SFGiantsFan925
Well-Known Member
Hey everyone. I am planning on brewing my third ever batch on Thursday. Its going to be a holiday spiced Brown Ale. I have decided to do a yeast starter instead of just dumping my White Labs vials into the primary. My last brew took about 50 hours to start after pitching my vials, so, I am going the starter route. No, I do not have a stir plate. But I do have DME, 2L Flask, and everything else needed to make a starter.
So, my main question is how many vials of yeast do I need? I have 2 vials of WLP002, and have not found an answer in how many vials people are using to make a starter. Its kind of my understanding that a starter is used to basically increase the amount of viable yeast cells from a given vial of yeast. So, a starter would take a single vial of 80-100 billion cells, to hopefully the 200+ billon needed to brew your batch. Is this right?? If so, I would only need 1 vial.
Now to the recipe. I dont have it in front of me, but i do know the OG is supposed to be 1.066-1.070. Using the Mr. Malty calc, with a growth factor of 3 (not sure what this means), its a 1.78L starter to make 241 billion cells, from one vial of yeast, using intermittent shaking. Does this seem right?
So can I just make a 1.8L starter, with an OG between 1.030-1.040, pitched with one vial of WLP002, and in 24 hours, place it in the fridge, decant, and pitch to my primary, and I should have the correct amount of healthy yeast to brew the 1.070 OG???
I hope this is the general idea. I have been trying to wrap my head around the whole thing, and it seems easy enough. I just for some reason cant find the right info. I have watched video on starters and read a ton of different things and still had a few questions. I hope you guys can help! Thanks in advance!!
So, my main question is how many vials of yeast do I need? I have 2 vials of WLP002, and have not found an answer in how many vials people are using to make a starter. Its kind of my understanding that a starter is used to basically increase the amount of viable yeast cells from a given vial of yeast. So, a starter would take a single vial of 80-100 billion cells, to hopefully the 200+ billon needed to brew your batch. Is this right?? If so, I would only need 1 vial.
Now to the recipe. I dont have it in front of me, but i do know the OG is supposed to be 1.066-1.070. Using the Mr. Malty calc, with a growth factor of 3 (not sure what this means), its a 1.78L starter to make 241 billion cells, from one vial of yeast, using intermittent shaking. Does this seem right?
So can I just make a 1.8L starter, with an OG between 1.030-1.040, pitched with one vial of WLP002, and in 24 hours, place it in the fridge, decant, and pitch to my primary, and I should have the correct amount of healthy yeast to brew the 1.070 OG???
I hope this is the general idea. I have been trying to wrap my head around the whole thing, and it seems easy enough. I just for some reason cant find the right info. I have watched video on starters and read a ton of different things and still had a few questions. I hope you guys can help! Thanks in advance!!