Author: Ray Found
It’s become commonplace for homebrewers to use yeast pitch rate calculators to determine starter volumes in order to ensure healthy fermentation. These tools are based off of pitching rates used in commercial brewing applications, generally accepted to be 0.75 million cells per mL of wort per ˚Plato for ale, double the amount for lager, ostensibly to compensate for the slower activity associated with cooler fermentation temperatures. This model encourages the use of starters to establish a larger amount of viable yeast cells, which usually involves producing the starter 24-48 hours before pitching.
However, another purported benefit of starters is the impact they have on vitality, which can briefly be described as a combination of yeast health and activity level. By agitating a starter regularly, whether via shaking or stir plate, the starter is constantly oxygenated, allowing the yeast to build sterol reserves critical for reproduction and cell wall development, among other things.
I’ve long been curious about this topic. In my own experience, beers pitched with yeast from a starter always show signs of fermentation activity faster, ferment more vigorously, and finish sooner than those pitched with a single vial/pack. Why? I’ve always assumed, based off of what I’ve read, that higher cell counts were responsible for this stuff. Perhaps there’s something else to it?
While working on the first water chemistry xBmt, Marshall had a back-and-forth with co-author of Water: A Comprehensive Guide for Brewers, Colin Kaminski, that moved from water to other topics, including yeast. Colin shared the following information:
Coors England developed an amazing method that is perfect for homebrewers to steal. Take a stir plate and make a starter. Add yeast and 10˚P wort [1.040 SG]. Aerate for 4 hours. At the end of 4 hours pitch into the wort. Do not aerate the batch. This maximizes “vitality.” Vitality is the most difficult to measure and important parameter in yeast. A standard starter is fermented out and then re-pitched. This [a vitality starter] uses continuous air and only allows the starter to spin for 4 hours. No alcohol is produced. The yeast respires but does not enter fermentation until after it’s pitched into the wort.
Marshall asked specifically about viable cell counts, which Colin explained will remain unchanged while vitality will be nearly 100%. I was intrigued and excited to put this one to the test.
| PURPOSE |
To evaluate the differences between a conventional yeast starter made to increase viable cell count and a starter produced a few hours pre-pitch to increase yeast vitality when used to ferment a split-batch of the same wort.
| METHOD |
To test the merits of this vitality idea, I decided to make a reasonably high-gravity beer for this xBmt. With my lupulin supply running low, I reworked my favorite MACC IPA recipe to be a DIPA through specialty malt reductions and the additions of simple sugar. It basically named itself…
Big MACC DIPA
| Batch Size | Boil Time | IBU | SRM | OG | FG | ABV |
| 11 gal | 60 min | 130 | 6.9 | 1.075 SG | 1.010 SG | 8.6 % |
Fermentables
| Name | Amount | % |
| Domestic 2-Row | 28 lbs 1 oz | 80.6 |
| Munich (10L) | 4 lbs 9 oz | 13.1 |
| Gambrinus Honey Malt | 11 oz | 2.0 |
| Sucrose | 1 lb 8 oz | 4.3 |
Hops
| Name | Amt/IBU | Time | Use | Form | Alpha % |
| Magnum | 63 IBU | First Wort Addition | FWH | Pellet | 12.6 |
| Mosaic | 60 g/11 IBU | Flameout w/ 20 min stand | Boil | Pellet | 11.7 |
| Centennial | 120 g/19 IBU | Flameout w/ 20 min stand | Boil | Pellet | 10.2 |
| Citra | 190g/37 IBU | Flameout w/ 20 min stand | Boil | Cone | 13.9 |
| Amarillo | 56 g | Dryhop 2-5 Days | Dry | Pellet | 8.8 |
| Mosaic | 60 g | Dryhop 2-5 Days | Dry | Pellet | 11.7 |
| Centennial | 66 g | Dryhop 2-5 Days | Dry | Pellet | 10.2 |
| Citra | 150g | Dryhop 2-5 Days | Dry | Pellet | 13.9 |
Yeast
| Name | Lab | Attenuation | Ferm Temp |
| California Ale Yeast | White Labs 001 | 85.8% | 66°F |
I am completely sold on this hop combination, to the point I am worried I am stuck in a bit of a rut with it. A delicious, fruity rut. Anyway, for this batch, I started with 2 vials from the same production lot.
Using my preferred calculator, I determined the conventional starter batch would need to be 1.8L, which I overbuilt a bit to harvest some for future use. About 42 hours prior to pitching, I pitched 1 of the yeast vials into a flask of boiled and chilled wort.
After spinning for about 32 hours, I moved the flask to the fridge to cold crash. Per my normal process, the starter beer was decanted and the flask returned to the stir plate on brew day.
While my strike water was heating in the garage, I made a 500 mL starter, hit it with the other vial of yeast, then placed it on my lego stir plate (build instructions to come) where it remained until the wort was to receive it.
It was a rather uneventful brew day. The mash settled in nicely at my target of 150˚F, where it sat for about an hour before running off.
The sweet wort met a heap of Magnum hops in the kettle, enough to impart a calculated 65 IBU.
This batch reminded why I hate whole cone hops– 190 grams of Citra required 2 huge bags, without which my valve would clog. It looked like loaves of bread going into my wort. One of my side goals for this xBmt was to use up all of my Citra whole cone hops that I’d been avoiding for that last couple months. Mission accomplished.
I quickly chilled the wort with my Hydra IC to 75˚F, about 7˚F above the temperature of my groundwater.
I then filled two 6 gallon PET carboys and placed them in my fermentation chamber to finish chilling. A few hours later, both worts were sitting at my 64˚F target pitch temp and the yeasts were pitched. In stark contrast to the first pitch rate xBmt, both the conventional starter and vitality beers were showing signs of active fermentation just 7 hours in. They were roaring along by the next morning.
Throughout the course of fermentation, I never observed any differences. Both had reached 1.013 SG after a week of fermentation and signs of activity were rapidly dwindling. I added a massive dry-hop charge to each carboy at this point.
A hydrometer measurement 2 days later revealed both beers had reached my target FG of 1.010. I cold crashed, fined with gelatin, then packaged these beers and put them in my keezer to carbonate.
| RESULTS |
The majority of the data for this xBmt was gathered at a BeerMe Brew Club meeting held at Skyland Ale Works. A huge thanks to our hosts and everyone from the club who participated!
The tasting panel consisted of 17 participants including provisional BJCP judges, experienced homebrewers, and enthusiastic craft beer nerds. Each taster was blindly presented with 2 beers from the conventional starter batch and 1 from the vitality then asked to identify the unique sample. In order achieve statistical significance given this sample size, 10 tasters (p<0.05) would have had to correctly identify the odd-beer-out, while only 6 (p=0.86) were capable of doing so, a result consistent with chance.
My Impressions: I never actually triangle tested myself on this one, but in multiple side-by-side comparisons, I failed to reliably ascertain any differences. On the other hand, when Marshall stopped by with friends Aaron and Matt on their trek to NHC, all 3 got it right, which admittedly gave me pause. Matt and Aaron were included in the results since they were blind to the nature of the xBmt, Marshall obviously wasn’t. Still, even with their correct responses, 6/17 isn’t remotely close to significance. My hunch– if served blind multiple times, my ability to pick the different beer would be equally as consistent with chance as the participant panel.
Hey, Marshall here, I wanted to chime to give my impressions since I got to try these beers. For what it’s worth, my guess during the triangle test was, well, just that- a guess. The beers tasted exactly the same to me, I doubt I’d be able to reliably identify the odd-beer-out over multiple triangle tests either. Also, if you’re looking for a tasty IIPA recipe, holy shit, this beer was delicious! I might consider fermenting it with TYB Vermont Ale or WLP090 for fun, but it’s money as is. Cheers!
| DISCUSSION |
I am not terribly shocked by these results and didn’t really expect there to be a significant difference given the results of the first pitch rate xBmt. What I was surprised by was how both fermentations appeared to be effectively identical. I wondered about the possibility the conventional starter didn’t produce as many yeast cells as the calculator predicted, meaning it had a similar cell count as the vitality starter. This seems highly unlikely given what we know about yeast propagation, which leads me to believe the broader interpretation we’ve intended to test in this xBmt deserves some consideration– yeast vitality may be as, if not more, critical than high amounts of viable cells. Something is going on here. Of course, one test is obviously far from conclusive in this manner and the usual caveats about this being a single data point still hold. But the fact these results corroborate those from Coors England lends credence to the idea that healthy starters may not necessarily require more than a few hours on a stir plate.
So, as long as vitality is increased, cell count doesn’t matter– I can pitch an old ass vial of 10% viable yeast into a starter, spin it a few hours, and all will be fine!
Ehh, probably not. Although, at this point, I am comfortable accepting that cell count isn’t the only metric by which we should be evaluating yeast pitch and, personally, I’ll be less inclined to delay brewing because I failed to make a starter in time. This seems like a practical solution for those who, like me, are limited in the times they get to brew, making the spur-of-the-moment brew day using my favorites liquid yeasts a much more viable option.
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68 thoughts on “exBEERiment | Yeast Pitch Rate: Viability Starter vs. Vitality Starter In A Double IPA”
This seems to validate what I’ve been doing for my starters. I make starters, but do not attempt to nail a certain cell count pitch rate. I used to have long lag phases (anywhere from 20-36 hours) when I would direct pitch a vial into 5 gal of wort. Since making starters, I have active fermentation within 6 hours usually.
For a beer with an OG of 1.054 or less, I will make a 1.5L starter, and anything higher than that gets 2L. I never really know how many cells I am pitching, but I know I’m in the ballpark. Fermentation always starts within 6-8 hours, and finishes clean in about 7 days.
Point being, and your results seem to validate, that it is far more important to “wake up” the yeast and get them active, rather than building the cell count to some magic number.
just curious what yeast’s folks have used with this recipe. I tried it with 001 and WLP090. It was incredible with the 090.
I have recently come to love 1968 and its my new favorite yeast. Was curious if anyone on here has tried it with this recipe. Thanks!
I’ve only made this exact recipe the once… I should make again! I’ve done my regular ipas with 001, 090, 007 and us05…. I really prefer 090 for flavor/performance, but the great thing about homebrewing is you can do you!
Interesting (and surprising) result. I wonder if you’d see something similar for a recipe that would stress the yeast more – although at 8,6% you’re stressing them pretty good. Having brewed since the 1990’s I found that the biggest improvement to my beer was using a starter and good pitch rates; I now have to wonder if the numbers were not such an important aspect as was viability.
Yeah, I have to think even a large starter that increases cell count, ALSO has a benefit to yeast vitality.
Just wanted to confirm one line in the paragraph from Coors:
“Aerate for 4 hours. At the end of 4 hours pitch into the wort. Do not aerate the batch.”
So that batch you really didn’t shake the carboy, use O2, use a siphon sprayer, etc.?
I actually did shake the carboy… i couldn’t find Colin’s instructions on brewday and habit took over.
That creates the yeast growth the method try’s to avoid. But shaking is only a little O2.
Ray, great write-up and very interesting topic . . I’m always into simplifying and reducing brew day/steps.
Just curious, can you detail the steps for the “4 hour” starter? Did you go through the normal boil for the starter, then cool?
Thanks and keep up the good work?
ooops, Meant “Keep up the good work!” . . (all thumbs here)
Reply – Yep… Boil chill, add yeast, then onto stirplate.
For those of us that make 10 gal batches, I wonder what your recommendation/thoughts would be on the number of vials to pitch? I make starters to to avoid having to pitch multiple vials. Would just letting the starter rip for 4 hours using a single vial for a 10 gal batch work?
I don’t know yet. I’m skeptical of pushing the cell count too low.
Ray,
Did you aerate the two batches of wort or just the yeast?
I shook to aerate both batches.
Thank you Ray, I had given up the idea of brewing spur of the moment today because of not having prepared a yeast starter when I read your blog post. Brew day saved! I’m going to give this a try today!
How faithful were you to the 4-hour deadline? I sometimes need a couple of hours to get my wort down to pitch temps in my fermentation fridge, and I’m not always sure of that until I’m done chilling. The line, “This [a vitality starter] uses continuous air and only allows the starter to spin for 4 hours. No alcohol is produced,” makes me think that if you were to spin it for longer or wait too long after the 4-hours on the stir plate to actually pitch that you could get diminished results.
And by the way, are you guys going to debunk every single brewing indisputable brewing “truth”? Jeez.
Well, the brewday process not being perfectly predictable, it ended up being closer to 6 hours.
Debunk isn’t actually a goal. More just question and test. remain forever curious.
You kept it spinning for 6 hours or you stopped it at 4 and let it sit for for a couple of hours before pitching?
Spun the whole time.
Colin mentioned this method at the end of his 2014 NHC seminar “Conditioning and Aging Beer”.
He was basically speaking out against people using pure O2 to oxygenate their wort, in that it is very easy to over-oxygenate wort – leading to something called “saponification” i.e. the process of creating soap.
It was a great seminar though, lots of good info. AHA members can download an MP3 here: http://www.homebrewersassociation.org/how-to-brew/resources/conference-seminars/
Do you have any recommendations for those of us that like to overbuild our starters to harvest some extra yeast? With this vitality method, it seems that not a whole lot of extra yeast are being produced. So if you remove a quarter of your starter for harvesting, it seems that next time to go to make a yeast starter you’ll only be starting off with a quarter of the original number of yeast cells, if that makes any sense.
I guess one could make a big yeast starter one day and portion it into smaller containers to keep in the fridge, so when a random brew day does pop up you can just take one of those and make the vitality starter with it.
I didn’t harvest from my vitality starter. I would have to make propagation and vitality two separate processes… which I will likely do.
Colin gave a presentation at my local brew club meeting and mentioned the “4 hour starter” thing. I’ve been using it for my last few batches and they have been great, but I have been wanting to do a side by side comparison like this. Thanks! However, I think the fact that you aerated both fermenters may have invalidated the results a little. Seems like an important aspect of the method.
Well, it isn’t the ultimate test, but it did test a single variable: Coventional Starter vs. this mini, VITALITY starter.
What do you find important about NOT aerating?
IIRC I think part of Colin’s explanation was that over-aerating the wort could result in some off-flavors. I know the common conception is there is no such thing as over-oxygenating, but hypothetically if there were, this method removes that possibility by allowing all the necessary oxygen absorption to occur prior to pitching.
And sorry, I think “invalidated” was the wrong choice of words. I still think it was a worthwhile and educational experiment. I was just trying to say that I don’t think it was a full representation of the proposed method. I still think there is another variable to test here 🙂
I think it is generally accepted that there is no way to over-oxygenate with AIR. It is absolutely possible to over-oxygenate with pure O2. Yes, combining this idea with an oxygenation test would be an interesting dual-Variable test.
Very interesting results. I had a question while reading the couple of statements from Colin (both in the article and in the comments section). When Coors England talks about “aeration”, I would have otherwise made an assumption that they were actually providing 100% O2 for four hours, rather than a stir plate. However, from the sounds of what has been written here, it sounds like Colin is talking about using a stir plate for 4 hours, not dosing with pure O2 for 4 hours. Was there ever a clarification on that from Colin by chance?
The results of this experiment might show that it doesn’t matter (I would think that it is difficult to extrapolate the results of this single experiment to all types of wort, although 8.6% abv is a decently high abv), but I am curious if that clarification point was ever raised to Colin. Thanks!
Colin was totally unambiguous about that: Air, not O2. He was speaking of Aeration via stir-plate. Any ambiguity was introduced by marshall and I when we truncated the full conversation for the purpose of writing the article.
Great article once again. Off topic I find a whole heap of us are doing similar hop combo’s. I just did a IPA called Quad Hopper with Centennial , Amarillo, Simcoe, and Mosaic. Lots of home brewers here in Oz have been doing that one here for a few years now, but with cascade instead of Mosaic. I just love Mosaic.
Yeah, I mean, I certainly didn’t pioneer the use of these hops in an IPA. Amarillo/Mosaic seem to make each other better. (I have heard similar things about Amarillo/Simcoe)
I am also coming to the belief that Honey Malt does something to fruity hops like this hop bill uses, to really amp up the fruitiness.
I think the take away from this experiment would be there are many ways to prepare and pitch yeast. Just make sure your cell count is at least close to the pitching rate for your beer and that your yeast are healthy….a starter for 48hrs or 4 won’t make good beer if you gravely under pitch or your process (wether with the starter or the final beer) is detrimental to the yeast.
Is that the take away? He pitched only about 50B cells while conventional wisdom says he needed closer to 250B cells. Even if the 4 hour starter fermented out and propagated it still would have been about 100B short.
Anyway, good write up. I’d *really* like to see follow up exbeeriments and data on this one.
Interesting experiment. Quick Question
For the 4hr starter, are you dumping the whole flask in as it doesn’t sound like there is time to ‘crash’ it to be able to separate the bulk yeast from the starter wort?
I assume that the 24hr starter has been separated as it was cold crashed?
ta
Pitched the full volume on the vitality starter.
On the conventional starter, I crashed, decanted until there was about 500ML to pitch (after harvesting some for future use).
The whole 500ml goes in.
On a vitality starter, since you have to throw the whole thing in, have you tried siphoning off the 500mL of vitality starter wort from the beer being made after it’s chilled in from the kettle? Waiting 4 hours to pitch after the boil isn’t a long time to wait, and you wouldn’t be adding wort that isn’t part of the full beer recipe.
This is unrelated from the xBmt but your blow off tube setup was interesting in the photos. What size hose are you using and what was the container used that is holding your sanitizer?
I run two 1/2″ hoses connected to the stem from 3-piece airlocks.
The blowoff container is just an old tub of “pub mix” with holes drilled in the lid.
Using a logical extension, would there be value in performing the same 4hr propagation (“vitality boost”) with a previously made starter that had already been cold crashed? I would assume if you decant the spent media and replace with a bolus of freshly boiled/cooled DME and place on the stir plate for ~4hrs that you will get best of both worlds, cell count and vitality.
Agreed.
How about an experiment where you make wort, and cool it put it into fermenter. But at same time keep a bit out to pitch yeast into for a 4 hour starter like above, and then pitch into fermenter.
I think that’s a fairly common practice, at least among those who favor the vitality approach. I know I’ve done it a few times and it works great!
What do you think you’d do for your next lager? Just a vitality starter, or try to build up cell counts – perhaps like what Omon suggested above?
Well, not a “true” lager, but I just brewed a Marzen using WLP029. I had previously harvested that slurry from an Upcoming Kolsch xbmt, and mr Malty calculator suggested it was about 800b cells (about what I needed for 11Gal @ 1.057). I spun this on brewday in a vitality starter made from the batch wort, and pitched once everything reached 58F. Fully formed Krausen in 24hours.
The vitality starter absolutely seems to have a beneficial effect on reducing lag times (which I take to indicate means a healthy fermentation, though I admit it is only one metric).
What was the pitching rate in the vitality starter batch vs the normal yeast starter batch? How low of a pitching rate have you used with the vitality starter method and gotten good results? How about with lagers?
Hi, I’m new to homebrewing and have been reading a lot of your exbeeriments!! They are really great and have helped a lot!
I was just wondering if a significant difference would be found using a ‘estery’ yeast strain such as one for a hefeweizen or a belgian ale instead of a more neutral one.
Cheers
Maybe. As a general rule, I expect different results with different variables, but I’ve no great way of predicting from one data point.
I like the shaken not stirred “james bond” Method. Quick and simple.
Time to test it maybe? Similar the to Coors method mentioned above without the stir plate.
Test with a big lager?
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=70926
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=24460.0
Funny, we’ve been chatting with another buddy who brought up that method. We’ll have to test it out.
I’ve been following xbmts all over the year, I would like to thank all of you guys for doing it. I have a xbmt proposal: You guys could run a batch to evaluate dry yeasts with and without vitality starters. Does the vitality starters in dry yeast improve wort fermentation? Like, comparing atenuation in these two cases.
Cheers
Interesting idea. On the list!
I stumbled onto something similar a while ago – I make a normal starter, chill and decant, then the first liter or so of wort out of the CF chiller goes into the starter flask, which is put back on the stir plate. After an hour, or two at the most, the yeast is pitched. Very strong fermentation. My most recent brew – a Pils – had a lag time of three hours. Thanks for confirming what I suspected.
I’m going to do this with a 3.5 gallon Rye IPA recipe today, except that I have 2 packets of Wyeast Dennys Favorite. How would the starter work for 2 packets and 3.5 gallons with an OG of 1.074? The Born On Date is Nov 2, 2015, so its about 50% viable right now.
The calculator says I could get by with a 1.1 L Conventional Starter, so how would that relay to a Vitality Starter?
Right now I am just leaning towards the same 500 mL starter mentioned in the thread….or does it really even matter since you are just “priming” the yeast and its not a true starter?
Short answer is: We don’t know for sure. I have used vitality starters of about 500ml, with a single packet of yeast pretty frequently up to ~1.065/5.5gallons. Honestly, I think it is mainly about getting them woken up and ripping. I think one fresh packet in a vitality starter would do, given you’re only talking ~3.5 gallons, but given your calculators are saying only 50% viable, both might be good insurance.
My inkling is that yeast doesn’t drop off as fast as advertised, but I don’t have the data to show for it.
500ml seems to be a convenient enough size for vitality starters, I’ll do them 1,000ml if I am splitting into 2 5.5 gallon batches (11g total) just to keep the ratio the same.
I used this vitality method in my last beer and it worked fine. I used it in a recipe that I have done before and I got the same results
These pitch rate experiments are interesting. In the first one, the cell number pitched differed by a factor of 4 if I remember correctly, meaning that the starter-pitched batch had 2 generations of growth head start on the vial-pitched batch. No difference. In the third one, the amounts pitched were different by a factor of 2 (1 generation). Given that the lager-rate beer probably went through three generations of growth in the carboy and the ale-rate beer probably went through four, that result surprised me (that one extra generation of growth can affect the characteristics of the beer). And here in pitch rate exbeeriment 2, no significance again.
I like the premise of this experiment… the yeast had a couple of hours to acclimatize to wort and get the correct metabolic pathways in gear before being dumped into the carboy, while the starter had a larger number of cells but they were in stationary phase. Do you happen to know the (supposed) difference in cell number pitched?
I love these experiments that turn over long standing dogma!
To forget about the oxygen step and cut the starter from several days to 4 hours is huge. These were two steps as a new brewer that seemed too industrial. To be able to tweak my process to avoid these is much appreciated.
I would imagine that the same holds true for dry yeast and this would happen after the usual gentle rehydration process?
Not sure about a much larger batch of harvested yeast that has been sitting in the fridge for months? The amount of slurry is about 500ml already. (Might have to add 1l of wort?)
Hard to say how this might play out with dry yeast. Marshall has used vitality starters to wake up slurry, I haven’t.
Re: the dried yeast question.
Pure anecdote here, but I’ve taken a pack of US-05, rehydrated it, then added some cooled wort stolen from my brew kettle at the beginning of the boil. It started fermenting like mad in the mason jar, and I added it to the cooled wort in the carboy two hours later (I don’t have a chiller, I use a very uncool method of stirring with sterilized frozen 2L pop bottles while the kettle sits in an icebath, so it takes a little time to chill). Four hours after pitching the yeast I needed a blow-off tube. I had read that dried yeast take off slower, so I was rather surprised. I only did that once so it could have been a fluke. Still, it’s similar to this vitality method.
How long do you guys usually have between pitch and activity? Used a vitality starter yesterday with Omega Labs British Ale VIII… The yeast looked like cottage cheese going into the starter flask despite some fairly aggressive shaking, and spun for roughly 5 hours before pitching. The ‘curds’ of yeast never really separated all that well in the starter, either. Pitched it into the 1.061 wort 14.5 hours ago, and not seeing too much activity in the fermenter.
I have used this method on my last two batches (7/10 and 7/17) with visible, active fermentation in under 8 hours on both. Previously on similar batches using ‘vial to fermenter’ pitch method I was looking at 18-24hr lag times. I’m hooked. Thanks Ray and Brulosophy!
I want try this on a 120 liters 1.070 wort. I will make a 4 liter starter with single vial, 4 hours spining on my stirplate, pitch. What do you think?
That seems like a lot of wort with not a lot of yeast…. But if you’re okay with the risk… It could be interesting.
This really seems like just a step up from a smack pack. Maybe you should compare a Smack Pack to a Vitality Starter in a future xBmt.
I have pitched at high kreusen in a starter with great success in the past but I think my cell count was closer to target since it was typically around 20-24 hours in with a 1L starter. I really like the ideas above around doing a starter, decanting it and then adding some wort back to starter to do a quick vitality starter while the main wort is chilling. That would allow “proper” pitching rates and pitching with active yeast. I have read about some European breweries harvesting yeast at high kreusen and pitching it immediately in their next batch and it seems like the end effect of the viability + vitality starter would be similar.
Do you leave the flask wide open during the stir?
Would it make sense to add pure oxygen to the vitality starter?
I do for big pitches. Stirring already saturated the O2 on small pitches.
You mention that plans for the Lego stir plate will follow. Has that happened? I haven’t been able to find it.