I'm going to be brewing on a larger scale (30-50gal) but as far as I know I don't have any special access to ingredients. I can buy bulk grain and hops without too much trouble for this size, but I was wondering about yeast. Should I build up a starter or just buy a bunch of yeast or both? The OG will be 1.052 and the batch size hasn't been nailed down yet but should be in the 30-50gal range. How long would it take to grow a starter for that size? How much volume would it take up? And, do I necessarily need some extra equipment like a stirplate if I'm going that big? Also for the recipe, I'm basing it off of my go-to Cali Common which is a partial mash with 50% 2-row 50% DME. I don't have the need to recreate it perfectly and it'll be AG so I was thinking just doing 100% 2-row, but does anyone have an alternative that would be a little closer to my original?
How much money are you willing to spend? If it were me, I'd be propagating the yeast. Your starters would need to be pretty large. Or start with a large number of cells. I'd recommend using a yeast calculator to answer the specifics. And yes, larger starters (if starting with a small number of cells), or in your case, probably multi-step starters do take longer. But at reasonable inoculation rates for each step, I'd probably budget a day per step. You might also want to consider crashing between steps. No. If you are willing to spend money on more starter wort and are willing to wait longer for the starter(s) to finish, you could get away with not using a stir-plate.
If economics is of primary concern then propagating yeast from a homebrew sized package is the way to go. Alternatively you could purchase commercial size yeast packages. One barrel is 31 gallons. From a commercial vendor perspective you might save money buying your yeast from The Brewing Science Institute vs. Wyeast/White Labs. http://www.brewingscience.com/ Cheers!
