US-05 Start-up

[bransona]

Heya, everyone,

I just brewed my third and fourth batches this week. First was a chocolate peanut butter oatmeal porter, second is a single-hop DIPA. I pitched both with rehydrated US-05. The porter took off after maybe >24 hours, but not by much. Only an inch and a half of krausen, but it's definitely a beautiful one. The IPA has been waiting for 24 hours now, and I /think/ it's starting (little bit of white, frothy foam on top---not quite krausen), but I expected it to have krausened already. I just moved it from my ~69 degree room into a ~64 degree swamp cooler, pitched it in the low 60's. All pretty healthy stuff for the yeast, I would think. I just wanted to know if anyone else has this with US-05 or if maybe I slowed it down somehow. FWIW, OG is 1.081

Semi-related, I love the flavors this yeast produces. Mmmmmmmm

 

[unionrdr]

What temp were the ones that took off in 24 hours versus the later ones?

 

[flars]

The DIPA is probably taking longer because of the higher OG. Two packs of US-05 in this beer would have resulted in a better start with less stress to the yeast.

 

[bransona]

They were within 2 degrees of each other. I actually already pitched a lot for this batch, because I brew little bitty 1.5 gallon batches. Half a packet is a pretty healthy pitch, even up to 1.095 or so, especially since I didn't just throw it in dry. The porter was 1.073, so I guess that could still be what's making a difference.

 

[unionrdr]

Idk? My hot pepper IIPA used two packets of US-05 rehydrated, & it took a couple months to finish. BS2 said 3 packets, but I was a cheapskate...I'll use 3 next time so I don't loose some hop flavor waiting so long for FG to happen. My OG was 1.082.

 

[bransona]

I'm glad to hear I'm not the only one getting a little sluggishness in high gravity though. I'll probably check it again tomorrow morning. It smelled like it was starting to ferment when I moved it into the swamp cooler earlier, and I'm pretty meticulous with sanitation, so I'm not particularly concerned that it won't do it's job. I just hope it manages to be ready to bottle in a couple of weeks :rockin:

 

[unionrdr]

Well, what bothered me was that it got down to 1.022 in 16 days. That was on 10/10. By 11/4, it was down to 1.016, so I dry hopped/added more super hot peppers for a week & bottled it on 11/22. I hope it's being the day JFK got shot doesn't jinx it! It's been a series of unfortunate events trying to finish this Hellfire IIPA. Even though I strained it through a fine mesh strainer into primary, it still got the spigot on the bucket plugged a few times trying to rack it. Lost a few bottle's worth to the trub monster! We'll see by Christmas how it turns out. Anyway, definitely pitch the right amount of yeast at within 10 degrees of current wort temp & keep it in the range the yeasties like.

 

[hikemor]

How much did you aerate? I've had US-05 start slow because I don't think I aerated enough.

 

[unionrdr]

I pour the chilled wort @ 75F or so through a fine mesh strainer to not only get the gunk out, but aerate it some as well. Then I top off to recipe volume with a couple gallons of spring water that's been in the fridge a day or two before brew day. That gets the temp down to about 65F real quick. Also can produce some cold break. So in theory, the cold spring water has more dissolved o2 than the wort at that point. My 2c anyway...

 

[bransona]

I aerated for a couple of minutes in the bucket, usually it gets the job done for my wee-little batches. I did boil a little longer than usual (decided to hit the hot break before adding my precious hops), so maybe I had even less o2 than I would normally.

 

[Terek]

i have used us-05 and 04 about 75% of thw time for 3 years of brewing. So i have tried everything. It is deff. because of the high gravity. I know many will disagree, but when i got a beer over .080, i always do a 18-24 hour starter with us-05. You could just pitch 2 packets, but im a firm believer that homebrewing should save you money, not cost more, than commercial brew. Another 5-6$ is just too much, when i an do a starter with 50 cents of dme. I have also found that the beer ferments sooner and more vigorously with a us-05 starter, than with 2 packs.
On another note, i mostly do yeast washing, which requires a starter regardless of what kind it is. And i have a us-05 that i have on its 12th generation, and it has mutated into something beautiful. I dont even label it as us-05 anymore. It is now labeled "cottonwood brewery house blend"