There are a few reasons that I do starters. 1) the yeast gets going much more quickly. I see signs of fermentation as soon as a couple of hours after pitching and its usually rocking by the next morning. 2) especially when using harvested yeast, its a great way to check for infection and that is a HUGE concern with harvested yeast. 3) I can use the "older" yeast that my homebrew shop sells at a big discount.
I did a tour at my local micro-brewery, and they collect the yeast off their beers from the top of the fermentation instead of the bottom (being an ale, top fermenting beer so this makes sense). They have been using the same strain of yeast for the last 350 years! (they collected a yeast from a european brewery). I have collected from the bottom Trub before, but I think I will try from the top next time.
Hi Craig, Just wondering if you have done an Australian Pale Ale? I had a search through your vids and can't find a vid on it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the kit, it's one of my favourites. I use the Coopers Australian Pale Ale, Brew Enhancer 2 and 30grams of casscade hops boiled for 15min.
I wish there were more people people on youtube that did wine homebrewing. I just wanted to know about the benefits of yeast rinsing and if it worked in red wine. I am about to rack my red wine and was thinking of keeping the yeast. Red wine however gets more alcoholic than beer and it could kill the yeast off.
i did exactly what your doing with your rinsed yeast just brought the jar out a couple hours in advance to let it warm to room temp and pitched it straight into my brew and it turned out great ive been rinsing yeast from every brew i do and when i make a batch similar in style i pitch it again. seems to work great and haven't had any problems yet. i've even cultured some yeast from raisins and brewed up your famous cider with it and it turned out great!
About the washed yeast... I don't think a starter is necessary, but I do think that it helps get the yeast out of suspension. Most people separate the washed yeast into 4 - 8oz bottles. I do only two because who really needs that many bottles. I typically take the yeast out in advance so that the jar is at room temperature by the time I pitch it.
Craig, For those of us who are new to homebrewing can you do a video explaining the ABV of hops. Like which ABV values are best for diffrent styles of beer, and what is best for bittering, flavor, and aroma. Thanks.
I've tried reusing yeast without a starter and did not have enough yeast to finish a normal ale fermentation. Even though it looks like a lot of yeast, most of that is dead. Adding a 1 pint yeast starter doubles the amount of useful yeast cells in the reused sample.
Craig, I agree with what some others have said. If you re-pitch the yeast right away, you're probably fine not doing a starter. But, if you store it for a long period, there's a great chance of having the yeast die off. You're better off making a starter. Cheers my friend!
Reusing yeast is an awesome way to save money and an awesome way to keep using your favorite yeast strand. Done properly and clean, yeast can be regenerated for many many times. Stored properly on a slant, yeast can be stored long term for years and years. Or if you brew often, it can just be put in the fridge for months at a time and reused over and over. I am on my 6th regeneration of my american ale yeast. Local Brewery in my area has been using the same yeast since 1986.
@Jacobsbrew If you prefer a sweeter barley wine then add Molasses and honey before fermentation starts. Adding these after Krausen layers have fallen will in turn help "Dry" out the beer a bit. I hope you all like this recipe. Mine taste great so far. But it is still in primary till Jan. 2012 so it will be a while till it is completely finished. This is a recipe that I made up myself. I did not fallow any direction for any other recipe. So feel free to tweak it as any of you feel needed.
@Jacobsbrew Wait for second Krausen to fall then add honey to fermenter. Then just let it ferment out. This is a beer that will take a few months in primary and a few months in Bright tank. After being in Bright tank for a while use 3/4 cup of brown sugar for priming sugar and bottle. Age for 8 months to a year. This beer will keep for many many years.
@Jacobsbrew Last ingredients!!! 20lbs Cinderella Pumpkin and 3 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice! Start by baking the pumpkin for 1 hour at 350 F. Take pumpkin out of skin and put in with grain bill for mash. Mash at 156 F to 164 F for 1 hour. Sparge into your boil pot and rinse the grain bill and pumpkin to get out all the flavors and sugars. Do a 60 min boil using all ingredients except honey and molasses. Cool and pitch yeast. Ferment till first krausen falls then add Molasses to fermenter.
@Jacobsbrew The recipe I have calls for Real Pumpkin and is a partial mash. 7lbs light LME, 4lbs light brown sugar, 1lbs crystal 10l, 1lbs light DME, 1lbs two-row, .50lbs flaked barley all for the boil. Hops: 2.00 oz cascade 60 min, 1.00 oz Kent Golding 45 min, .50 oz Kent Golding 30 min, .50 oz Kent Golding at flame out. American Ale Yeast. 1 lbs Molassas, 1lbs honey.
Yeah your right about that yeast thing. We drink a good bit of beer here and I have one that is a standard I call it Brown Sugar Golder I do two batches at a time since it's the same type of beer I just go straight in to the fermenter with a new batch thus saving one cleaning and the reuse of the yeast just once and only if the first fermentation was two weeks or less.
if you take your yeast out on brew day let it warm to room temp then dump it into a high gravity beer it COULD stress the yeast and cause bad flavours which is why you make a starter
add the yeast to a low gravity wort to get it going but as you see most allgrain brewers dont do this they just put it stright in and they get good beers but its a bad pactise
you can also wash the yeast by emptying some of the fluid away and adding more boiled /cooled water this dilutes your fluid
Continued from previous post..... the remaining 1/4. Thus continually growing stronger and stronger yeast. American ale yeast straight out if the smack pack can live in ABV of up to 10%. As we speak I have a pumpkin barley wine currently at 13.8% ABV and climbing. This is due to my continual growth of stronger and stronger yeast.
@mrfreeze19delta You had me at pumpkin barley wine ...share recipe? I made a great holiday cider once, pitched it with the trub from a imperial oatmeal stout... I think it was originally from a Nottingham yeast pack. 4.5 gal pure apple juice, 1 gallon cran/rasp juice, brown sugar, whole cloves, cinnimon stick, 1lb blackberry honey.
@sausage4mash. Building stronger cell walls in one generation will in turn generate stronger cells in the future. .I.e. I am genetically healthy and fit. Therefore my offspring will be genetically healthy and fit. The same goes for yeast. A strong single yeast cell with REPLICATE its self. Creating an exact copy. Continuing this over multiple harvests will create "super" yeast. Or so to speak. For instance. I have an american ale yeast that I have. I make a starter, pitch 3/4 of it and regrow..
ive personally never done a starter with stored yeast, never had an issue, its supposed to be so that the beer gets going faster, less time with no co2 blanket over it... but what confuses me is that the starter would just as likely get infected
@mageac also with everyone always complaining about infections, ive never had one, had a few iffy brews, one that got too cold, didnt start for about 4-5 days with a cracked cover, came out fine
another time i forgot to tighten a bottle cap, after sitting for about 2 months, it wasnt carbed, i tried just for shits an giggles and added dextrose to carb it... it turned out perfectly.
i always sanitize, but thier's not millions of little gremlins floating around trying to ruin your brews
@scoobydog411 its a start, but you'll make better home brew getting ingredients from your local home brew store and using food grade fermentation buckets or glass carboys (best).
I do the yeast harvesting all the time - saves me about NZ$6 a batch. I've always done the starter thing with my harvested yeast but might be right, it's probably not really necessary unless the yeast has been in the fridge for awhile. The purpose of a yeast starter for harvested yeast is to revive the yeast out of hibernation. I've stored yeast like this for over 6 months - that one definately needed a starter - it actually took 2 days for just the starter to begin fermenting.
My guess is that you could probably skip the starter if the yeast has been in the fridge for a just a few weeks, but if it's more than that then a starter would be a safer bet.
Now there's an experiment you could do! Brew 2 simiar batches - one with starter and one without, see if there is much difference in when fermentation kicks off and if it translates into any noticible taste difference in the beer.
nice hbw. mine this week is going to be LONGG. because it is all the tastings from the hokieipa challenge. we need you to join in on the next one craig!
Craig, when I harvest yeast I still do a yeast starter with the harvest prior to pitching. However I am not doing this to increase cell population, rather I am doing it to oxygenate the starter to build stronger cell walls. This is possible by either shaking or swirling your starter everytime you think of it. Or like I do, use a stir plate having the cyclone bottom out in the flask. Doing this helps keep the cells protected in the beer from the alcohol and is very common practice for "big" beers
@mrfreeze19delta but there will not be any alcohol to start off with and by the end of the fermentation it'll be yeast from many generations on that'll be doing the work ,your original colony of yeast would of grown exponentially by the end of the brew (so not the same yeast)
I've been reading into this as well..it's a great way to save yourself some cash as well as not having to deal with those pesky starters. Got some 001 I'm saving for a pale ale, so I'm excited to see how it works. :)
Green apple is often times just a product of a green beer. After bottling it's usually good to wait around 2-4 weeks to let the beer condition out those off-flavors. Are you letting it sit for awhile before drinking?
Yes I have, in fact my cream ale has been bottled for 6 months and it still has that off flavor? The milk stout has been in the bottle for about 2 months? Not sure, maybe contaminated?
I've pitched exactly like that before, except I'd estimate it was maybe half as much as you showed in one jar. Worked just fine for a 5 gallon batch, though as I recall it started fermenting a bit slow.
Craig, you hit the nail on the head! It's already a "yeast starter" That's the beauty of it. Let it come back up to room temperature while making your batch of wort. Then when you're ready to pitch, pour off about half to three-quarters of the clear liquid on top. Then swirl the yeast cake with the remaining water and dump it in the fermenter. I wouldn't recommend using it this long, but I've recycled yeast for nine months, batch after batch without an infection.
The good way to store yeast is to keep it under wort (cooled of course ;) ), because water "sucks" all the nutritions out of the yeastcell, this puts the yeastcell under "stress".
By using wort you can also observe how vital your yeast is. You also should not store the yeast for long time, because it will sooner or later start to die.
the problem with not doing a starter on most 1050 + beers is that in the initial stages of growth and replication the yeast tend to kick off a bunch of undesirable flavors. If you are ok with having those in the beer, then by all means continue on without change. But if you want a very clean yeast profile, a starter is the best bet
if you were to pitch directly onto a recently used yeast cake, there would be no need for a starter bc the original beer was essentially a starter. However, once you wash it (which is kind of what you did) and put it into the fridge, those yeast go dormant and need to be woken back up before you use them. This is all contingent on the gravity of the beer you're brewing. If its less than 1045 or so you should be ok w/o a starter ever....but if its higher u should starter it
Craig, or anyone else who can answer this. My last two batches of beer (milk stout and cream ale, brewer's best kits) have a real fruity taste to them. Almost a sour apple taste (not good). I've been doing alot of thinking of what went wrong and all I can come up with is maybe my fermentation was too low. I fermented both in my basement which is around 64 degrees. Could this be the problem? Both batches fermented but not vigorously? Help!
I use a conical fermenter and harvesting yeast is a great way to save a ton of money! I harvest all of my liquid yeast cultures. Love Amarillo too! That beer should be awesome
In my thought process, the reason I do use yeast starters, and why I would use it in your case is that while you may have a decent number of yeast (although the longer they stay in the fridge the more potential die off you will have) they are in a "sleep state" if you will. If you do a yeast starter you will basically warm them up prior to their marathon. You will also get a more complete fermentation with a yeast starter. Cheers!
There is a good reason to use a starter in that it reduces the amount of off flavors that are produced when the yeast is multiplying and gets your brew going faster which means you're less likely to get an infection. It's especially good if you are doing a lager and want to make sure the yeast is active, since they're brewed at cooler temperatures.
But you are right Craig, no reason why dumping the old yeast into the new batch wouldn't work. It's advised not to do it more than 5x however.
me and my brother have just started brewing and weve bottled them but the instructions say to keep warm for 2 days then put them in a cold place but how cold does it have to be and can it be too cold?
Hi Craig you always surpise me love the yeast idea genius man. Also when did u get your ear peirced I got mine done years ago but stopped wearing an earing about 5 years ago.
Re-pitching a yeast cake from a healthy fermentation is a great way to go. I am just too chicken to do it, because I am afraid I would pick up a bug somewhere and ruin a batch....if it is done right, it is great though! Good luck!
To make sure it's alive, couldn't you put a little in a bowl with some sugar, and see if it starts farting? That should tell ya if it's alive or not.. I would think..
Hi craig. Gathering the yeast like you described will also include a bunch of gunk from the fermentation, like hops, proteins etc. There are other techniques easy for the homebrewer where the resulting yeast cake in the jar is much cleaner. Starters for gathered yeast like you have is only necessary if the yeast has been sitting for a long time in the fridge. I recommend using the free yeast calculator found at mrmalty.com. Its a great tool!
There are a few reasons that I do starters. 1) the yeast gets going much more quickly. I see signs of fermentation as soon as a couple of hours after pitching and its usually rocking by the next morning. 2) especially when using harvested yeast, its a great way to check for infection and that is a HUGE concern with harvested yeast. 3) I can use the "older" yeast that my homebrew shop sells at a big discount.
manosaxy 1 month ago
I did a tour at my local micro-brewery, and they collect the yeast off their beers from the top of the fermentation instead of the bottom (being an ale, top fermenting beer so this makes sense). They have been using the same strain of yeast for the last 350 years! (they collected a yeast from a european brewery). I have collected from the bottom Trub before, but I think I will try from the top next time.
79sdavis 2 months ago
Happy HBW Craig! Cheers
homebeerbrewery 2 months ago
Hi Craig, Just wondering if you have done an Australian Pale Ale? I had a search through your vids and can't find a vid on it. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the kit, it's one of my favourites. I use the Coopers Australian Pale Ale, Brew Enhancer 2 and 30grams of casscade hops boiled for 15min.
Cheers!
Offroadmaddness 2 months ago
I wish there were more people people on youtube that did wine homebrewing. I just wanted to know about the benefits of yeast rinsing and if it worked in red wine. I am about to rack my red wine and was thinking of keeping the yeast. Red wine however gets more alcoholic than beer and it could kill the yeast off.
Tinsletooth 2 months ago
Are you sure those jars where not your samples for the doctor Craig? lol Cheers!
jakeanddar 2 months ago
Craig I made my own Homebrew Wednesday, A how to on bottling
RickySalami 2 months ago 3
i did exactly what your doing with your rinsed yeast just brought the jar out a couple hours in advance to let it warm to room temp and pitched it straight into my brew and it turned out great ive been rinsing yeast from every brew i do and when i make a batch similar in style i pitch it again. seems to work great and haven't had any problems yet. i've even cultured some yeast from raisins and brewed up your famous cider with it and it turned out great!
tfs2006 2 months ago
About the washed yeast... I don't think a starter is necessary, but I do think that it helps get the yeast out of suspension. Most people separate the washed yeast into 4 - 8oz bottles. I do only two because who really needs that many bottles. I typically take the yeast out in advance so that the jar is at room temperature by the time I pitch it.
HomeBrewBeerRecipes 2 months ago
Craig, For those of us who are new to homebrewing can you do a video explaining the ABV of hops. Like which ABV values are best for diffrent styles of beer, and what is best for bittering, flavor, and aroma. Thanks.
dopeymb 2 months ago
If you like the hops I am sure I can find more. Cheers!
immolateus 2 months ago
I've tried reusing yeast without a starter and did not have enough yeast to finish a normal ale fermentation. Even though it looks like a lot of yeast, most of that is dead. Adding a 1 pint yeast starter doubles the amount of useful yeast cells in the reused sample.
MeMcNeills 2 months ago
Craig, I agree with what some others have said. If you re-pitch the yeast right away, you're probably fine not doing a starter. But, if you store it for a long period, there's a great chance of having the yeast die off. You're better off making a starter. Cheers my friend!
LongDogBrew 2 months ago
Reusing yeast is an awesome way to save money and an awesome way to keep using your favorite yeast strand. Done properly and clean, yeast can be regenerated for many many times. Stored properly on a slant, yeast can be stored long term for years and years. Or if you brew often, it can just be put in the fridge for months at a time and reused over and over. I am on my 6th regeneration of my american ale yeast. Local Brewery in my area has been using the same yeast since 1986.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@Jacobsbrew If you prefer a sweeter barley wine then add Molasses and honey before fermentation starts. Adding these after Krausen layers have fallen will in turn help "Dry" out the beer a bit. I hope you all like this recipe. Mine taste great so far. But it is still in primary till Jan. 2012 so it will be a while till it is completely finished. This is a recipe that I made up myself. I did not fallow any direction for any other recipe. So feel free to tweak it as any of you feel needed.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@Jacobsbrew Wait for second Krausen to fall then add honey to fermenter. Then just let it ferment out. This is a beer that will take a few months in primary and a few months in Bright tank. After being in Bright tank for a while use 3/4 cup of brown sugar for priming sugar and bottle. Age for 8 months to a year. This beer will keep for many many years.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@Jacobsbrew Last ingredients!!! 20lbs Cinderella Pumpkin and 3 tbsp of pumpkin pie spice! Start by baking the pumpkin for 1 hour at 350 F. Take pumpkin out of skin and put in with grain bill for mash. Mash at 156 F to 164 F for 1 hour. Sparge into your boil pot and rinse the grain bill and pumpkin to get out all the flavors and sugars. Do a 60 min boil using all ingredients except honey and molasses. Cool and pitch yeast. Ferment till first krausen falls then add Molasses to fermenter.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@Jacobsbrew The recipe I have calls for Real Pumpkin and is a partial mash. 7lbs light LME, 4lbs light brown sugar, 1lbs crystal 10l, 1lbs light DME, 1lbs two-row, .50lbs flaked barley all for the boil. Hops: 2.00 oz cascade 60 min, 1.00 oz Kent Golding 45 min, .50 oz Kent Golding 30 min, .50 oz Kent Golding at flame out. American Ale Yeast. 1 lbs Molassas, 1lbs honey.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
Yeah your right about that yeast thing. We drink a good bit of beer here and I have one that is a standard I call it Brown Sugar Golder I do two batches at a time since it's the same type of beer I just go straight in to the fermenter with a new batch thus saving one cleaning and the reuse of the yeast just once and only if the first fermentation was two weeks or less.
LOOPPEY 2 months ago
if you take your yeast out on brew day let it warm to room temp then dump it into a high gravity beer it COULD stress the yeast and cause bad flavours which is why you make a starter
add the yeast to a low gravity wort to get it going but as you see most allgrain brewers dont do this they just put it stright in and they get good beers but its a bad pactise
you can also wash the yeast by emptying some of the fluid away and adding more boiled /cooled water this dilutes your fluid
NavySealsutube 2 months ago
its "trub" and is pronounced "trub" :) great vid as always craig!
eyepatchinc 2 months ago
Why not? It takes 20 mins to make a yeast starter and you r garaunteed a quick and clean ferment. Just my 2 cents
BeerGeekNation 2 months ago
Continued from previous post..... the remaining 1/4. Thus continually growing stronger and stronger yeast. American ale yeast straight out if the smack pack can live in ABV of up to 10%. As we speak I have a pumpkin barley wine currently at 13.8% ABV and climbing. This is due to my continual growth of stronger and stronger yeast.
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@mrfreeze19delta You had me at pumpkin barley wine ...share recipe? I made a great holiday cider once, pitched it with the trub from a imperial oatmeal stout... I think it was originally from a Nottingham yeast pack. 4.5 gal pure apple juice, 1 gallon cran/rasp juice, brown sugar, whole cloves, cinnimon stick, 1lb blackberry honey.
Jacobsbrew 2 months ago
@sausage4mash. Building stronger cell walls in one generation will in turn generate stronger cells in the future. .I.e. I am genetically healthy and fit. Therefore my offspring will be genetically healthy and fit. The same goes for yeast. A strong single yeast cell with REPLICATE its self. Creating an exact copy. Continuing this over multiple harvests will create "super" yeast. Or so to speak. For instance. I have an american ale yeast that I have. I make a starter, pitch 3/4 of it and regrow..
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
ive personally never done a starter with stored yeast, never had an issue, its supposed to be so that the beer gets going faster, less time with no co2 blanket over it... but what confuses me is that the starter would just as likely get infected
mageac 2 months ago
@mageac also with everyone always complaining about infections, ive never had one, had a few iffy brews, one that got too cold, didnt start for about 4-5 days with a cracked cover, came out fine
another time i forgot to tighten a bottle cap, after sitting for about 2 months, it wasnt carbed, i tried just for shits an giggles and added dextrose to carb it... it turned out perfectly.
i always sanitize, but thier's not millions of little gremlins floating around trying to ruin your brews
mageac 2 months ago
Thanks for your infor Craig. I bought a Mr.Beer Kit. Have you heard of them.
scoobydog411 2 months ago
@scoobydog411 its a start, but you'll make better home brew getting ingredients from your local home brew store and using food grade fermentation buckets or glass carboys (best).
Jacobsbrew 2 months ago
@vanaukentim Probably an infected batch. Did you use rye or oat grains by any chance?
adrummer85 2 months ago
I do the yeast harvesting all the time - saves me about NZ$6 a batch. I've always done the starter thing with my harvested yeast but might be right, it's probably not really necessary unless the yeast has been in the fridge for awhile. The purpose of a yeast starter for harvested yeast is to revive the yeast out of hibernation. I've stored yeast like this for over 6 months - that one definately needed a starter - it actually took 2 days for just the starter to begin fermenting.
aidancurran1 2 months ago
My guess is that you could probably skip the starter if the yeast has been in the fridge for a just a few weeks, but if it's more than that then a starter would be a safer bet.
Now there's an experiment you could do! Brew 2 simiar batches - one with starter and one without, see if there is much difference in when fermentation kicks off and if it translates into any noticible taste difference in the beer.
Cheers,
Aidan
aidancurran1 2 months ago
nice hbw. mine this week is going to be LONGG. because it is all the tastings from the hokieipa challenge. we need you to join in on the next one craig!
HokieHomeBrew 2 months ago
Craig, when I harvest yeast I still do a yeast starter with the harvest prior to pitching. However I am not doing this to increase cell population, rather I am doing it to oxygenate the starter to build stronger cell walls. This is possible by either shaking or swirling your starter everytime you think of it. Or like I do, use a stir plate having the cyclone bottom out in the flask. Doing this helps keep the cells protected in the beer from the alcohol and is very common practice for "big" beers
mrfreeze19delta 2 months ago
@mrfreeze19delta but there will not be any alcohol to start off with and by the end of the fermentation it'll be yeast from many generations on that'll be doing the work ,your original colony of yeast would of grown exponentially by the end of the brew (so not the same yeast)
sausage4mash 2 months ago
I've been reading into this as well..it's a great way to save yourself some cash as well as not having to deal with those pesky starters. Got some 001 I'm saving for a pale ale, so I'm excited to see how it works. :)
@vanaukentim
Green apple is often times just a product of a green beer. After bottling it's usually good to wait around 2-4 weeks to let the beer condition out those off-flavors. Are you letting it sit for awhile before drinking?
GibsonsForLife 2 months ago
@GibsonsForLife
Yes I have, in fact my cream ale has been bottled for 6 months and it still has that off flavor? The milk stout has been in the bottle for about 2 months? Not sure, maybe contaminated?
vanaukentim 2 months ago
I've pitched exactly like that before, except I'd estimate it was maybe half as much as you showed in one jar. Worked just fine for a 5 gallon batch, though as I recall it started fermenting a bit slow.
tvtoms 2 months ago
Craig, you hit the nail on the head! It's already a "yeast starter" That's the beauty of it. Let it come back up to room temperature while making your batch of wort. Then when you're ready to pitch, pour off about half to three-quarters of the clear liquid on top. Then swirl the yeast cake with the remaining water and dump it in the fermenter. I wouldn't recommend using it this long, but I've recycled yeast for nine months, batch after batch without an infection.
78recordrepair 2 months ago
The good way to store yeast is to keep it under wort (cooled of course ;) ), because water "sucks" all the nutritions out of the yeastcell, this puts the yeastcell under "stress".
By using wort you can also observe how vital your yeast is. You also should not store the yeast for long time, because it will sooner or later start to die.
Cheers and keep the yeast happy ;)
LactobacillusBrevis 2 months ago 4
the problem with not doing a starter on most 1050 + beers is that in the initial stages of growth and replication the yeast tend to kick off a bunch of undesirable flavors. If you are ok with having those in the beer, then by all means continue on without change. But if you want a very clean yeast profile, a starter is the best bet
JOMalone3113 2 months ago
if you were to pitch directly onto a recently used yeast cake, there would be no need for a starter bc the original beer was essentially a starter. However, once you wash it (which is kind of what you did) and put it into the fridge, those yeast go dormant and need to be woken back up before you use them. This is all contingent on the gravity of the beer you're brewing. If its less than 1045 or so you should be ok w/o a starter ever....but if its higher u should starter it
JOMalone3113 2 months ago
Craig, or anyone else who can answer this. My last two batches of beer (milk stout and cream ale, brewer's best kits) have a real fruity taste to them. Almost a sour apple taste (not good). I've been doing alot of thinking of what went wrong and all I can come up with is maybe my fermentation was too low. I fermented both in my basement which is around 64 degrees. Could this be the problem? Both batches fermented but not vigorously? Help!
vanaukentim 2 months ago
I use a conical fermenter and harvesting yeast is a great way to save a ton of money! I harvest all of my liquid yeast cultures. Love Amarillo too! That beer should be awesome
BeerGeekNation 2 months ago
Mmmm Amarillo. I think you're going to love those hops
glitch777 2 months ago
In my thought process, the reason I do use yeast starters, and why I would use it in your case is that while you may have a decent number of yeast (although the longer they stay in the fridge the more potential die off you will have) they are in a "sleep state" if you will. If you do a yeast starter you will basically warm them up prior to their marathon. You will also get a more complete fermentation with a yeast starter. Cheers!
jakeholshue 2 months ago
I love amarillo. Such a beautiful hop.
leedorham 2 months ago
Looking forward to good taste test video and some craigs kitchen
matt3360 2 months ago
There is a good reason to use a starter in that it reduces the amount of off flavors that are produced when the yeast is multiplying and gets your brew going faster which means you're less likely to get an infection. It's especially good if you are doing a lager and want to make sure the yeast is active, since they're brewed at cooler temperatures.
But you are right Craig, no reason why dumping the old yeast into the new batch wouldn't work. It's advised not to do it more than 5x however.
LeJimster 2 months ago
I see DantheMan's package in the background that he sent the spirits in socks in! lol
LoLoCoSt224 2 months ago
Stupid iPad autocorrect. I meant "keep em coming". !
ACunnyFunt 2 months ago
Hi Craig! What programme do you use on your iPad to make these videos? Keep me coming!
ACunnyFunt 2 months ago
me and my brother have just started brewing and weve bottled them but the instructions say to keep warm for 2 days then put them in a cold place but how cold does it have to be and can it be too cold?
jackyboy233 2 months ago
Hi Craig you always surpise me love the yeast idea genius man. Also when did u get your ear peirced I got mine done years ago but stopped wearing an earing about 5 years ago.
thegentlearts 2 months ago
Did you say seventeen at the end?
TheAceMcAce 2 months ago
Re-pitching a yeast cake from a healthy fermentation is a great way to go. I am just too chicken to do it, because I am afraid I would pick up a bug somewhere and ruin a batch....if it is done right, it is great though! Good luck!
tomroeder 2 months ago
To make sure it's alive, couldn't you put a little in a bowl with some sugar, and see if it starts farting? That should tell ya if it's alive or not.. I would think..
goingoffgridblog 2 months ago
I can't wait for more home brewing videos and maybe a Craig's Kitchen video?
Ch0coDK 2 months ago
That's a well used bung! haha
Crypticx666 2 months ago
Hi craig. Gathering the yeast like you described will also include a bunch of gunk from the fermentation, like hops, proteins etc. There are other techniques easy for the homebrewer where the resulting yeast cake in the jar is much cleaner. Starters for gathered yeast like you have is only necessary if the yeast has been sitting for a long time in the fridge. I recommend using the free yeast calculator found at mrmalty.com. Its a great tool!
frostisman 2 months ago
ha, every wednesday i turn on utube to watch you and i just have to sit here with a home brew and drink it!
spockady 2 months ago
Great got my Craigtube fix for the week. Craig when are you doing another brewing video?
bebeop1980 2 months ago
Chug! Crazy rain here as well - about 250ml of rain in the last few days... Excellent vid! GO HB WEDNESDAYS!!!!!!!!
brewtubetech 2 months ago