That’s to sanitize the mouth where it there is most likely to be contaminants. Standard lab procedure actually.
Yeah got that(that’s kinda sorta what I do for a living), I’m just curious how many homebrewers actually_do_ that(and how).
I have a sanitized aluminum foil cap on the flask with a few ounces of Star San solution in the flask. The flask is inverted in a tall tub that once held three or four pounds of cottage cheese for stability. Sanitizer drains from the flask into the cap. Seems to have worked without infection, so far.
edit: Cottage cheese bucket was a five pounder.
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My electric stove doesn’t have the newer coil type elements but an almost flat surface. But I ended up boiling in a saucepan and pouring into flask. I had some leftover Star San in a spray bottle I used to sanitize.
I wanted to check the health of my harvested yeast so I made a starter. Followed the wyeast directions 1 quart of water, 100g of dme, 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient. First time making a starter.
Congrats! I love yeast starters! Happy yeast, better beer!
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I don’t, but I’ve been around labs enough to see how real scientists do things. Needed for lab work, kind of going overboard when it comes to brewing.
Yeah, thats kinda what i thought. With 388 billion yeasties getting poured out of the flask, its hard to see how 1 airborne eschericia coli that adhered to the surface could get much traction. Assuming proper sanitary technique up to that point was followed of course.
@mhall2013, if you want to boil in your flask to assist in sanitizing it you can make the starter by adding the water/DME to the flask and bring it to a boil by placing the flask in a pan of water, boiling it all together. This will provide the consistent heat distribution your looking for.
Thanks loopie I’m brewing as we speak. I’m using the yeast starter I made from harvested wyeast 1272 from the previous batch. Brewing the same recipe. I’m a little nervous to use it but I won’t know unless I do. If I dump it I’ll never know.
It looks pretty good to me. I cold crashed it last night to see how much was in suspension. Should I add yeast nutrients to the boil like I did the starter. Wyeast nutrient blend says last 10 min of boil 1/2 tsp. I don’t want to over do it?
I spot sanitize my flask for every starter (using a spray bottle). Heating and chilling directly in the erlenmeyer sounds cool and everything, but unless you are fond of adding silicon to your starter wort (fermcap), boilovers in an erlenmeyer happen way too easily for my tastes.
Why are you nervous? billions of yeast cells in there…you’re all good!
You have a good amount of yeast at the bottom of the flask. Looks like yeast in suspension yet. I would keep it refrigerated until you start chilling the wort. More yeast will drop out before you decant. After decanting lightly swirl the flask to begin warming the yeast to pitching temperature. Have the temperature of the wort and the temperature of the yeast within 5° to 10°F of each other to prevent shocking the yeast.
My preference is to have the wort at least 5°F below the fermentation temperature.
I wasn’t sure my yeast harvesting skills were up to par. I made a small white layer of yeast and a decent amount of trub in my 2 jars. I rinsed them again to reduce the trub. Leaving as much behind when I added it to the starter. Harvested 2/9 made the starter 2/12.
I planned on dumping the whole thing. I made it with the same pilsen light extract in recipe except recipe is LME. Although it might warm up faster with less liquid on top.
i have a weird feeling about using the flask on a gas stove i use a pan and make a starter that way and transfer it into the flask later dont ask me why i have a weird feeling about it
Truth be told I don’t boil in my flask anymore either. I’ve adopted a new method of making a starter. It goes like this:
- add 100g of DME to 1000mL of water and a pinch of nutrient
- boil/cool in a pot
- add it to a 5L media bottle (but gallon jug would work)
- shake the living crap out of it (until it’s almost all foam)
- add the yeast about 12 hours before needing to pitch
- add the entire starter at high krausen
You have a little leeway with making the starter. No need to shake or stir.
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It is not worth boiling in the flask. Way to easy to boil over, the shape of the flask is impractical for this purpose. Just use a sauce pan and sanitize the flask way way easier.
just get fast pitch from NB no muss no fuss just add to flask with water and your good to go.
dont know got a strange feeling of heating up my erlenmeyer flask dont know why i like to use a sauce pan
