I just did my first yeast harvest and noticed that there was an extremely high amount of sediment in the yeast, and there was what looked like tiny seeds all over the place which led me to believe that the whole leaf addition of cascade hops were the wrong sex… any thoughts? If the yeast has this much sediment is it still re-useable?
Edit: this is a sweeter than usual IPA if you remember my posts earlier about a Columbus IPA recipe with too much crystal. I don’t know if that is what led to the effect of the yeast having an almost green hue to it. Is it a ruined batch? It smells fine.
I get those seed-looking things when i use whole hops all the time. I’ve always assumed that those were lupulin glands that came loose from the hop cone in the boil.
The yeast is fine as long as you don’t mind adding some sediment to your wort. As long as everything is kept sanitary.
I wouldn’t call it a ruined batch until its bottled, cold, and carbonated. If it smells fine, it probably is. Give it some time in the bottles/keg and only dump it if you really dislike how it tastes once it’s packaged.
Ruined batch, not likely. Re-use the yeast? I probably wouldn’t, but I’m sure it would work. It’s just a matter of how much risk of off flavors are you willing to accept on your next batch. Personally, I’d chuck it and work on getting more sediment our of your wort before you pitch next time, especially if you’re planning on re-using it…
Lupulin glands are much smaller. Looks like pollen dust[/quote]
That’s the thing, they don’t look like seeds to me. yeah, there is some oval but i thought that was the glands comeing out. So those are seeds?
They just dont look like seeds to me, they look like… yum.
seeds come in all shapes and sizes. Hops like many plants can be male and female, if a male plant pollinates a female plant, then the cone will contain seeds.
Lupulin glands containing alpha acid disolve in the boil, then become iso-alpha acid. Which is a soluble form of alpha acid. Lupulin glands are very small, and look like a light yellow dust
If they were pollinated, then yes. But a wilamette or other variety might be responsible for the pollination, so the seed might not be amarillo anymore - but instead a mix. that might sound great, but it’s a risk. You may end up with a disease susceptible variety, unpleasant flavor/aroma, or a male plant.
Anyway, hops are dried and the seeds wouldn’t grow. I’ve also read its difficult to grow from the seed. Which is one reason why people plant rhizomes.
Seeds won’t harm the beer. It’s been argued that the presence of a seed offers more surface area for lupulin glands to form. I’ll have to do some digging for the article. Once I find it, I will post
Here is an article with a picture of a pile of lupulin glands. It’s a powder, like pollen
Thanks for the info S.Scoggin. It kind of gives me something to play with.
I have been an avid gardener for over 15 years and I do know that hybrid seeds will not perform like the way an heirloom would. One and done for the most part.
So this batch has been in the primary for two weeks and I just racked it on top of some hops; I took a gravity while transferring and it’s off target by about .012… I’m not seeing any activity in the airlock, would I do any damage by pitch a little dry yeast?
What is the current gravity, And what was the gravity you were shooting for? You won’t harm it with dry yeast, but it may be in vain. It might just be done fermenting. Gold dme has less fermentables that light dme, + the crystal , it will probably be a little higher gravity that you anticipated
With gold DME and the mashed crystal I doubt it will get down to 1.012. I would assume that it is done fermenting. Adding dry yeast won’t harm it, but it might not to anything. For future batches, always take a gravity reading before you rack it into a secondary, if it seems high, you can gently stir up the yeast cake ( called rousing ) in hopes they drop it a few gravity points.
It might not be the IPA you were shooting for, but it could still be good. The higher FG will give it sweetness and more body. Depending how it looks and tastes, you can call it a hoppy winter ale.
