Beer Forum

I used Thirsty Boy's method to calculate volumes to step up for a Belgian Strong Dark I brewed this weekend. According to Jamil's calculator I'd need 370 billion cells. Using thirsty boys method to calculate the steps I initally pitched 1 vial into 1L wort with some nutrient and put on the stir plate until it had finished fermenting. I chilled it and decanted the clear wort. I then added 1.5L fresh wort to the gallon jug (thirsty boy's method would have been 1.3L) and put it back on the stir plate. Within 2 hours I have several inches of krausen. I went ahead and let i ferment out and let the yeast drop. Before I pitched I decanted most of the clear wort.

My concern is how fast the second step took of and started fermenting. I'm wondering if I got the growth I needed to get to my needed pitching rate. Any opinions on this?

I need to review Thirsty Boy's method again. I recall it made a lot of sense, but I can't seem to remember the mechanics of it. Anybody have a link to his old post?


Mylo