Starters for Low Gravity Beers

[MKBoitnott]

Hello all,

I did a quick search to see if anyone else has asked this recently. Didnt really find anything.... so here it goes.

I was drawing up a 1.047 5.25 gallon Best Bitter Recipe. Went to do the starter calculations, and a 1.037 1 L start puts me way high (like 220 billion vs 170 billion or something). My question is , has anyone done starters under 1L? I heard from somebody, somewhere that you shouldnt go under a liter, not sure why that is. I guess you could also lower the starter gravity. Or just say screw it and do a 1L. But I like to try to be exact.

Also, it would take some major convincing for me to forego the starter altogether. So I likely wont be doing that.

 

[Copbrew133]

How old is the yeast you're gonna be using and what calculator are you using? The calc. at Mr Malty is showing with your intended OG and batch size, with a yeast that has todays date on it you would require 173 billion cells for fermentation. Considering appx. 100 billion in a new package of liquid yeast you're still looking at a starter of 1 liter on a sitr plate or 1.8 packages of yeast without the starter. Without a stir plate it's showing a 1.42 liter starter (simple starter). Hope that helps.

 

[bferullo]

For what its worth, I do a lot of lower gravity beers (Bitters and English browns). I have never bothered doing a starter for any of these. Some have even won competitions. If your yeast is healthy, I think its all relative at the lower gravities. Just my 2 cents.

 

[MKBoitnott]

How old is the yeast you're gonna be using and what calculator are you using? The calc. at Mr Malty is showing with your intended OG and batch size, with a yeast that has todays date on it you would require 173 billion cells for fermentation. Considering appx. 100 billion in a new package of liquid yeast you're still looking at a starter of 1 liter on a sitr plate or 1.8 packages of yeast without the starter. Without a stir plate it's showing a 1.42 liter starter (simple starter). Hope that helps.

Well I believe that is because Mr. Malty's calculator only goes down to 1 liter. For example if you were to adjust the gravity the beer to 1.030, it still says 1 L. I believe I read that it was Mr. Malty who recommends not going below 1 L.

I use YeastCalc, which is down today But I also like Brewers Friend as well. They list the estimated cell count when finished.

Im sure this post will lead me to the "just do a 1 L starter" option. Prolly do it the day before so its active. Or maybe just throw the pack in there...