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The recommended cell count for ales is 0.75 to 1 million cells per milliliter per degree plato (ca. 4 gravity points.)
For 5 gallons (~18.9L) of typical strength beer of 1.048, that's about 12 plato, so you'll need
1 million x 18900 x 12 = 226.8 billion cells.
According to wyeast, the smackpack contains at least 100 billion cells, which is half of what is ...
16
Speaking from experience as a molecular biologist. Erlenmeyer flasks are nice for a couple of reasons. The main alternative being a standard beaker which is essentially the same size at the top and the bottom. First off the neck size makes it easy to hold in the hand. Second a smaller opening reduces the chance of getting airborne material into the flask. ...
8
Danstar BRY-97 is a great option for American-style IPAs. It starts out kind of rough, but if you give it enough time to condition, it makes an amazing beer.
Fermentis Safale US-05 and Danstar Nottingham also a popular choices for American-style IPAs. You should ferment them at the low end of their temperature ranges.
For English-style IPAs, you can use ...
8
we can get away with re-using yeast, because Mutation isn't instantaneous, it take multiple generations to change a whole batches properties. Also bigger brewers use a "mother culture" to grow more yeast, like making a starters from the same beginning yeast over and over.
In my own experience, i have used the same yeast batch for 3-4 times with no changes ...
7
A short starter is fine. I often have starters that begin stirring when I start the brewday, so they're only going for 8-10 hours max. With appropriate handling, the risk of contamination can be mitigated and reduced to be negligible.
Due to the small amount of wort, lag time with a vial of yeast is at most a couple of hours (assuming a fresh vial.) Yeast ...
7
The point of a stirplate is to help the yeast propagate by aerating the wort. Yeast Propagation and Maintainance claim stirring can increase yeast cell count by 10-15 times, compared to simply using an airlock (non-aerated) or 2.5 times the cell count of the traditionally aerated starter (aquarium pump).
It's important not to use an airlock, since the ...
7
The starter is still good in that time. Very roughly, a 2L starter, presumably from a vial or smack pack, probably netted you between 200bn and 400bn cells. If you used 3/4 of it, you probably have 50-100bn cells left … about the amount in a smack pack/vial. As such, you should probably make a new starter from the remains of the previous one.
7
Without pressure canning, unfermented wort doesn't have a low enough pH to be shelf stable.
From The Maltose Falcons website:
The process is almost identical to the one that you or your family may have used to preserve peaches, tomatoes, pickles, etc. The normal preservation method is hot water bath canning, but since wort is a low acid food you must use ...
6
Assuming you boiled the DME with water, and chilled, then there's no problem. Old DME may not taste especially great, but it still has all the sugars and free amino nitrogen that the yeast need, and is still fit to function as wort for a starter.
Before pitching, decant a little and have a taste of the starter. Not only will this let you sample some of the ...
6
Depending on the yeast type, and the OG of your starter wort (hopefully around the 1.040 range), it should complete fermentation within a very short time. I just did a starter using WLP090, and it completed fermentation within a day, so that can be used as a "shortest possible time", whereas others might take 48 - 72 hours at most. At that point, there isn'...
6
The nutrient in a Wyeast pouch is around 1.020. There's not enough of it there to have an appreciable effect on your starter gravity. You can pretty much discount it entirely.
6
Mostly economical, yes.
Another reason is potentially limited (or non-existent) commercial availability of specific strains. Either the yeast company's seasonal strain releases or something cultivated from yeast remaining in the bottle.
Another reason is to develop a "house" strain, or to modify the behavior of an existing strain. For instance, the good-...
6
Specific gravity measures density, which is mass/volume. If you measured the total mass of your system (3000g + 300g) you would have gotten 3300 grams, but the volume is not 3000 ml because you added the DME and it increases the volume of the solution. If the volume increased by 174 ml you would get 3300/3174 = 1.040 for the density.
In other words, the ...
5
You don't necessarily need to make a starter if you are re-pitching within a few weeks because the viability of the yeast will still be pretty high. But, if you store the yeast for much time you should always make a starter. This ensures that the yeast is still viable and it will help ensure the yeast are active so you don't have a long lag time during ...
5
There are three main reasons for stepping up:
having too much medium and too little yeast increases the risk of contamination considerably.
a large quantity of medium causes the first few generations of yeast to bud rapidly, resulting in lots of scar tissue which functions poorly as a membrane.
It allows the strength of the wort to start out low and ...
5
Those using airlocks are missing the point of the starter, as you mention: you need O₂ to be introduced to promote healthy yeast reproduction. (You also want to get CO₂ degassed out, as well, which is another benefit to a stirplate, as it will help achieve both goals.)
I wouldn't even worry about sanitizing the aluminum foil coming just off a roll, but if ...
5
No, a mash and short boil will be fine. I sometimes add enough grain to account for an extra gallon or so on a regular-sized all-grain batch, then pressure-can or freeze the resulting wort for starters in the future.
5
If the starter was not hopped, you should be ok since the hops are needed to produce the skunky flavors.
The UV radiation in sunlight can damage yeast cells, but they are capable of self-repair to a degree, so there should still be plenty of viable cells to continue fermentation.
It's a good idea to not pitch the spent starter wort in general, here, I ...
5
If the starter fully fermented, most of the 1.040 should be gone; normal yeast attenuation is around 75%, so you should have 1L of 1.010 beer in the starter vessel.
1L of 1.010 beer into 19L of 1.076 OG wort would reduce the OG down to about 1.073. (76 points * 19L + 10 points * 1L) / 20L = 72.7 points = 1.073.
Though if possible, you should try to cold-...
5
The easiest way to determine the effect of starter gravity is to decant the starter so the amount is negligible. In addition, I've found that it makes better beer.
5
I do this about once or twice a year. I'm an all grain brewer, so I typically just brew a batch of base malt. You can do the same with buying some DME/LME and adding that to the right amount of water to get the SG around 1.035-1.040.
Your process sounds good, although I would probably blend all the DME and water at once so you can check the SG, and then ...
5
US-05 (= Wyeast1056, = WLP001) is a pretty good option for IPAs.
Dry yeast should be rehydrated, but the higher cell count generally means you don't need a starter.
5
Sanitation is not sterilization. You might find a couple jars out of a batch last longer than others. But the only way to be sure is to buy a pressure canner. They are relatively cheap and can be used in the kitchen later for cooking as well. Mason jars make great containers, but lets not lose site of what they are really made for... sterile canning. In ...
5
Malt extract does not need to be boiled to make beer. It is perfectly possible to make beer using extract and cold water although it s a little easier if you dissolve the extract in boiling water first - just to make it more mobile and to pasteurise it if you feel it is needed. But just getting it hot to get out of the can and into the fermentation vessel is ...
4
It's hard to know when the yeast has hit high krausen, since the constant stirring prevents a krausen from forming, but with a starter, in many ways, you don't really need to know....
The idea behind pitching at high krausen is to pitch actively fermenting yeast. With good yeast stock, after about 18-24h your starter will be actively fermenting, and will ...
4
For starter wort you can use the 1/2 tsp and a sachet of yeast hulls, although I usually double this, just to make sure the yeast have all they need. I've even used 1/2 tsp in a single 1 quart starter with no ill effects.
The yeast hulls are necessary since they contain trace elements that are essential for the yeast. The diammonium phosphate is only ...
4
A krausen is created mostly from coagulating proteins and high yeast activity. You may still get a krausen at ale temps with the lager yeast due to the level of activity, but in general it's hit and miss how much yeast you get from top cropping, even more so with a bottom fermenting strain.
In your shoes, I would divide the smack pack yeast between two ...
4
Two packs in 2L was probably overkill save yourself a pack and put one in 2L next time.
The active blowoff helps keeps things from falling into the starter once it gets going, much like an open fermentor does as well. The dropping pH of the starter helps keep things bacteria-static as well. Bacteria might get in there but they won't multiply much in that ...
4
Your brew will definite taste salty with that quantity of minerals added. I would use a third of that amount. 150ppm calcium and 250ppm sulphates is really the upper limit of what you can comfortably use in the beer, and you will still taste a little salt up front, but often it goes with the style.
Here are some guidelines from the HBT wiki,
Calcium: ...
4
I prefer to give my starters four or five days. Fermentation is usually done in 24 or 48 hours, but I like to cold-crash the starter so that the yeast falls to the bottom. That way, I can decant the beer off the yeast, and pitch just the yeast. If you only give your starter 24 hours, you're forced to pitch the whole starter into your wort. Not a big deal, I ...
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