What"s the difference...

[duffbeer71]

If your planning on brewing a higher ABV beer, what's the difference between making a yeast started or just doubling the amount of yeast you add? Like taking a Wyeast pack and adding two instead of one of the yeast called for in the recipie? Just curious for the next time we brew a high ABV brew.

 

[Joshaw50]

If your planning on brewing a higher ABV beer, what's the difference between making a yeast started or just doubling the amount of yeast you add? Like taking a Wyeast pack and adding two instead of one of the yeast called for in the recipie? Just curious for the next time we brew a high ABV brew.

The only obvious answer that I can come up with is that it's twice the price. If it's two Wyeast's, that's pry $13-$15 in yeast for two of them

 

[rycov]

You could do that. The purpose of the starter is to increase your cell count. Use a pitching calculator and you can find out how many packs you will need.

 

[bartbert]

Depending on how big a beer you are making, you might need 3 or 4 vials to get an equivalent number of yeast cells that you could get from a big starter. So it can be a whole lot cheaper and a starter leaves no doubt whether your yeast are active.

 

[duffbeer71]

I really need to explore the pitch calculators. Since I have started understanding yeast starters, we haven't brewed a big beer yet, so it's yet to come. What kind of a OG reading would you have to have to require 3 packs? BTW, I can't wait to do my first yeast starter.

 

[944play]

The first half of this article should just about fill you in.

Then plug your numbers into the calculator.

 

[commonsenseman]

Oops. Need to refresh before posting.