Mother of all yeast starters

[thatguy314]

Here's a thought experiment for all you so-called beer nerds.

One of my clubs is doing a group brew on Saturday 1/23, a 75 gallon imperial stout at the Captain Lawrence Brewing Company. Unfortunately, no one actually took the time to think out the yeast starter. We won't have access to the fermenter until we are ready to brew.

According to Mr. Malty we will neeed 5014 billion cells. This is .75x10^6/ml/deg. plato. Chris white says we only need 0.5x10^6/ml/deg. plato, which is still 3342 billion, which is still a ton. Either way there's a lot of yeast to grow up. Assuming we have no stirbars and only have carboys and buckets as fermenters, how can we grow this up the fastest, without buying 10+ yeast packs? The club wants this fairly centralized so only 3-4 people will make up the yeast so that inexperienced people aren't making these starters.

I've figured out this plan, using Mr Malty:

Have 3 seperate people
Step 1: 5liter / 1.25 gallon starter from 1 pack. Crash the yeast in the fridge (100 --> 300 billion cells). Time 3-4 days
Step 2: Pitch that yeast into 2.5 gallon starter. Crash the yeast in the fridge (300 --> 730 billion cells). Time, 3-4 days
Step 3: Pitch that yeast into a 5 gallon starter. Crash the yeast in the fridge. (730 --> ~1800) crash in the fridge. Time, 3-4 days.

Theoretically this could take 12 days, which is an absolute maximum. The only way I could think to make it faster is to skip step 1 and pitch 3 packs each into step 2. I also think this has a fair bit of risk of contamination. Can anyone think of a better way to do this up/

[BadRock]

What's the cost of a pitchable amount from the White's? That's the way I would go, you've got to value your time somewhere and you are going to have about 20 man hours into making all these starters. Plus the risk of contamination and or people just forgetting to do it.

[thatguy314]

What's the cost of a pitchable amount from the White's? That's the way I would go, you've got to value your time somewhere and you are going to have about 20 man hours into making all these starters. Plus the risk of contamination and or people just forgetting to do it.

You've got to have an account with them to get that. Everyone decided they wanted to bother Scott (CLB's owner/brewer) as little as possible and would prefer not to make him order this too.

[Sam Scott]

What's the cost of a pitchable amount from the White's? That's the way I would go, you've got to value your time somewhere and you are going to have about 20 man hours into making all these starters. Plus the risk of contamination and or people just forgetting to do it.

You've got to have an account with them to get that. Everyone decided they wanted to bother Scott (CLB's owner/brewer) as little as possible and would prefer not to make him order this too.

Why not use one of Scott's house strains? Just have him pull a slug of yeast out of one of the fermenters. I wouldn't think it would be a big deal for him... you're using resources at the brewery anyway... he's probably already assumed you're gonna use his yeast (one of the benefits of homebrewing at a brewery!!!).

[seanhagerty]

I would make another step and start out pitching a single vial into 2L, then go through your step up procedure.

Or brew a low gravity beer and harvest yeast slurry. I assumed a SG of 1.090 for your stout and the 75 gallon volume and found it would take about 2200mL of yeast slurry for this batch. I dont think this is an unrealistic volume of yeast to harvest If it seems too large a volume, then brew two batches of low gravity beer to get that volume of yeast slurry.

If you are going to have to go through that trouble of that step up procedure, you may as well be able to drink the results.

Sean

[ajdelange]

In my experience an 8 - 10% starter is adequate. Thus a 7.5 gal starter should do. You could take 2 carboys filled to the 4 gal level and pitch 2 slap packs/tubes into each being sure to oxygenate and use yeast nutrient. In a couple of days you should have enough active starter to pitch a 75 gal batch. If you want to wait longer to let the paste drop out you can do that too. Does anyone in your club have a cylindroconical? If so, just put 8-10 gal of wort in that, pitch it (2 packs would probably do) and let it ferment. Then blow down the yeast and take it to the brewery (in a sanitized container, of course).

[mookie1010]

In my experience an 8 - 10% starter is adequate. Thus a 7.5 gal starter should do. You could take 2 carboys filled to the 4 gal level and pitch 2 slap packs/tubes into each being sure to oxygenate and use yeast nutrient. In a couple of days you should have enough active starter to pitch a 75 gal batch. If you want to wait longer to let the paste drop out you can do that too. Does anyone in your club have a cylindroconical? If so, just put 8-10 gal of wort in that, pitch it (2 packs would probably do) and let it ferment. Then blow down the yeast and take it to the brewery (in a sanitized container, of course).

That's kind of what I was thinking - just brew a few beers and call them "starters."

[thatguy314]

In my experience an 8 - 10% starter is adequate. Thus a 7.5 gal starter should do. You could take 2 carboys filled to the 4 gal level and pitch 2 slap packs/tubes into each being sure to oxygenate and use yeast nutrient. In a couple of days you should have enough active starter to pitch a 75 gal batch. If you want to wait longer to let the paste drop out you can do that too. Does anyone in your club have a cylindroconical? If so, just put 8-10 gal of wort in that, pitch it (2 packs would probably do) and let it ferment. Then blow down the yeast and take it to the brewery (in a sanitized container, of course).

That's kind of what I was thinking - just brew a few beers and call them "starters."

If I had unlimited time I would. The problem is no one realized quite how much yeast we needed until yesterday and That gives us 15 days to get the yeast. Getting several brews done isn't really an option at this point.