Nano Brewery - Yeast Starter

[acroporabrewer]

Hello. I am start to brew on a 2 bbl herms system and am not sure what to do about yeast. Hopefully somebody has brewed on this scale and wouldn't mind giving me some pointers.

I've often been proud of my beer on a keggle system and give most of the credit due to my yeast practice. If I am using a starter then I always use liquid yeast, smack packs or white labs. Even with smack packs, I make a 5 L starter. I then save the yeast after fermentation and store it in mason jars for the next batch. For the next batch, again I make another 5 L starter, mainly because on the keggle system it is still a hobby and I like to stay crafty.

So I am trying to scale this step on the 2 bbl system but I am not sure if it is necessary or not to use a yeast starter. If I wanted to start my yeast on a 2 bbl batch, how is the best way to do this?

• Should I get 12 smack packs or white labs, along with DME, and make 6 starters in 6 X 5 L Erlenmeyer Flasks? This seems like a lot of work to get the right cell count.
  
• Make a 10 gallon on the keggle system a few days before brew day and dump that into the fermenter on brew day
  
• Do away with a starter and just buy 12 or 15 smack packs
  
• Scratch all of these ideas and go with another suggested method

Thanks in advance for any advice. Cheers!

 

[hottpeper13]

I went on Brew dads yeast calc. and these are the results. First my way..... When I want to ferment 10 gal of 1.110 (barrel aged RIS) I first make a 5 gal batch of blonde ale somewhere below 1.050, then pitch the yeast cake into 2- 6.5 gal primary's, and drink my starter.
So brew dad says make a 1.5L starter for each 5 gal primary(makes more cells then pitching on 10 gal). That should give you enough for a 60 gal ferment, which they say requires 2311 billion cells. Check out this calculator,you can make it do anything for any amount just make sure when using the 2nd and 3rd steps to change the stir plate option to not shaken or stirred. ( Non Bond).

 

[kh54s10]

Have you not used a yeast starter calculator so that you are making the proper sized starter for the beer you are brewing? To just pitch a 5 liter starter into any beer is, probably, over pitching some and under pitching others. Or it is just wrong for the amount of beer you are making, high or low.

I use this calculator: http://www.yeastcalculator.com/

You don't have to limit yourself to a lot of small starters, you can get different glassware. It might require a commercial size stirplate.

You can buy yeast in larger amounts than a standard smack pack.

The reason to make a starter rather than multiple packs of liquid yeast is to 1) save a lot of money and 2) to grow the optimum number of yeast cells for the beer you are brewing.

 

[IslandLizard]

What he says! ^

You can buy larger, commercial pitches from 1 to 1000 barrels. Most commercial breweries start with those, then pitch from cone to cone on subsequent batches. Now when you count in the shipping, a 2 bbl pitch may cost more than 6 or 12 purepitch or smack packs.

2 bbl is really not that large to not generate your own starters, either through small batches or using a large stirrer or shaker. Then repitch until depleted and start from fresh over again.

 

[couchsending]

You can just buy larger pitchable quantities from the yeast companies. I think you can order as small as a 1 BBL pitchable quantity from BSI. I think you’d want a yeast brink of some sort as well??

 

[killian]

I’d buy the 1 BBL pitch brew a 1BBL batch of low ABV beer pitch and brew another 1 BBL batch the next day