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slight re-wording to pitching rate section
In addition to the starter information given in the [[Lactobacillus#Manufacturer_Tips|Manufacturer Tips]] above, this section includes general advice for ''Lactobacillus'' starters for homebrewers and brewers. For growing ''Lactobacillus'' in a lab environment, or from an initial grouping of cells from a plate/slant or smaller cell count, MRS media is the most efficient growth media. However, for full pitches of ''Lactobacillus'' in beer/wort, brewers probably don't want to add that much MRS media to their beer since MRS media has a distinct odor and smell that would not be desirable in beer <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1152135114814701/?comment_id=1152674674760745&offset=0&total_comments=9&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R0%22%7DConversation with Lance Shaner and Nick Impellitteri on Lacto starters on MTF. 09/22/2015.]</ref>. Therefore, growing ''Lactobacillus'' in a wort-based starter media is recommended for building full pitches of ''Lactobacillus''. We recommend using [[Lactobacillus#Samuel_Aeschlimann.27s_Starter_Procedures|Samuel Aeschlimann's Starter Procedures]]. See [[Lactobacillus#External_Resources|External Resources]] for additional starter guides.
A good pitching rate for ''Lactobacillus'' is 100-125 billion cells per 5 gallons of wort. Having a manufacturer supply a cell count or doing a cell count manually after growth in a starter, and then pitching an exact cell count is the best approachto achieving the desired pitching rate. However, counting cells of ''Lactobacillus'' under a microscope can be difficult to achieve due to the small size of bacteria cells, so starter volumes are generally used instead when talking about pitching rates for ''Lactobacillus'' <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1068323126529234/?comment_id=1068337639861116&offset=0&total_comments=47&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D Conversation on MTF with Bryan of Sui Generis Blog. 5/6/2015.]</ref>. Pitching ~0.5-1 liter per ~20 liters of wort (~0.75-1 gallon per barrel) of ''Lactobacillus'' starter is the general guideline. Note that the exact advisable pitching rates of commercial cultures may differ from manufacture to manufacturer <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1077639885597558/ MTF thread started by Brad Primozic. 5/29/2015.]</ref>, and their recommendations might differ from ours.
The amount of growth that occurs in a starter is an unknown unless the brewer can do a cell count. Matt Miller of Sour Beer Blog and Richard Preiss of Escarpment Yeast Labs advise that if ideal growth (1-2 billion cells/mL) can be achieved (for example by using [[Lactobacillus#Samuel_Aeschlimann.27s_Starter_Procedures|Samuel Aeschlimann's starter procedure]] or MRS media), then pitching as little as 100-125 mL of fresh ''Lactobacillus'' starter for 5 gallons of beer can achieve desirable acidity within 24 hours <ref>[https://www.facebook.com/groups/MilkTheFunk/permalink/1180630378631841/?comment_id=1180733761954836&reply_comment_id=1180740128620866&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R9%22%7D Conversation with Richard Preiss on MTF regarding Lacto starters. 11/19/2015.]</ref><ref name="sbb2.0"></ref>. Moderately ideal growth in a starter results in around 500 million cells/mL, resulting in a 400 mL starter for 5 gallons, and low growth results in around 100 million cells/mL, resulting in a 2 liter starter for 5 gallons, according to Matt Miller (see [http://sourbeerblog.com/lactobacillus-2-0-advanced-techniques-for-fast-souring-beer/ Matt Miller's article] for more details) <ref name="sbb2.0"></ref>. If the amount of growth cannot be accurately determined by cell counting under a microscope, then pitching 0.5-1 liter of fresh ''Lactobacillus'' starter culture per 5 gallons of wort ensures that an adequate number of cells will be pitched.