Scottish Wee Heavy yeast question

Beer Recipe Design
1

Purchased this kit yesterday. I have never used a yeast starter and don’t have the equipment for it. The guy at the store told me to just add two or three extra smack packs of yeast. Is that gonna work? I bought three. Just looking for some input.

2

That will work fine. It’s a spendy way of doing it, but it’s good advice. Learn how to do a starter, or how to repitch yeast to save money. If I don’t have time, or am lazy, I use multiple packs all the time.

3

Very spendy! Here’s an easy and cheap way to do a starter.

  1. procure an exquisite 1gal glass jug with lid. (Juice is often sold this way but you can buy empty online)

  2. add 100g of DME to 1000ml of water and boil for 15 mins

  3. chill covered in a sink with ice water

  4. add wort to jug and shake the living crap out of it until all foam

  5. pitch yeast and leave it be

You want to do this about 12-18 hours before brewing. I’ve been making them this way and pitching at high krausen has been unbelievable AND cleaner which I believe is being caused by sheer stress due to the old method of a stirrer.

4

Btw @pietro I’m expanding my vocabulary! :smile: You know we like it though!

5

Just to confuse you more, there is another starter option that’s a bit more expensive than Loopie’s method, but a bit easier. Northern Brewer sells a product called Fast Pitch. It’s a starter concentrate in a can. You mix a can of goo with a pint of room temperature water, shake, and add yeast. This shortens steps 2 and 3 above to about a minute. I’m lazier than I am cheap, so this is what I’ve been doing when I don’t repitch yeast from a previous batch.

6

uber is right fast pitch is a lot quicker and easier. loopie is also right they are both good ways to make
yeast starters. me I’m lazy and use the fast pitch it’s 10 dollars for four cans.

7

I still make a starter, and always will, cheaper, er more effective use of money I mean… Sneezles61

8

Thanks for all the input. One question I have—why not use yeast nutrient?

chris

9

Yer wort has all the nutrients yeast need short of zinc…. Don’t be throwing any zinc coated screws in yer wort though…. One less thing you need add to yer brew day…Sneezles61

10

What I do for starters is save a cup of wort from previous batch and freeze it in a plastic cup. On starter day boil it , cool ift and pitch. Home made quick start.

1 Like
11

Well, after all that I end up screwing it up :hushed: I should learn not to brew beer when you feel forced to and when you are over tired. Long story short–somehow I added an extra gallon of water to the batch. I was putting it in a 5 gallon carboy and I realized there was a problem. I quickly sanitized a 6.5 gal carboy and moved it all over to that carboy. I guess we’ll see how it turns out. Thoughts? I fear it’s going to be too watered down.

12

Its hard to screw up if you don’t do anything… I learned from mistakes also, and if you ask I’ll bet some others may fess up too! What was yer gravity just before you picked yer yeast? Sneezles61