Big-ass yeast starters

[beltbuckle]

I had an unfortunate accident last night that destroyed my beloved 5000mL erlenmeyer flask. I'd only used it twice. But one thing that I discovered after I had bought it was that it wasn't big enough, and neither was my labratory-surplus stir plate I had purchased off eBay.

Oops.


You see, I do 10 gallon all-grain batches, and for bigger beers, say 1060+ (which is pretty much 80% what I have been brewing), I'd always wanted to create a starter that had the cell count that followed Mr. Malty (JZ's) or WL or Wyeast's recommendations. What I discovered after I bought my 5000mL flask was that if I wanted to use a single smack pack or vial of yeast to inoculate 10 gallons+ of wort, I couldn't make the required cell count with what I had. Sure, I could make a good starter, but not good enough.

For an example, this Sunday I will be brewing 10 gallons of Dean Larson's Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale clone. It has an OG of around 1064. Running the numbers through Mr. Malty, it says I need about a 7 liter starter if I start from one Wyeast Activator pack. 7000mL? Yep. That's a big ass starter.

So after my flask broke, I decided I would do it right. I looked at larger flasks, but to tell the truth I wasn't that crazy about glass since it was so fragile. I considered HDPE or PETE plastic, but that adds a transfer or starter wort, and another chance for infection. So I went to a local restaurant supply store, and for about $25 I came home with a 12 quart aluminum stock pot and lid. I purchased an aluminum one since I do use a home-made Binford 9000 (120v A/C, 3 amp motor) bigass stir plate, and needed a non-ferrous metal or plastic vessel for the starter to avoid magnetic field issues.




I tested it with water, not sure if it would work or even pull a vortex with such a large amount of liquid. It did. Not a Wizard-of-Oz -Tornado, but a nice little vortex that would surely keep yeast suspended. Good enough.




So I scrubbed it with Oxy-clean, added the 7L of water and 700 grams of DME, and boiled the wort for 20 minutes.




Nice thing I discovered with this setup is that it cools much faster that my old flask. Aluminum is such a good conductor I bet it cooled to pitching temps twice as fast.




It's now on the strir plate, ready to brew on Sunday. I put a SNPA bottle on there to show scale.

[ApresSkiBrewer]

Dude.

That's a big ass starter.

[beltbuckle]

I'm curious what others brewers doing 10 gallons of bigger beer do for their starters?

At first the recommended starter size seemed huge to me, but if that's what the right amount is, might as well do it. Plus, I'm cheap and would rather make a big starter than pay $12-$20 for more yeast packs for every brew.

[Charlie]

When I was making 5 gal batches I used 1.6L starters. It's a convenient size because of the staging I use. After I graduated to 10 gallon batches I modified the schedule to give me a 2.4 liter starter that I split into two 1.2 L pitches. The staging (and erlenmeyer size) is;

5 (100), 25 (100), 100 (500), 500 (2L), 2400 (4L)

I'm a little antsy about the last stage, because I like my glassware to be 4X starter size. I could get another 4L erlenmeyer and split the final stage into 2X 1.2L (or 1.6L). But that wants another stir plate.

Charlie (trying to imagine an 8L erlenmeyer)

[PseudoChef]

I just brew a 5 gallon batch of beer in the 1.040 range, and use the yeast generated from that fermentation.

[Bugeater]

I just brew a 5 gallon batch of beer in the 1.040 range, and use the yeast generated from that fermentation.

That's my standard operating procedure too. I currently have a yeast cake of Wyeast 3787 from a belgian pale ale sitting in my big flask waiting to be pitched into a big belgian tripple.

Wayne

[ajdelange]

I'm curious what others brewers doing 10 gallons of bigger beer do for their starters?

At first the recommended starter size seemed huge to me, but if that's what the right amount is, might as well do it. Plus, I'm cheap and would rather make a big starter than pay $12-$20 for more yeast packs for every brew.

I do essentially what you do except that I don't bother with the stir plate. I boil 5 gal water (in a 10 gal stock pot), add 3 - 6 lbs DME and Wyeast nutrient, boil for 15 minutes and drop the pot into a sink full of cold water. When cool I transfer to a 6 gal carboy, innoculate with 2 smack packs and oxygenate for 3 -5 min. I usually do this in the afternoon or evening and brew 2 days later i.e. about 48 hrs after pitching the slap packs. I haven't done cell counts in a long time but the fact that a lager at 48 F shows a substantial pH drop in hours and gas production in less than 24 convinces me that things are OK in this department. Of course I don't deny the possibility that I might make better beer if I worried more about this but for the moment it ain't broke and I ain't fixing it.

One of the reasons I don't use a stir plate (another large one being that I don't have one) is that I don't want the yeast to stay in growth phase - I want the starter to be essentially drinkable beer. If I were to keep them in growth phase I would want to separate the yeast from the broth and pitch only the yeast as growth phase broth is pretty nasty. Taste it.

[beltbuckle]

Yeah I agree. I cold crash the starter and poor off the "beer". Don't need 2 gallons of crappy beer talking to my "good" beer.