Building yeast up from practically nowt

[kev]

I was kindly given a very small sample of yeast in a petri-type container. Can someone suggest a schedule to build it up?

50ml then 100ml then 250ml, etc, etc.

Any helps appreciated. I've almost finished the "Jamil" yeast book and there's nothing obvious on this category....well there's calculations on building it up but I wondered if anyone had a tried and tested schedule

Ta

K

 

[Mark1964]

we just add it to 300g dme mixed with sterile water ie (boiled) and it will grow or use wort

 

[kev]

How much water?

Presumably you only need about a 1040 wort so you're looking at about 2.5 litres or something? I assume you let it grow right up in that one batch then split and go from there?

According to the Jamil book this would need to be repeated a few times to get a decent quantity of yeast.

K

 

[graysalchemy]

I personally would make it up in a small amount gradually working it up, so perhaps 100mm, 250ml, 500ml,1L. Depending on how much you need but i usually end up with a 5L starter for a 55L brew, so probably a 2L for 25L.

I ususally go for something 1020 as you don't want to stress the yeast especially early on perhaps get it upto 1040 for the last one, but I am sure i have read to keep the gravity low.

:thumb:

 

[kev]

Nice one. Exactly what I was thinking.

Will give it a go. Got some Cry Havoc on the stirplate just now so will maybe do it at the weekend.

K

 

[Good Ed]

I would start with 50g DME with 300ml of water (which is what GW recommends with a Brewlab slant), and even though this probably doesn't give you 1bn cells, I then just go with Jamil's chart on page 143 of his book, and you will get the same results.

 

[The Goatreich]

Just to add in to this, I recently went through the same process that GA recommended, as he recommended the same to me. I swabbed a hoop of yeast from the petri dish with a sterile hoop and put it into a 25ml starter for a couple of days, shaking every few hours. From there I went to a 300ml starter, and then up to a 1l starter. Everything seems to be fine with this process and the samples I've had of the beer made were delicious.

However after speaking to a friend of mine that works at a large brewery in the labs he told me they go straight from petri dish swab to 300ml starter, so you may be able to miss the earlier stage(s) out completely.

Out of interest, where did you get your stir plate from?

 

[kev]

I made the stir plate. Cost about £6.

K