This is my first time ordering online for an extract kit. I have made two batches so far, not sure how they turned yet though. They are still getting ready.
I went to order it but there are further questions that need to be answered and I prefer not to reinvent the wheel and order the wrong stuff.
I have an option for yeast and priming options. I have no clue what “most” say is better. For the yeast, should I look at only the temperature range required for the yeast? As for the priming option, no clue. I have only boiled the priming sugar and poured it in prior to moving the wort over to the bottling bucket.
Your yeast choice is your preference. I go with wyeast. You should try to ferment in the temp range of the yeast. I never order priming sugar. You can just use cane sugar from the grocery store.
The Danstar is a dry yeast. Wyeast is a liquid. Do you think the yeast might freeze before you get it? If so, order the dry style.
Also you “should” make a yeast starter with the liquid to increase the cell count. It’s not absolutely necessary. But you beer may turn out better in doing so.
Priming sugar, use regular table (cane) sugar you have in the house.
In these calculators, the temperature is not the current temp of the beer. It should be the highest temp the beer was post fermentation. If you warmed it up to 75, then dropped it to 50. Enter 75.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]The Danstar is a dry yeast. Wyeast is a liquid. Do you think the yeast might freeze before you get it? If so, order the dry style.
Also you “should” make a yeast starter with the liquid to increase the cell count. It’s not absolutely necessary. But you beer may turn out better in doing so.
Priming sugar, use regular table (cane) sugar you have in the house.
In these calculators, the temperature is not the current temp of the beer. It should be the highest temp the beer was post fermentation. If you warmed it up to 75, then dropped it to 50. Enter 75.[/quote]
Very good point with the freezing comment. Living in the midwest, this could be the deciding factor this time of year.
I planned on doing a starter this time regardless of which way I went. I had some very light (visually) fermentation periods in the first 2 batches I have done. I attribute this to being on the low scale of the yeast temp ranges and possibly not aerating enough prior to pitching the yeast.
I came up with different values from both of those conversion calculators. I think I’ll stick with buying priming sugar. Thanks for the info.
Starters are used to 1) verify the yeast are alive; 2) increasing the cell count. Dry yeast already have the cell count you need. And the likely hood they are dead is near 0. So no starter is needed. You could rehydrate them. Which is believed to be better than just dumping them into the wort. I usually just dump them in.
Sugar. Your call. I don’t see the need to spend $1.25 for 5 oz when I can buy 3lbs of table sugar for nearly the same price.
There are other calculators out there. You may get 5 different answers with 5 different calculators. Depends on the formula they used. Can you say with certain that your beer was at 70* and not 73*? That will change the CO2 level also. So the difference between 4.1 and 4.3g of sugar is going to change your CO2 level from 2.5 to 2.6? Something I’m not concerned about.
