I use YeastCalc to figure a starter for what I will be brewing. For the starter gravity I have to plug that info in. It seems I can make the starter wort any gravity I want. How do you figure what your starter wort gravity should be? Is there a certain gravity number I should shoot for? I am new to using this calculator, please forgive me if that capability is built into the calculator, I haven’t found it if it is.
Thanks
Brad
The starter gravity calc is to help figure out amount of water and DME. The main starter calc assumes a starter gravity between 1.030 and 1.040. This is the range that you should shoot for. I tend to aim for 1.040 but add a little more water than it says.
Thank you very very much! The YeastCalc has made making starters a lot easier. But I was never sure what to use for the gravity. Now I have a range to shoot for. I made my last starter using a procedure from a brewer on this forum, where you decant off the top liquid after having it in the refrigerator for a few days. I thought it went really well until I trashed my beer during the boil. I am planning on doing Denny’s Waldo Lake next. Now I will start to plan the starter. Thanks again. 
Thank you very very much! The YeastCalc has made making starters a lot easier. But I was never sure what to use for the gravity. Now I have a range to shoot for. I made my last starter using a procedure from a brewer on this forum, where you decant off the top liquid after having it in the refrigerator for a few days. I thought it went really well until I trashed my beer during the boil. I am planning on doing Denny’s Waldo Lake next. Now I will start to plan the starter. Thanks again. [/quote]
The Waldo Lake is a really awesome brew. Soooooooooo tasty! Try and hold on to it as long as you can because the last bottle you’re going to say, “I wish I had let them all age this long.”
Another tip on starters. If you can measure in metric, use 10g DME to 100ml water or 100gDME to 1L
Well I should be just fine then, as I have a 4 ounce bag of DME. MrMalty says I need a 1L starter for my upcoming 5G batch of Extra Pale Ale. My Marijuana experience tells me 1/4 oz = 7g.(See, they weren’t wasted years!) So, my 4 oz bag is 112 g, which should be about right in 1L to pitch a wort with an OG of 1.045. I read advice from Jamil where he says to add a pinch of your favorite nutrient when you boil the starter.
The Waldo Lake is a really awesome brew. Soooooooooo tasty! Try and hold on to it as long as you can because the last bottle you’re going to say, “I wish I had let them all age this long.”
Another tip on starters. If you can measure in metric, use 10g DME to 100ml water or 100gDME to 1L[/quote][/quote]
Any tips you can offer for brewing Waldo Lake? I am doing a few different things this time. I bought a March pump to recirculate and set the grain bed, and going to fly sparge instead of batch sparging. I can see in the past I was way way way too fast with the sparge. It took me a whopping 10 minutes to drain the mash tun. I watched a friend fly sparge. Took him an hour or better to complete the sparge. I was impressed watching the fly sparge and decided to go that way. Also bought a refractometer so I can check things along the way. I keg my beers, so I better time things so the kegerator has a spot open when it is ready. If I like it,I may just order another kit and age it longer than I usually do.
:cheers:
[quote=“Bier brauer”]Any tips you can offer for brewing Waldo Lake? I am doing a few different things this time. I bought a March pump to recirculate and set the grain bed, and going to fly sparge instead of batch sparging. I can see in the past I was way way way too fast with the sparge. It took me a whopping 10 minutes to drain the mash tun. I watched a friend fly sparge. Took him an hour or better to complete the sparge. I was impressed watching the fly sparge and decided to go that way. Also bought a refractometer so I can check things along the way. I keg my beers, so I better time things so the kegerator has a spot open when it is ready. If I like it,I may just order another kit and age it longer than I usually do.
:cheers: [/quote]
Well, then, you’re doing it significantly differently than I do it! In batch sparging, a fast sparge works as well as a slow sparge. What were you impressed with about the fly sparge? What do you think it will improve? I’ve batch sparged 431 batches and I can’t think of anything I’d gain by fly sparging. Also, you can certainly use your pump to recirculate and set the grain bed, but I’ve gotta tell ya that after doing it with and without a pump that there’s really no advantage to using the pump.
Besides Denny’s observations on sparge method, I can only advise you to wait as long as possible to drink this. I know how hard it is to keg a beer and then just leave it, so another method may be in order, such as secondary for 3 months. I think I had my last bottle at around 6 months it was still getting better. The only problem with this beer, if you can call it a problem, is that at 6 weeks it’s so good that you’ll be lucky to get it to last long.
I think I just talked myself into doing another batch of this. :lol:
[quote=“Denny”][quote=“Bier brauer”]Any tips you can offer for brewing Waldo Lake? I am doing a few different things this time. I bought a March pump to recirculate and set the grain bed, and going to fly sparge instead of batch sparging. I can see in the past I was way way way too fast with the sparge. It took me a whopping 10 minutes to drain the mash tun. I watched a friend fly sparge. Took him an hour or better to complete the sparge. I was impressed watching the fly sparge and decided to go that way. Also bought a refractometer so I can check things along the way. I keg my beers, so I better time things so the kegerator has a spot open when it is ready. If I like it,I may just order another kit and age it longer than I usually do.
:cheers: [/quote]
Well, then, you’re doing it significantly differently than I do it! In batch sparging, a fast sparge works as well as a slow sparge. What were you impressed with about the fly sparge? What do you think it will improve? I’ve batch sparged 431 batches and I can’t think of anything I’d gain by fly sparging. Also, you can certainly use your pump to recirculate and set the grain bed, but I’ve gotta tell ya that after doing it with and without a pump that there’s really no advantage to using the pump.[/quote]
I had never witnessed anyone brewing until I had the chance to watch a friend from work make his beer. I have been struggling to get a good process for myself. Right now I fly by the seat of my pants. I have only made 7 all grain kits so far. I have no brewing programs to help me except the yeastcalc. I depend mostly from this forum for info. When I watched his mash process, I was able to watch the wort clear as the grain bed set using a march pump a few minutes before the end of the mash. In the past I kept drawing wort from the ball valve into a small kettle and dumping back into the mash kettle. The pump,to me, made that part of the process easier. Also now I see I over stirred the grains during the mash. I mash over a burner, I don’t mash in a cooler. My kettle is not insulated to retain heat, but I’m in the process of fixing that now. I always wound up with a ton of fines when I dumped my batch sparge. Seems his process with the pump helped the grain bed filter the wort better. When the fly sparge started the wort was transferred to the boil kettle with a balanced flow.(sparge water in,pump flow out the same). Near the end of the sparge a refractometer was used to check gravity. To me, compared to how I was doing things, that method seemed easy to control,with better results than what I was guessing at with my process.
Without a pump, it never takes me more than 2 min. and a qt. of vorlauf to clear the wort. Take a look at www.dennybrew.com .
Sorry I kind of drifted away from the thread.
Maybe a cooler would have been the way to go. When I went to all grain, I thought the kettle rout was the way to go. I am insulating the kettles, so when I reach mash temperature it should hold temperature for the 60-90 minute mashes. Maybe a pick up tube would help with grain sediment. The ball valve is below the false bottom. At the end of the sparge I have a gallon of un-useable gunk below the ball valve. With the pump and a pick up tube, maybe it would pick up most of the sediment and place it on top of the grain bed. How about your screen? Would that work instead of a pick up tube?
