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At what OG would you consider a yeast starter as being "required?"

I'm working on an IPA and have a feeling that the 1.072 OG will be fine for 1 packet of dry yeast, is there a reference sheet somewhere? I've seen links floating around but can't think of the name off the top of my head.
 
Palmer almost always talks about 2 packets of dry .. yet I have always used 1 only based on advice from brewers I trust. My LHBS guy says 'use 2 if you are going over 1060." I generally go up to 1055 or 1060 but not over. YMMV as with everything in making beer.
 
See this is what I wanted this post to do. I'm liking all the answers and questions keep em coming!
 
sfhyh said:
How many fingers am I about to hold up?
22.gif
hu12uk1.jpg
Click to expand...

11?

:mug:
 
Well... no bombs, but just a ****load of suspended crapola. Haven't had this on my other two brews... anyone seen anything like it? Bottles were clean and sanitary and sucked up zero trub when racking to the bottling bucket.

(all of that white-ish stuff in the pic is just floating around in there)


0116051143.jpg
 
Looks like a lot of yeast. Did you use WY 1968? I would guess you sucked up a lot of the yeast cake when racking, or the yeast did not have enough time to drop out of suspension in the primary.
 
flars said:
Looks like a lot of yeast. Did you use WY 1968? I would guess you sucked up a lot of the yeast cake when racking, or the yeast did not have enough time to drop out of suspension in the primary.
Click to expand...

Nottingham.

Not long enough in primary is most likely the culprit... I didn't suck any up when I racked.

I was experimenting with how quickly I could go from brew to glass without kegging (which I'll be doing from here on out).

Seems brewing is a fickle mistress, some things can be rushed, but not without consequence.

Either way, I'm sure it'll drop out nicely when I stick it in the fridge... just going to have a bit more sediment than my other brews.
 
2vmt6l4.jpg


My hefe has been in the swamp cooler for four days now, so I was going to take it out this morning to let it warm up (*65) for a few days... but I came down to this. It is my first time using a blowoff tube, as well as a new yeast.

Is this bad? It is about 2 inches into the tube now. Not sure if I should do something or if it is okay.
 
I would leave the fermentor as is until the krausen is no longer pushing into the blow off tube. Disturbing the fermentor may cause some suck back. May not be a problem, but there would be some risk associated.

Siphon the water from the swamp cooler. This will allow a gradual warm up with out disturbing the fermentor.
 
flars said:
I would leave the fermentor as is until the krausen is no longer pushing into the blow off tube. Disturbing the fermentor may cause some suck back. May not be a problem, but there would be some risk associated.

Siphon the water from the swamp cooler. This will allow a gradual warm up with out disturbing the fermentor.
Click to expand...

Thanks man! I never planned on moving or disturbing it, I was just going to siphon it. My main concern is it being pushed up into the tube. I wasn't sure if that is okay or not. I was hoping it is fine, I could take the tube out and clean & sanitize, but it was kind of a pain to get it in the stopper.
 
TheCADJockey said:
Thanks man! I never planned on moving or disturbing it, I was just going to siphon it. My main concern is it being pushed up into the tube. I wasn't sure if that is okay or not. I was hoping it is fine, I could take the tube out and clean & sanitize, but it was kind of a pain to get it in the stopper.
Click to expand...

The krausen pushing into the tube is normal when the head space is to small for the krausen. Let it go until activity diminishes, and then install an air lock.
 
Psylocide said:
Well... no bombs, but just a ****load of suspended crapola. Haven't had this on my other two brews... anyone seen anything like it? Bottles were clean and sanitary and sucked up zero trub when racking to the bottling bucket.

(all of that white-ish stuff in the pic is just floating around in there)


View attachment 249142
Click to expand...

Update on this... dropped out just as clear as you please. Taste is good for green beer, just couldn't help myself.


249566d1421549632-what-you-drinking-now-0117052030.jpg
 
Has anyone ever tried to make a belgian style Wit beer by just adding some dried orange and corriander seeds to a cheap extract kit wheat beer or other style beer? I'm considering a bit of experimentation with adding fruit etc but haven't done it before so any advice is more than welcome.

I really love the Blue Moon seasonal beers so that inspired me to do some messing around with fruit and other flavour additions but at the same time don't want to ruin a batch!!

Eoin
 
eoinduff said:
Has anyone ever tried to make a belgian style Wit beer by just adding some dried orange and corriander seeds to a cheap extract kit wheat beer or other style beer? I'm considering a bit of experimentation with adding fruit etc but haven't done it before so any advice is more than welcome.

I really love the Blue Moon seasonal beers so that inspired me to do some messing around with fruit and other flavour additions but at the same time don't want to ruin a batch!!

Eoin
Click to expand...

You will at least want to include a Belgian yeast strain in addition to the orange and coriander. Using an American strain probably won't give the right character. I've gotten good results from WLP400 and WLP 550.
 
There are even a few commercial wit biers that don't even use spice additions and rely completely on the yeast derived flavors. River North here in Denver makes a great wit with no added spices or herbs.
 
Why is it that whenever I add hops to a recipe on brewersfriend.com, the IBU's skyrocket to over 200 and makes it impossible to match any style?? I'm not adding a lot...
 
TheCADJockey said:
Why is it that whenever I add hops to a recipe on brewersfriend.com, the IBU's skyrocket to over 200 and makes it impossible to match any style?? I'm not adding a lot...
Click to expand...

Are you entering 28 grams, for one ounce of hops, with ounce selected in the drop down menu, making it 28 ounces?
 
Did I kill my beer?

Here's what happened. I brewed a Kolsch before x-mas, it looked nice and clear in the secondary, had an OG of 1.052 and an FG of 1.012, so far so good. So I go to do my bottling routine and got out of sequence.

I always wash all my gear out with hot water and dry it right before I bottle so everything is good and clean. You know, clean gear makes good beer, right? I use a spray bottle filled with a Starsan solution and spray down the inside of my bottling bucket, dump out the excess Starsan solution, pour in my bottling sugar, rinse out each bottle in a bucket of Starsan just before filling. Following this process I've never had an infection or any bottle bombs, just good clean beer.

Only not this time. For some reason I was trying to get the bottling process done as fast as I could. I washed all my gear, had my bottling sugar boiled for 5 minutes and cooled down to room temp., I dumped my sugar water in my bottling bucket and then I sprayed it down with the Starsan solution and then racked the beer into the bucket. The beer went from nice and clear in the secondary to cloudy in the bucket :(. It's only been a few days but the bottled beer is really cloudy. I don't usually make a light colored beer, I mostly make stuff like brown ales, belgian dubbles and stuff like that so if any of my pther beers were cloudy when I bottled them I never noticed.

So here's my question. Did I kill my beer by having too much Starsan solution in it when I bottled it? I'm going to wait a month to know for sure but right now I'm having a hard time trying to RDWHAHB.
 
flars said:
Are you entering 28 grams, for one ounce of hops, with ounce selected in the drop down menu, making it 28 ounces?
Click to expand...

Nah I do everything in ounces. Thanks for pointing that out, I missed it before.. but it still just skyrockets when I add a little hops.
 
a couple of spritzes would not kill your beer - in fact, Star San can act as a yeast nutrient which is one reason to not fear the foam. You likely kicked up the yeast with sugar and star san. Bottles will likely be fine when you cold crash them prior to drinking - but you may have more yeasties in the bottom of the bottle than usual.
 
Beer always clouds up when it is primed. It clears after two Weeks or so as the new yeast cells that are created settle out. As to the hazards of drinking microscopic amounts of star-San, best to look up the msds & read it. I've heard both sides of that argument.
 
rmyurick said:
Beer always clouds up when it is primed. It clears after two Weeks or so as the new yeast cells that are created settle out. As to the hazards of drinking microscopic amounts of star-San, best to look up the msds & read it. I've heard both sides of that argument.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I'll just have to be patient and wait. I'm not worried about drinking a tiny bit of starsan, I've been following this same basic procedure since I got started. I was just wondering if a litte more than usual could negatively effect the yeast in solution. This batch was crystal clear in the secondary and my racking cane has a cap on the end to minimize uptake of any sediment. So I'm guessing that the cloudiness was due to either mixing with the sugar, or too much starsan, or a combination of the two.
 
Thanks lads, do you add fruit/corriander during primary fermentation or what? If you wanted to do a Wit without a kit what would you use with the belgian yeast strains you mentioned above?

Cheers,

Eoin
 
VApatriot said:
Did I kill my beer?

Here's what happened. I brewed a Kolsch before x-mas, it looked nice and clear in the secondary, had an OG of 1.052 and an FG of 1.012, so far so good. So I go to do my bottling routine and got out of sequence.

I always wash all my gear out with hot water and dry it right before I bottle so everything is good and clean. You know, clean gear makes good beer, right? I use a spray bottle filled with a Starsan solution and spray down the inside of my bottling bucket, dump out the excess Starsan solution, pour in my bottling sugar, rinse out each bottle in a bucket of Starsan just before filling. Following this process I've never had an infection or any bottle bombs, just good clean beer.

Only not this time. For some reason I was trying to get the bottling process done as fast as I could. I washed all my gear, had my bottling sugar boiled for 5 minutes and cooled down to room temp., I dumped my sugar water in my bottling bucket and then I sprayed it down with the Starsan solution and then racked the beer into the bucket. The beer went from nice and clear in the secondary to cloudy in the bucket :(. It's only been a few days but the bottled beer is really cloudy. I don't usually make a light colored beer, I mostly make stuff like brown ales, belgian dubbles and stuff like that so if any of my pther beers were cloudy when I bottled them I never noticed.

So here's my question. Did I kill my beer by having too much Starsan solution in it when I bottled it? I'm going to wait a month to know for sure but right now I'm having a hard time trying to RDWHAHB.
Click to expand...

Oh... you're worried about cloudy beer? I was too once... only I had sea monkeys swimming in mine.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ask-me-anything-508120/index29.html#post6632649

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/ask-me-anything-508120/index31.html#post6638153

I bet you'll be just fine.


0118051721.jpg
 
hunter_la5 said:
Without trying to sound alarmist... I would start getting my affairs in order. Update your will. Make arrangements with the funeral home. No need to make this any harder than it has to be on the wife and kids. Sorry, brother.
Click to expand...

Man... I knew it.

Was ripping up laminate flooring (riddled with asbestos, no doubt), and sliced the **** out of my hand.

Gloves are for eskimos.
 

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