How much yeast for 80l brew?

[ManseMasher]

I am about to get a bit bigger in terms of brew lengths. If I was to aim for a 1.055 SG and 80l in the fv, would four vials of liquid yeast suffice? I'm thinking that with an 8 litre starter, then cultivating my own from there (or brewday v. expensive!). In the ballpark or way off?

 

[clibit]

I dunno but I don't think you can rely on 4 liquid vials, and it's expensive. Making a 4 litre starter in a dj would be much cheaper and probably more reliable and probably enough, without doing the maths.. You could use 3 dry 11g packets of course.

 

[ManseMasher]

I've just been looking at Mr Malty - the numbers come up with 4 liquid vials in almost a 10 litre starter!! There has to be a better way - as you say clibit 28 quid for yeast is more than I'll pay for the entire grain bill. Guess I'll get on with a starter middle of January to get enough for brewing in February, according to pitching calc 800 billion cells required.....

 

[MyQul]

Answer: Lots

Seriously though using my fav yeasty calc:

http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php

4 vials will do the job but you only need a 4L starter (in a 5L flask vessel). The calc says you need 809bl cells 4 vials in 4L (on a stir plate) will give you 953bl

 

[ManseMasher]

Answer: Lots

Seriously though using my fav yeasty calc:

http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php

4 vials will do the job but you only need a 4L starter (in a 5L flask vessel). The calc says you need 809bl cells 4 vials in 4L (on a stir plate) will give you 953bl

Less of a stir plate for that size flask, more like a fecking merry-go-round......

 

[MyQul]

If of course you dont want to buy 4 vials and do it cheaper either just make a normal 23L brew take the whole yeast cake and dump your 80L on top (which I wouldn't really advise tbh) or just grow the yeast up from 1 vial. The yeast calc I linked has a step up facility so you can see how many step ups you need to do from 100bl to 809 bl

 

[MyQul]

Less of a stir plate for that size flask, more like a fecking merry-go-round......

:lol:

There's a 'manually shaken' option if you can't build youself a massive stir plate (although I know you can because your like the Mcguiver of the HB world :lol:)

 

[ManseMasher]

I take that as a challenge, and I accept....!!

 

[MyQul]

Up next, in the market place forum, HBF Merri-go-round stir plates (postage from NI might be a bit off putting though)

 

[Covrich]

I think MyQul already suggested this but coulnd't you use one vial for a 2 or 4 liter starter which you could then ferment out decant and then repitch into a 20 liter starter?

Your starters are going to be the same size as a large batch for most of us!!! Clibit does brews half the size of your potential starters :lol:

 

[ManseMasher]

Guess I could just prime the starter, wait 6 weeks and forget about the rest of it!!

 

[ManseMasher]

Up next, in the market place forum, HBF Merri-go-round stir plates (postage from NI might be a bit off putting though)

Haven't worked out how to avoid the council yet.....

 

[clibit]

Yeah it looks like a 20 litre batch is the best way to prepare enough yeast.

 

[ManseMasher]

Seriously though, if I need that much for 80l, how much do the big boys chuck in? Must be by the lorry load!

 

[MyQul]

I agree with Clibit, the cheapest way is to just make a regular 23L batch and harverst most (about 1.6L) of the yeast cake and dump it into the 80L.

You could rinse it but at a guess you would need 5L-10L of starter wort to do so (I'm not keen on using water to rinse yeast with)

 

[clibit]

I helped for a couple of days at a brewery that made 1700 litre batches. They harvested yeast from the fermenters and kept it in one of those large plastic storage boxes. About a third of a box went into a batch of beer.

Hope that helps. :-)

 

[MyQul]

From your big brew thread, if your going with WLP002, once you've decided how to go about aquiring enough yeast, at least it'll be really easy to harvest with a conical because it's so flocctuant

 

[ManseMasher]

I think I'm going to save everything that comes out of the yeast drain, and pitch with some of it in a smaller brew to see how it goes. If it works, then next big brew gets everything from the last brew....

 

[McMullan]

You're stepping it up there, MM. Clibit's on the ball, as usual. I plugged what you want into mr malty. Not lilterally, of course! Don't laugh, clibit, my auto correct thinks you're 'celibate'. Anyway, you'd need something like 2 vials in about a 10L starter. I take mr malty with a pitch of salt, TBH, but it gives you a rough idea. Like others have suggested, I'd go with a single vial (fresh) and make a starter, say 1L then step up to at least 2L. This is manageable with a stir plate set up and a 3L+ flask/bottle. Then I'd pitch the yeast from this into about a 10L starter (1.040). I wouldn't use a brew for it at this stage. You need to propagate yeast, not brew beer. It's not easy to stir a 10L+ starter. Use a continuous air supply instead. This could be something as simple as an aquarium pump with a 0.5 micron air stone and simple 0.2 micron air filter. Obviously, you wouldn't have to do this for every brew. You'll be harvesting from those lovely new conicals :mrgreen:

 

[clibit]

Celibate isn't bloody far off atm Mr McMullan! :geek: :? :pray: