Starter for my Helles

I plan to repitch some 2206 that I saved from a Becks clone on 3/27 in to my Helles this weekend.  Mr. Malty says the viability is 60% so I’m wondering how big of a starter I should make.  I don’t need my usual 1G monster but what is the recommendation of the forum?  I was thinking maybe a 2L at 1.038-1.040?

Dave

It totally depends on how much slurry you plan to use.  Why not use the mrmalty.com calculator and see what it says?

+1

You need to calculate the total number of cells needed which corresponds to a volume of slurry at a given thickness and viability.  There is a bit of estimation involved but mrmalty.com will help guide you on this.

This might be a dumb question, but can you overpitch lagers? It seems like most people have issues underpitching lagers, but I haven’t heard of problems from overpitching.

OK, so here is what I have.  I saved all the slurry from the Becks in a container.  From there I washed it several times until there was a clear separation of water, yeast and trub.  Now I just decanted the water, yeast and a little trub in a separate container.  The plan was to see how much yeast I have and make a starter from there.  If I saved all of it from my last batch and it’s at 60% viability, I figure I’m either right where I need to be or should make a small starter.

Should I now just estimate how much yeast I have, figuring the yeast concentration is on the high side and the non-yeast percentage is on the low side?  Seems right but please chime in if I’m missing something.  I want to learn how to calculate this properly.  Thanks.

Ron, hook me up.  I voted for you!  :wink:

Dave

I’ve yet to hear of such a thing!

I recommend using a moderate slurry thickness and non-yeast percentage of 25%.
For a 50GU Helles use 350Billion cells or 300mL of a moderate slurry. That will be plenty.  :slight_smile:

Thanks man!