WL 644 isn't Brett??!!

Thanks. I'll probably play it safe and do a longer starter as well. Just not many places in my house that are in the 60's that I can leave this on a stir plate for up to a week and not worry about it being disturbed by the house creatures (i.e. kids).

 

I've got the same child issue...so I'll be running the starter in my fermentation chamber. Normally, I just leave them out...but my 3 year old's middle name is "destroyer of all things"...it's a bit long, but really fits him well.

 

I recently added an electrical outlet to a closet in order to child proof my winter Saison brewing process. I'm surprised I didn't end up with any accidental sours based on my two year old's fondness for stealing the airlock.

 

Sounds like a thread is in order that discusses and shares tips for childproofing your homebrew stuff.

 

Mine is at the stage of sticking his hand inside the Better Bottle neck to play with the water inside, or dropping stuff into it. Fortunately this only happens to the oxi-soaking equipment. He doesn't realize that there are others in the ferm fridge, and the sours are too high up for him to get to... now the barrel is just the right height...

 

Thought I'd add a question here, instead of starting a new thread.

What amount of yeast are people designing their yeast starters around, with 644. White labs states that they put less in there because it's meant for secondary.

So, are people just assuming a certain amount...like say 25B? I mean...visually...there appears to be at least 75% less in the vial.

I bought two vials so I could make a smaller starter, but I'm not sure where to begin...

 

Not sure of the count. I used it in primary. I took the vial and put it into a 1.1 L starter. Waited 3 days and pitched all the starter minus what I put back into the Vial for next time. FWIW it looked like 2 to 3 times the yeast was put back in. If I had time I would have preferred a two step starter. I had activity in 12 hrs and screaming at 18. I have not taken a final gravity yet, so cann't tell if it attenuated well.

 

Mine pull airlocks of my sours in the laundry room that I'm keeping warm. Both of them like to enhance my acetic acid character I guess.

My barrel though.. they will sit on it and play all over it. Thank goodness for a solid bung!

 

I'm almost certain that the cell count is between 2-4 billion in 1 vial. I made a 500 ml starter then brought it up to a 1.5L starter after 3 days. Then pitched the 1.5L after 7 days. On the stir plate the whole time. That brought a 1.050 pale ale that was mashed at 152 down to a 1.010 in 7 days at 68 degrees.

I used Mr. Malty and "dummied" the cell count down by entering in a really old yeast date so it read 2 billion cells viable. Then just calculated out my starters normal once I cell count in line.

 

Don't know what you are going to do with the 644, but this might help from @OldSock's blog

"The biggest challenge of fermenting with only Brett is growing enough cells to pitch. While suggestions vary, most brewers pitch somewhere between ale and lager cell counts. I bought from White Labs, so I had to grow 3 billion cells into close to 150 billion. A two stage starter on my stir-plate at around 80 F was enough to do the job in about 10 days. The 1.5 L starter had the beer rocking by the following morning at 66 F. This morning I moved the still slowly fermenting beer out of the “cold room” and into the basement where the temperature is in the mid-70s to help the Brett finish. In another week or two I’ll dry hop the beer and get it on tap as quickly as I can."

http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2012/07/100-brett-trois-ipa-recipe.html

 

Looks like a 2-step starter it is.

 

I have a 2L Flask and a new stir plate and am looking to brew up the Tropics! IPA that is up in the recipe forum at some point in the next few weeks starting with (1) Vial of reasonably fresh 644. Any recommendations on how much DME/Water I would need to start, when I would need to do the second step and how much time (in days) were talking about for the whole process?

I'm still shaky on multi step yeast starters, can you tell?

 

I'm in uncharted waters, myself. Both because this is my first time with 644, and first multi-step starter. I'm using Brewcipher to recommend the starter size I need, or I think I need, as I'm just approximating the amount of yeast. As for time, I'm going to let the starter tell me, based on activity. But I expect to have it on a starter for a total of 6-7 days (as that's all I realistically have).

I don't expect to be pitching a perfect amount, due to time constraints and several unknown factors about 644...I'm just increasing my odds of a successful fermentation at this point.

 

So, this is what my first step of 644 looked like at 24 hrs, much the same at 48hrs, and now the foamage is starting to subside. I'm going to be cold-crashing this later today, and begin the next step tomorrow evening.

So, this was two vials pitched into about 400ml...and all I can say is that it indeed seems to take a bit longer than the yeasts I usually use.

So, for those planning on making a starter with 644...my experience seems to mirror others...that you do need to plan a bit more time for the starter than normal.

 

Just thought I'd share this…



It's the second step of a starter with WLP644 that's been sitting for about a week, since I haven't had the chance to step it up again. The pellicle started forming last night.

 

Just giving another update with 644. I'm at about 48hrs into the 2nd step of this starter, and the starter is still happily fermenting away. I'm really only updating because I can't help but laugh at the way I'm keeping my ferm chamber warm:



Yeah, that's a quilt, I have a heating pad underneath it...and the pillow on top is helping with insulation. I didn't want to deal with using my chest freezer to keep the temp from getting too hot (it was getting too hot with the heating pad in the freezer) so I devised this absurdity to deal with it. Temperatures are holding steady at 77° inside the freezer with this set-up...which is around where I want it.

 

Cute...

@JohnSnowNW

Gotta do whatcha gotta do..

 

@JohnSnowNW The big question is why did you just happen to have that quilt laying around