My first yeast starter!

[Bugeater]

That's total volume of the starter. You have the yeast from about 2 liters of starter even though you never had that much liquid in there at one time.

I may be way off base, Jamil help me out please, but there may be the possibility that the concentration of yeast in a given volume of wort may limit further growth beyond a certain concentration level. It that is the case, you would then need a larger starter volume as opposed to just decanting and adding some more wort. I wonder.....is this true? Does anyone have the actual answer?

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Anthony]

I believe the Sunday Show with the White Brothers has the answer... even if that isn't the right show, I remember the answer itself.

Doc said that he always goes with the 10x rule, that is each step of his starter is 10x multiplied in volume because all you are doing otherwise is just keeping the yeast roused and awake, you aren't actually doing any replication of the yeast itself. Then one of the Whites (IIRC) chimed in, agreeing, saying that most people when they make a 750ml starter aren't really expanding the cells much beyond what was already in the vial.

There is a point where the density of the yeast is too much for the amount of wort you have, at that point you will have little to no replication. This is actually the same principle some people will use when they 'over'-pitch to avoid esters (since esters are typically amplified by the yeast replicating).... also the same principle, but in reverse, that works for many Belgian brews when they are underpitching (amplifying esters by making the yeast reproduce more). There is a really great chapter in Brew Like A Monk about this idea.

[Chris_J]

Ok so if I were to use Doc's rule then I'd make a 100ml starter then ramp it up to 1000ml when it's done. That limits me to making 1L starters. At this point instead of buying a bigger flask would I be able to split the yeast into another container and begin with another starter, then pitching from both containers?

[Anthony]

I think Doc's rule maybe a little excessive for average gravity ales... (Especially five gallon batches) However, in your case, you definitely need more volume before you'll see more yeast.

There are lots of cheap alternative containers out there that you can use, Walmart is a good source for cheap 2000mL to 8500mL containers, you just have to be creative. On one of the other forums I saw a member post that he was successfully using a $4 vase from Walmart as a 4000mL container. He wasn't cooking the starter wort in the vase obviously, just fermenting in it.

In your case, without a stirplate, you're kind of off the hook of trying to find a container that will still sit on your plate and work. If I were you, I'd either try to find one of these 'alternative' containers, or, I'd ferment 1-2 gallon starters in a carboy.