of WLP500 in 2L of water with 1/2Lb of Light DME.

I let it run on the stirplate for 36 hours, and I've now moved it to the fridge to hopefully settle-out so I can Decant off the liquid and pitch the yeast cake.

How long should it take to settle close to fully? I know I want to get it back out and gently warm it back to pitching temps before pitching (hope to pitch around 9pm tonight - it went into the fridge at 8am)

I've heard that 5% of the total volume is about the max starter wort you want to pitch, but I am concerned that my yeast will not floc out quickly enough to pour off a litre +... Thoughts?

Cheers,

 

[duboman]

Should be ok by tonight and you actually don't have to warm it up, just pull it out when ready, decant and pitch

1.090 is pretty big, did you run numbers through a calculator for pitch rate?

Www.yeastcalc.com is what I use, plug in the values including the date of your pack and it will give you the recommended pitch count

 

[Jayhem]

Definitely run the www.yeastcalc.com calculator. Only one 2L starter doesn't sound like enough for such a huge beer.

When I brewed 5.5 gallons of Belgian Dubbel at only 1.068 OG I had to make a 2-step starter to get enough yeast numbers. 1 liter first and then 1.5 liters...cold crashed for 12 hours and decanted between each step and before pitching.

 

[rayfound]

Yeah, I am still underpitching by a bit - though the stir plate really increases cell growth pretty good. I'd like to have more time to step, but it is what it is.

 

[Jayhem]

Yeah, I am still underpitching by a bit - though the stir plate really increases cell growth pretty good. I'd like to have more time to step, but it is what it is.

Underpitching on a Belgian is not all that bad since it helps the yeast create the nice banana and clove flavors. If you overpitch you get a really clean tasting Belgian which is not really to style.

 

[rayfound]

Underpitching on a Belgian is not all that bad since it helps the yeast create the nice banana and clove flavors. If you overpitch you get a really clean tasting Belgian which is not really to style.

I've read that... and it seems true that growth=esters/phenols... The starter smells very estery, almost to the point of being like a solvent, not entirely bad, just different.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

That will give you about 300 billion cells in total. The total amount of sugar is what really matters not the volume or inoculation rate so much. If your inoculation rate is low (leas than 10, but you are at 50) then it will take more time. At a cell density of about 300 million per ml you start to hit a wall, but for 2L that's 600 billion cells.

So you should be just about on the money for what you need.

WLP500 is not a strong flocculator, so it might take a couple of days or more to settle.