Hi all. I’m brewing an English brown with an OG 1.051 using WLP002. Calculations suggest a 1 liter starter to pitch into my 2.5 gallon batch. Looking for opinions… Would it be better to go on my stir plate for 24-36 hours then pitch the whole thing or make my starter 3 days ahead, and then chill and decant so as not to dilute the flavors?
Also, is there a discernible difference in doing 24 hours vs. 36 hours on the stir plate before pitching or chilling/decanting?
Thanks,
Stevo
Personally I would pitch the vial without a starter in that size batch of 1.050 beer, as long as it is relatively fresh. I’m sure others will disagree.
When I do make starters, I tend to make them a few days ahead, let them go for 2 days, and crash for a day or two depending on the strain. Some yeasts finish up faster.
I will sometimes pitch when the yeast is active, but only with smaller starters in 5 gallon batches.
+1 Yeastcalulator.com suggests 89B cells at optimal pitch rate. Assuming your vial is a week old or so you should be fine. When i make starters i tend to let them sit on my stirplate for about 18 hours and then pitch them. I have yet to worry about cold crashing but that will start when my new setup is finished.
Cheers,
Jeff
Pitch vial, you’ll be fine. You should want some reproductive quality in your beer. A starter would give you too many cells.
The production date on my vial is 12/23/13. Use by date 4/13/14. Yeast calc sets me at about 67% viability which puts me at about 67 bil cells needing 89 bil. but yeast calc estimates a 1 liter started on stirplate should yield about 180b cells which is double what I need. Intersting conundrum.
You could make the starter, crash and decant and pitch half. Then you would have another pitch of yeast to do something with later
That sounds like a plan. Thanks everyone for the ideas.
If it’s been refrigerated, that’s a very conservative estimate. You probably have roughly the cell count you need. The problem is that there’s no way to check the viability of the WL vials without making a starter.
If you’re confident that it’s been handled and stored properly, I would probably just pitch the vial. A 2.5 gal batch will be a good starter for 5 gal of a bigger beer, or 10 gal of average-gravity beer.
I can’t say that I know how it was shipped from WL but I do know that I bought it from my LHBS and it is most definitely kept refrigerated. As well, we can only assume that since it was packaged mid December that it was shipped in the winter months… another plus. I can’t imagine that it has suffered high temps at any point. I’m in that funny gray area where I could really go either way. Check my logic here. My gut feeling is that a possibility of slightly under pitching is better than introducing multiple opportunities of contamination by means of a starter (albeit a small chance, I’m a sanitizing freak) and limiting the chances of yeast shock to just the one… a direct pitch. I could split a 1 liter starter but I plan on rinsing this batch anyway. The more I thinks on it the more I’m leaning towards… Pitch that sucker and let it ride.
Being short 5-10% I feel like a direct pitch would give me a little bit longer lag time but my 2.5 gallon batch would act as a starter and grow my yeast in the best possible environment, at correct fermentation temps and in it’s intended wort. Clear logic, of fuzzy logic? 
Wow I’ve never had a vial that fresh. Probably wouldn’t hurt to pitch it into a pint of wort 12-24 hours before brewday to wake the yeast up a bit.