Yeast starter for 16.5 gallons of Oktoberfest

[idigg]

Yeast gurus,

Looking to do a huge batch of Oktoberfest, 11 gallons for me and 5.5 gallons for my friend. I only have a 2liter flask with stirplate. Am I crazy thinking I can propagate enough yeast for almost 17 gallons of finished beer?

The beer will be 1.055, looks like I'll need 1250 billion yeast cells, wow.

I was thinking of using Wyeast 2124. Am I better of building a starter of 2124 for 11 gallons and maybe using a dry yeast for the other 5 gallons?

Saflager W-34/70 a good alternative?

I'm in the planning phase, but looking to get some advice. Thanks.

 

[rpe290]

Yeast gurus,

Looking to do a huge batch of Oktoberfest, 11 gallons for me and 5.5 gallons for my friend. I only have a 2liter flask with stirplate. Am I crazy thinking I can propagate enough yeast for almost 17 gallons of finished beer?

The beer will be 1.055, looks like I'll need 1250 billion yeast cells, wow.

I was thinking of using Wyeast 2124. Am I better of building a starter of 2124 for 11 gallons and maybe using a dry yeast for the other 5 gallons?

Saflager W-34/70 a good alternative?

I'm in the planning phase, but looking to get some advice. Thanks.

Make a low gravity helles or something to get enough yeast...that "may" be enough (sorry, > 1.060 lagers take a lot of yeast!)

I would guess the 34/70 is a good alternative, I have used the WLP 830 liquid version, good yeast. See how many packs are needed, might be more than one per 5 gallon batch...

 

[cwi]

Use a 1 gallon glass jug or growler as your starter vessel. They work fine, you just can't heat then cool in them. Sterilize it in the oven. A viable method would be to make an initial 3+ liter starter, then make 3+ liter starters from appropriate portions of the original starter. Mason jars, crashing, decanting, etc. will be helpful.

Buying a bulk pack of dry yeast would be easiest, but with limited choices.