Hey there, I don’t know if Mr. Malty has changed in the past 2 years but it seems I am under pitching. Some where I got in the habit of putting two WL viles into about 1800 ml on a stir plate 24 prior to brewing. I would then pitch about 900 ml into each 5.5 g carboy (1.065 is wort). I re used the pitching rate calculator the other day and was surprised to see I was under pitching. SO for those of you doing 2 X 5.5 gal ferments of 1.055 to 1.070 OG do you do two 2000 ml starters, or one with 3 viles or what? Do you run two stir plates? Most stir plates I have used seam to max out at about 1800 to 2000 ml.
Thanks
Tim

i usually make a 1 l starter for a 5 gal and then split that yeast cake into a split 10 gal batch.

i pitch at rate of 3-stepped, and stirred 2L starter per 10gallons.

I use two vials of yeast in a 3.6 L starter @ 1.040 on a stir plate, let it finish out, refridgerate it for at least 24 hours, decant the liquid off the top and drop it back on the stir plate for the last half of brew day to reactivate the yeast. Typically I'll have about 800 ml of slurry on brew day that I split between two carboys.

Looking at MR. Malty's calculator, I'm doing it right as long as my yeast production date was a month prior to brew day.

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Do you use a 4L elmyer flask for the 3.6L starter? Also what stirr plate do you have that can move that volume. I think 2 L is my max for the stirr plate I have.

Thanks
Tim

I use a Thermalyne stir plate that got off of ebay. It has no problem spinning up that kind of volume. I use a 5L erlenmeyer.

The whole thing looks like this:



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