dry yeast starter

[far9410]

Hi, would it be a good idea to grow up a large starter using dried yeast, in order to split it for other brews, if so how long would it keep in the fridge?

[vacant]

Nottingham data sheet says making a starter using wort leads to a loss of viability.

[far9410]

Hi, yes I'd heard that too, but I was thinking of a big starter to split, can't see what the difference is from pitching onto yeast slurry?

[Rookie]

Hi, yes I'd heard that too, but I was thinking of a big starter to split, can't see what the difference is from pitching onto yeast slurry?

Instead of a large starter make a small batch and harvest the yeast?

[hazelbrew]

I can't see the difference between making a large starter and splitting/storing vs harvesting and reusing yeast at the end of a batch. yes the yeast have undergone a ferment... but you have what 4,5 10x as many cells?

[Jocky]

Nottingham data sheet says making a starter using wort leads to a loss of viability.

i see two sides to this:
1. They are incentivised to say that. Buying more yeast from them has less chance of contamination, but also boosts their revenue, so they will extol the virtues of buying more yeast.

2. In their defence, a dry pack of yeast supposedly should contain up to 200 billion cells, enough for 23 litres of 1.050 wort and probably then some. And that yeast has been packaged with all the reserves it needs to get on with the job quickly.
I would think that pitching 200 billion cells into a 1 litre starter isn't going to grow much yeast at all - it'll be saturated. Looking at my preferred yeast starter calculator, with a 2 litre starter you might be able to double it up to 400 billion cells... and at that point is prefer to simply buy another pack of yeast.


So a small starter is probably too small to grow the volume of yeast you want. If you wanted to grow a really big starter - say 20 litres, you could get up to a trillion cells, or 5 packs of yeast, but it will almost certainly have cost you more in DME than the cost of extra packs of yeast.

[far9410]

Great replies guys thanks, might have to rethink this!

[johnmac]

I was thinking of using 1/2 a pack of Muntons Gold in a 2L starter, then chuck that and the rest of the packet in a 10 gallon brew. Otherwise, I'd probably need three of those 6g packets, plus by making a starter, I'll have an active, proven crop of yeast. Is this reasonable?

[Jocky]

I'd just stick the whole pack into the starter.

[hazelbrew]

I'd just stick the whole pack into the starter.

what about using 1/3rd of the pack , with starter to bump up the cell count, and using it for 3 brews...

i.e. £1 a go for yeast not £3 . seems a bit tight though!

you want to do it "just because"? i.e. for interests sake?

[micmacmoc]

I'm sure I read somewhere recently that we home brewers generally over pitch in our English ales, that we ought to stress our yeast a bit to get an English ale flavour...but I don't think so. Probably been listening to too much brewing network whilst half pisht and not concentrating.

[johnmac]

i.e. £1 a go for yeast not £3 . seems a bit tight though!

Isn't there a bit of tightarse in all home brewers?

you want to do it "just because"? i.e. for interests sake?

Isn't that part of why we brew anyway?