All Grain Home Brewing (7 of 8)

[speedsalot]

Maybe a dumb question, but Is there any worry of the sanitizer contaminating the wort?

[Amishexmachina]

Great job.

Question though: Did you have a specific reason for using the smack packs over dry? I mean, I love wyeast just as much as the next guy when it comes to saisons, steam beers or something with a specific yeast character, but why bother with two smack packs for 1056? The saffale US-05 yeast is the same strain has a high enough cell count that you don't need a starter and a pack costs about 2 bucks versus the 14.

[waynechung81]

No, there wouldn't be any off flavors at all from pouring hot mash into the brew kettle. Water naturally has oxygen in it. During the hour long boil this oxygen is lost, which is why you have to re-oxygenate it after the boil. Therefore, any oxygen that would have been introduced by pouring it into the boil kettle would not matter due to it being lost during the boil.

[FacadeOfTruth]

i think with the help of your videos i will be brewing some good beer

[mymindsevilthoughts]

Have you ever noticed any bad/off flavor changes from pouring your mash out to your boiler while it's hot like you did? I read many times not to aerate the wort while it is HOT. In my own experiance I think I noticed off flavors from oxidation when doing this accidently before? So is it not a big deal really or what?

[bluebird1422]

you could protect wort from bacteria in the air by just covering with some plate, it keeps the wort less prone to infections

[yeahyeah1821]

i cant tell but is that a little mini boot back there on your kegorator? at :59

[Kevindad123]

Gravity is a beautiful thing! Pouring the wort into the fermenter does though, in my opinion, help to aerate the to be beer. Going on to part 8 now!

[nige4958]

I brew almost identically to you. I use a 6 gallon Better Bottle as a fermenter, and use a racking cane to rack the beer off the cold break.

[jakko12345]

it looks like you get a bunch of StarSan in your beer. Does that do any bad to it?

[dustan09]

StarSan is a no rinse sanitiser it does not effect the taste or quality of the beer.

[RonAlmeida]

If one is insensitive enough.

[MadLuplin]

I have been watching some homebrew videos here today and you are the first one who I have watched brew that I would actually drink your beer!

I was wondering why you don't cover the kettle while shilling or the fermenter while areating? You need a kettle with a spigot and a carboy to primary man!

Great video series!

Brew Strong!

[Nospherith]

Carboys are old school.

[wildnerdman]

why did you put those yeast packs in the water. From what I could tell based on the package, don't you press a seal to activate the yeast and then pour it into the batch?

[chrisknight000]

The "smack packs" have a small packet of wort inside with the liquid yeast. To proof the yeast you lay it flat on the table and "smack" the "pack" to break the inner pouch. The outer bag then swells to prove that the yeast are viable. Most people think these packs are 'starters', they are not. The yeast packs went into a starsan solution(not just water), so it will sanitize the outer pack.

[BobbyFromNJ]

Those big activator packs are fine for direct pitching, especially into a well oxygenated 5 gallon batch at that low a gravity. I guess if money is no object, you don't mind the $12 worth of yeast but one pack would have worked. Just IMHO. Great videos by the way.

[chrisknight000]

Actually, the activator packs are about 100 billion cells. An ale with a O.G. of 1.049 at 5.25 gallons (with 96% viability) requires 180 billion cells, REGARDLESS of the sales pitch wyeast gives about their "smack packs"...

[altoids18ROX]

you could just put in like a teaspoon of yeast....they do multiply..it might take a while longer to get everything fermenting though

[chrisknight000]

Thanks! It was fun making them...

[chrisknight000]

I never really do a "mash out" as the general brewing culture does... I try to get it hot enough to at least slow down the conversion, I batch sparge (duh :) ) so the heat is on (killing the enzymes) rather quickly. My main reason in adding water before the 1st run off is to make up for water lost due to grain absorption & try to get each of the 2 runnings to be "close" to equal by volume...

[BobbyFromNJ]

I agree the mash out isn't necessary from an enzyme perspective but I have noticed and then verified that a "mash out like" infusion of extremely hot water increases efficiency by a few points. I'm sure it has to do with sugar becoming a bit more soluable at higher temps. I suppose the tradeoff is a potential to pull tannins if you don't equalize the temp to under 170F quickly.

[chrisknight000]

Yeah, tannin extraction would be my only concern. However, its an interesting idea... I know fly spargers mash out high to kill off the enzymes, us batch spargers don't really have to worry about it. I'll try one of my known recipes & mash out extremely high & see what happens... I'll whip out the large mash paddle to even it out faster... I'll let ya know if I see a change... Thanks...