Can a starter be too big?

I wasn’t feeling good today, so I blew off brewing. I thought I’d add a little DME every couple days til I brew again within the next week. I currently have a 1/2 gallon starter of wlp 001 for a 2IPA I plan on brewing. Put it in the frig or build it up?

Yes yours starter can be too large. I would bet my next batch of beer that it will be fine.

I’d stick it in the fridge and then take it out before you brew and add a little more wort to get it active again before pitching.

Yes it can be too big. Overpitching sacrifices yeast health, especially in later generations if you plan on rinsing it.

What’s your planned OG? I would think a IIPA would benefit from a larger starter than what you currently have.

Originally posted by oteyj
Yes it can be too big. Overpitching sacrifices yeast health, especially in later generations if you plan on rinsing it.

Can you go into more detail on this?

Originally posted by joeneugs
What’s your planned OG? I would think a IIPA would benefit from a larger starter than what you currently have.

If my calculations are right, my OG should be 1.084.

Originally posted by cbkschubert

Originally posted by joeneugs
What’s your planned OG? I would think a IIPA would benefit from a larger starter than what you currently have.

If my calculations are right, my OG should be 1.084.

Yeah, if you’re using liquid yeast a gallon starter would be about right. I would cold crash it, decant the liquid and then add another half gallon of starter wort.

From what I’ve read, yes you can pitch too much yeast but you’d have to really be ridiculous with the amount to negatively effect the beer. It’s much easier to underpitch than it is to overpitch.

Just my $.02, especially when it comes to this yeast strain... With big hoppy extremely bitter beers, pitch the least amount of yeast that will get the job done. You are not going to re-pitch yeast from a DIPA. You just need it to get the job done. You want the beer to finish below 3 plato, you don’t want their to be excessive esters, phenols or fusels. Beyond that, you don’t want the yeast to be strained by over-pitching and the resulting weak performance that can create. In addition, you want less yeast to be falling out with all of the iso-alpha acids that they end up bonding to before flocculation.

FYI, I don’t really think there is much of a credible way to calculate yeast pitched without counting, but I pitch ~ .75*10^6 cells/ml/plato for a DIPA. With 12% dextrose and a mash temp of 148, I regularly get over 90% AA.

You could always decant and pitch on a new starter. But if you plan on brewing in the next few days, putting it in the fridge shouldn’t be a huge problem.