Hi folks, I brew ten gallon batches, and about a year starting using a yeast starter. As I ferment in two, five gallon buckets, I have two stirplates with flasks, and use one smack pack in each, with about 800ml of wort. This has worked great.
I’m wondering how I could step up a single starter to get to the 1600ml of yeast I want with just ONE smack pack.
Any advice?
After it’s fermented out, decant and add more wort.
Ok a little more detail:
Do one starter/pack (800ml)
when it’s done chill and decant the spent wort.
Add another 800ml and let it stir up until completely mixed.
Pour 400ml of that into your other flask.
Top off both flasks to the 800ml mark and let them finish out.
Voila you have 2 starters
Thanks guys, I’ll start this Thursday for a Sunday brew session. Hope I don’t mess it up too bad.
You may want to smack your pack Tuesday (no sexual innuendo intended) and begin the process Wednesday to give your first step a full 24hrs to chill and settle out.
I do pretty much the same thing, only with 6L flasks and 4L wort, then chill and decant the last step as well.
I’ll smack my pack tonight. (and tomorrow morning too, LOL)
Thanks for the advice, when doing starters I’ve never let the smack pack expand. Just smack, open, and pour…
That’s fine too. The pack expanding is solely for the purposes of letting you know that the yeast is alive. It’s not mandatory to let it expand.
OK, so I brewed 10 gallons yesterday while lsitening to The Sunday Session. (another shameless plug) Anyway, finished up about 5pm. This morning as I left for work, I checked out the freezer turned fermenter, and both buckets are bubbling quite nicely after 14 hours. Looks good so far. We’ll see.