by James L » Sunday Feb 01, 2009 10:59 am
Without expensive equipment?
Haemocytmometers are about 120 bucks and microscopes capable of 400x mag are at least 800 bucks, but you are right... its the only true way of getting an accurate indication of yeast numbers and viability.
Gym, remember that yeast are single celled organisms and reproduce by binary fission (splitting apart). so the cells only really need to reproduce once to double its number. But as Kev said, it is dependant on a number of factors including temp, pH, oxygen levels and yeast nutrition. If all these are good, it will take less time to increase the yeast numbers. It is said that by the end of a fermentation cycle, yeast numbers will increase to 5 times its original number. you might be able to calculate depending on your experience how long it will take your yeast will multiply depending on how long your fermentations times have gone for.
I freely admit that I was Very Very Drunk....
"They speak of my drinking, but never consider my thirst."