IL1kebeer
Well-Known Member
Thought that I would share a story about some obvious but maybe overlooked information to new brewers.
I just drew a pint of a beer from a batch that just finished carbing. I have brewed this same recipe before with the same brewing process and the beer tasted decent (IMO) but was not close to being great; however, on this last batch I pitched two vials of White Labs yeast as recommended by an online yeast calculator instead of 1 vial per White Labs instructions for beers under 1.070 OG.
Holy hell, the two batches are like night and day.
I always assumed (maybe a bit ignorantly) that one vial was good for all batches that were under 1.060-1.070 OG. To be honest, when I was researching on how to brew 90% of sources told me that 1 pack/vial was good for OG's under 1.060. Two books on my desk right now and the instructions from White Labs tell me 1 vial is good for smaller beers. The more that I dug around, I found that even 1.050 OG needs a larger pitch: 2 vials or a starter. So I tried it on this last batch and it blows my mind how big of a difference the beers are. Absolutely no twang or harsh finish. Maybe a beer judge might be able to dissect it and find some things wrong with it, but when comparing the properly pitched batch to the previous 1 vial pitched batches the, properly pitched batch easily takes the gold.
The recipe that I made was 1.050 OG, so I thought 1 vial and good to go. The previous batches didn't come out bad; I could definitely taste some "twang" or some subtle harshness in the finish, but otherwise it wasn't horrible. Definitely drinkable and not disgusting. Other people liked it as well (or maybe they didn't have the heart to tell me that it was bad). But the recent batch puts those other ones to shame.
It's amazing how much of a difference that a proper pitch makes, even fora "small" beer. Sorry if I am rambling but this is like an freakin epiphany to me and I needed to get this out.
On another note, first all grain BIAB batch is scheduled for tomorrow. My starter is underway =) Wish me luck.
I just drew a pint of a beer from a batch that just finished carbing. I have brewed this same recipe before with the same brewing process and the beer tasted decent (IMO) but was not close to being great; however, on this last batch I pitched two vials of White Labs yeast as recommended by an online yeast calculator instead of 1 vial per White Labs instructions for beers under 1.070 OG.
Holy hell, the two batches are like night and day.
I always assumed (maybe a bit ignorantly) that one vial was good for all batches that were under 1.060-1.070 OG. To be honest, when I was researching on how to brew 90% of sources told me that 1 pack/vial was good for OG's under 1.060. Two books on my desk right now and the instructions from White Labs tell me 1 vial is good for smaller beers. The more that I dug around, I found that even 1.050 OG needs a larger pitch: 2 vials or a starter. So I tried it on this last batch and it blows my mind how big of a difference the beers are. Absolutely no twang or harsh finish. Maybe a beer judge might be able to dissect it and find some things wrong with it, but when comparing the properly pitched batch to the previous 1 vial pitched batches the, properly pitched batch easily takes the gold.
The recipe that I made was 1.050 OG, so I thought 1 vial and good to go. The previous batches didn't come out bad; I could definitely taste some "twang" or some subtle harshness in the finish, but otherwise it wasn't horrible. Definitely drinkable and not disgusting. Other people liked it as well (or maybe they didn't have the heart to tell me that it was bad). But the recent batch puts those other ones to shame.
It's amazing how much of a difference that a proper pitch makes, even fora "small" beer. Sorry if I am rambling but this is like an freakin epiphany to me and I needed to get this out.
On another note, first all grain BIAB batch is scheduled for tomorrow. My starter is underway =) Wish me luck.