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Yeast & Fermentation
21

Hello Garretd

Well I had your plan on my mind. I am more then likely going to be brewing beer tomorrow. I had planned on brewing 2 ten gallon batches of Northern brewer Irish blonde ale. Til I realized I only have 2 packs of yeast. So did a yeast starter and seen you post. So got me thinking again.

So thinking out loud. I made a 2000 ml yeast starter with stir stick late last night, With one pack of safale 05 yeast. I could however switch to some thing that takes 04 yeast in which I have like 6 packs of that available. However I already started the 04 yeast starter, with one pack of yeast.

From what I have read and I did try this once, and it was last time I made a ten gallon batch, it worked out well as for fermentation. I used one pack of yeast on 2 five gallon carboys with the starter. I can brew 2 ten gallon batches at a time. Here is what I have available for carboys though and this may make a difference also. I have two 6.5 gallon plastic carboys, two 6.5 gallon pails, one 6.5 gallon glass carboys, and a 7 gallon plastic pail.

Now I could make one batch, and use a plastic carboy and a pail, and use half of the yeast starter on that and a half a pack of yeast that is not started, just out of the pack, and do the same with the second batch, BUT IS A HALF A PACK OF YEAST EVEN CLOSE ENOUGH TO ENOUGH??? Or is that asking for trouble in and of itself?

I also have a Northern brewer kit , “kinderweisse” which I would like to try. you dont boil it, and add hops in mash. I never researched this beer, I just read what it said, and I like to try a new beer from time to time, I tried to make this about a month ago, and used the smack pack, and it never grew that day, but about a week later it grew. I told Northern brewer, and they told me I more then likely could have used it as what ever they wrote, but they replaced the yeast free of charge, and it was about a month later that I told them. I still have the yeast, anyone think its still good to use? I maybe would try it in some other sort of beer.

Any suggestions are very welcome.

Kevin

22

[quote=“kevlee67”]Hello Garretd

So thinking out loud. I made a 2000 ml yeast starter with stir stick late last night, With one pack of safale 05 yeast. I could however switch to some thing that takes 04 yeast in which I have like 6 packs of that available. However I already started the 04 yeast starter, with one pack of yeast.

Any suggestions are very welcome.

Kevin[/quote]

Starters for dry yeast are not necessary and can be detrimental to the yeast health.

There is plenty of yeast in a 11g satchel for a 1.050 - 1.070 beer. A second second satchel is not expensive, compared to liquid yeast.

23

Nighthawk,

I have never heard of that. So ya mean the work I go thru is not needed plus bad? I no understand. Thought it was like the “ticket”?

So tell me why it could be bad? I need to know how things work. (drives me nuts when someone also has to know how things work, but I still need to)

So dry yeast, its bad, and smack packs, you dont need it. what is the purpose of a yeast starter then?

Not arguing just trying to understand. Remember, I may have made lots of beer, it doesnt mean I know what I am doing.

24

Night hawk

Is a 11.5g enough for two 5 gallon batches of 1.050 og?

If its not, what will happen?

25
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=112032&p=984055&hilit=Starter#p984055 http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html

I’m having trouble following your questions. I think your fingers are not keeping up with your brain. :lol:

See Mr Malty for a general guideline on optimum yeast counts.

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

I say “general”, because there are other calculators that give different results.

Dry yeast have ~220B cells in a 11g satchel. Wyeast/White Labs have ~100B in there pack. So you have 2x the cell count in a dry pack. Dry yeast being ~1/2 the cost of liquid, it’s just easy/cheap to purchase a second package of dry yeast instead of making a starter. Besides the health issue.

http://www.mrmalty.com/pitching.php

In the above Mr. Malty page, it again states that starters can be harmful to the health of dry yeast.

You “could” use 5g in a 5 gallon batch of 1.050 beer. It’s not “optimum”. What happens? The will be a lag in the time that fermentation starts while the yeast reproduce to the level they want to be. Possibly causing stress to the yeast that “may” contribute to off flavors.

Whether you or I can taste these off flavors, that is for the individual to make up his/her mind.

I’ll leave you with another quote from Denny
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=26&t=112241&p=985260&hilit=not+ready#p985260
.

[quote=“Denny”]
If your yeast isn’t ready, you’re no more ready to brew than if you didn’t have malt or hops. Don’t cut corners with yeast or you’re wasting the other ingredients.[/quote]

Note: I am not a micro biologist or any type of scientist. And it’s been a long time sense I stayed at a Holiday Inn. I’m just regurgitating what I’ve read.

26

well maybe time I go to bed.

my last 24 hours. I get a text from “lil” Johnny, he is getting married, He popped the question to his future bride, she accepted. They are a great couple. I am still in a bit of a shock, as its “lil Johnny” He lil…
Then, I go to Bison game, and they win, 28-3 in play offs. Then I get home to check out facebook, and my friend, former neighbor, found out he lost his battle with cancer, I am actually happy for him, he no longer has pain, and fought a coragous battle. We used to do so much together. Had a great time. He is one of few that never pissed me off at some point in time, and that is rare. Then, I find out my boss mans daughter was crowned Ms. North Dakota.
Congrats to my son, “lil” Johnny who is not lil, but the lil johnny jokes you heard, describes him, congrats to his future bride, Eliza, a very sweet girl. Congrats to the Bison football team, (see you in Frisco, TX) My deepest sypmathy to the Victor Huber family. Victor was a man amon…g men, his wisdom, though rarely understood, was 2nd to none. My father is still my first and best mentor, and I really would have to say, Victor was my second best. I may not have agreed with him all the time, but I could tell him, and we always worked out on what our thoughts were. I feel bad that I have not seen him in a few years. I do feel proud that I kept in contact with him in the last few years. I even offered for him to stay here, for a few weeks. The last 2 times, I talked to him, knowing his condition is grave, he made the conversations short. “hey victor how you doing?” “not good, can we continue this conversation another time?” click. So really figured he did not want company. Wrong right? I have no clue. Then I find out that boss mans daughter won her pagent, she is now crowned Ms. North Dakota. Taylor Wagner will now be representing North Dakota.

I also suffer from pruigo nodularis, and am having a severe outbreak in the last few weeks, doc told me last week, nothing he can do for me anymore, I also have my other son, who is not getting married, goes 2 weeks feeling fine, then a week of vomiting. Both my kids helped my siding my garage this summer, both, got off the ladders, went to trees, and vomited, and right back at it, my oldest, mis stepped off the ladder, and broke one of the bones in his leg, walked on the concrete for a bit and went right back at it, it was not til the next day, that his leg swelled up so bad he went to the dr to find out his leg was broke.

27

I usually rack because I have bigger carboys (6.5 and 7 gallon) for the headspace during the vigorous early activity, then 5 gallon carboys to cut down down on oxygen in secondary. Probably not a big deal for quicker turnover beers. I think that maybe I get into the bottling bucket a little cleaner from the secondaried (?) beers. It’s really mostly mechanical - nothing to do with autolysis or off flavors. Given that I don’t have a great excess of carboys, I usually want to get a big one clear for the next batch, so I bottle a batch to clear the smaller carboy, then of course I have to empty the bottles so I can clear the next one. Kind of a vicious/drunken circle. Or maybe it’s cycle, I don’t know. I need to get kegs.

28

+1 I also rack to free up my 6 gal carboy but i transfer just before fermentation is done to have the co2 flush the headspace, don’t know if this is right but my beers turn out good and no cardboard. :lol: cheers

29

Wally

typically make between 5 and 30 gallons at a time. Depending on time and how busy we are at work, last harvest I got down to a 5 gallon carboy left is all. Think I went 2 months without brewing. Today I made two 10 gallon batches of Irish blonde, and a kinderwiesse from northern brewer, which I doubt I will ever make again. Requires no boil.

I could bottle, but, I just really dont like bottling. It takes to much time. I did an oatmeal stout for the gf, and one for the son, they both like it, gf cant drink draught beer, guess it gives her a headache.

30

Yeah i hear ya, the girlfriend with a headache. Just like bottleing beer gives us a headache. Or at least brain freeze. We get over it, quickly. My beer time is done now come here honey bunny!

31

Just curious kevlee, why wouldn’t you make the Kinderweisse again? I made it in February and 2 months ago it still had a bit of a funky, off aroma. I used Safeale 05, a vial of WL lacto, and a Wyeast brett. Happened to think about the keg in the back of the fridge yesterday. I like sours, but this is one of the best beers I’ve made, and most certainly the lightest colored beer I’ve made, about 1 SRM definitely not 2. The aroma is clean, slightly lactic sour, none of the barnyard, saurkrauty tinges it had at it’s Father’s day debut. I have it carbed high so it’s very effervescent. In the glass it could be mistaken for a slightly hazier version of carbonated lemonade. The flavor is distinctly tart and predominately lactic even though my wife described it as “un-sweetened lemonade”. She had tried it before with some raspberry syrup I made, but she had some last night without the syrup.

It was quick and easy to make, for me I can see it being a recurring brew. What did you think as your progressed?