Yeast starter question

[coliveri78]

I am planning on making a Blonde Belgain strong ale for my next batch. Estimated ABV is around ten, I know I need to make a starter but what I was wondering was if I decant the "beer" off and pitch just the slurry will I have enough cells. I was planning on using White Labs Belgain Strong (WLP545). I don't own a stir plate(yet lol) and when I punch in the info into Brewers Friends calculator and say that I'm going to shake it tells me that I need to add another step. I'm new to brewing, less then four months, I really don't understand what the second and third steps are in creating a yeast starter are. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[1van]

Yeah, I would add at least another step. That means, decant the beer off the starter and added fresh starter wort to it. It will be worthwhile

 

[brewguyver]

Typical rule of thumb if you have the time is get starter going, cold crash, decant, add slurry to new starter.

If you're trying to step up, it'd be good to either move to a much bigger vessel or start bigger an don't use all the space. When propagating yeast from small culture it's usually 10x, but in a case like this doing 1l in a growler and then 2-3L in a gallon jug should work.

Btw, I've had some high blow-off in two step starters, so if you don't use a big enough container consider doing one step, split, and then the next step in two containers.

 

[boydster]

A second step means you make your first starter, probably a 1 liter or 1.5 liter, and when it's done you would usually cold crash it to get the yeast to settle to the bottom and then decant the liquid from the top. You then make a second starter wort of probably 2 or 3 liters and add the yeast that you grew during the first step to the new starter wort, where it will grow the colony larger again.

I might be misreading 1van's post, but just to be clear: You don't want to make a 1 liter starter, cold crash & decant, and then add 1 liter of fresh starter wort back to it as a second step because during the first step, the yeast will have propagated enough of a colony to ferment a 1 liter wort (meaning it won't grow much, if at all, during this "second step"). You want to make sure you are actually stepping up the amount of wort in each successive step in order to ensure you are getting more yeast cells.

Check out YeastCalc.com for a good resource on making stepped starters.

 

[flars]

A second step means you make your first starter, probably a 1 liter or 1.5 liter, and when it's done you would usually cold crash it to get the yeast to settle to the bottom and then decant the liquid from the top. You then make a second starter wort of probably 2 or 3 liters and add the yeast that you grew during the first step to the new starter wort, where it will grow the colony larger again.

I might be misreading 1van's post, but just to be clear: You don't want to make a 1 liter starter, cold crash & decant, and then add 1 liter of fresh starter wort back to it as a second step because during the first step, the yeast will have propagated enough of a colony to ferment a 1 liter wort (meaning it won't grow much, if at all, during this "second step"). You want to make sure you are actually stepping up the amount of wort in each successive step in order to ensure you are getting more yeast cells.

Check out YeastCalc.com for a good resource on making stepped starters.

Definitely go to YeastCalc. Very easy to use. Shows your growth rates with different size starters and steps. Look at the informational tabs. Lot of easy to understand information there.