Big Belgian Pitching Rates

[Stinkfist]

I am planning on making the Belgian Golden strong recipe from BCS with a few small tweaks, However I have a question about the amount of yeast starter I need to use..

Since this recipe calls for 3 pounds of cane sugar, and I will only be adding half a pound to the boil and I will add the rest after fermentation has begun...

Now my question when I use Mrmalty do I use the gravity that I would be pitching the yeast too or the gravity it should end up at? 2.5 pounds of sugar makes a big difference on the size of the starter.

[Stinkfist]

is this a dumb question or does noone know? I am assuming I just need to worry about the OG of the beer when the yeast is pitched not what it will be, but just wasn't sure..

[Travisty]

I emailed Jamil about this same question recently. His response was that you can pitch for the OG that you're pitching at without worrying about the additional gravity you will be adding later as long as you are not adding the additional sugar within a day or two of the original pitch. He also stressed that, while different flavors will result from different pitching rates (as well as different sugars, yeast health, etc.) in the grand scheme of things just getting good clean fermentation and full attenuation is the most important part.

[Stinkfist]

Thanks that Sounds reasonable