Yeast.. multiple packs or big starter

Postby **Bilsch** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 2:29 pm

I'm going to start a new line of yeast for my brewery. The current 835 is getting tired and the Whitelabs we get must come through a few distributors before it gets to my LHBS because the last few lots received have been dead. Shipping a few packs this time of year from a bigger supplier is risky with the 100 deg days here. My LHBS can get much fresher WY so I'm going to try WL2206 as per Bryans recommendation and pitch 5 smack packs to begin with a good cell count. Apparently my store is getting a shipment from Wyeast this coming Friday that will have been packaged on the previous Monday so it will be quite fresh yeast.
My question is.. does anyone know if there is some kind of nutrients in the Wyeast pack that might be an overload when adding 5 of them to one 6 gal batch? Might it be wise to smack say two of them and maybe just pour the sediment from other 3 directly in the fermenter excluding the smack bubble contents? Or would it be wise to do a starter first either excluding or including the nutrient bubble content?
I am worried about adding too much nitrogen and trace metals from nutrients in the packs to the system.

Postby **Big Monk** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 3:28 pm

You don't have to pop the nutrient package, i.e. If you're worried don't "smack" all the packs.

I've always thought of it as a "proofing" mechanism rather than anything else.

Postby **Bilsch** » Fri Aug 19, 2016 6:11 pm

Postby **Owenbräu** » Mon Aug 22, 2016 10:44 pm

I've taken these apart before, and the volume of nutrient broth is very small. I can't bring myself to believe it'll be enough to cause a problem. The yeast will suck it up quickly. 5 packs, that's an expensive batch, but 500 billion cells is a nice target

Postby **Bilsch** » Tue Aug 23, 2016 2:23 am

Thanks for the info on the broth. Yea I'm tired of having yeast crap out before the finish line so in this batch I'm going with a Bryan size pitch or as close as I can afford.

Postby **Owenbräu** » Tue Aug 23, 2016 8:10 am

Don't be afraid to let the yeast ramp to 8-9C and hold it there a little longer. You only really need 0.5P at transfer to spunden.

Postby **Brody** » Tue Aug 23, 2016 11:40 am

I kind of want to try this too.

My yeast was started with a single vial in a 2l starter pitched into ~2gallons of worth. I then did the whole drauflassen thing on that batch. I guess I've used it ~10 times by now?

I'll either keep using this yeast until it seems cooked then start a monster fresh pitch. Or maybe just start mixing in fresh yeast. Buy a fresh pack every other brew or so and pitch it in with my slurry.