Comments for Brew Your Own

Comment on Answer for Shaken not stirred yeast starter by Colin Kaminski

Colin Kaminski — Thu, 23 May 2019 20:07:47 +0000

I have done this too. At 1.040 it works surprisingly well if you don’t aggressively separate the trub and underoxygenate.

Comment on Answer for Shaken not stirred yeast starter by Harold

Harold — Thu, 23 May 2019 19:42:29 +0000

Latest technique on the web is to pitch dry yeast without even re-hydrating and no starter is needed.

Comment on Answer for Shaken not stirred yeast starter by Colin Kaminski

Colin Kaminski — Thu, 23 May 2019 18:02:23 +0000

I agree that a stir plate might be to aggressive. I set mine pretty slow. Viability will still be a factor as any non-viable cells in the original pitch will not participate in the starter. Lest say we are pitching 1 Billion cells into our starter, to pick a round number. But, our pitch is 3 months old and got shipped through the Texas summer for 3 days. Our viability is only, let’s say 25%. When we do our shaken method we end up back to the original 1B cell count but we still have .75B dead cells (4 fold growth is a good guess). If we do this and got a fresh pitch that was not overheated the we end up with 4B cells and produce a very different beer.
To be perfectly honest, in a homebrewing situation, I prefer dry yeast. Dry yeast shaken not stirred sounds like a great idea and I will try that this week when I brew.

Comment on Answer for Open fermentation by reineborn

reineborn — Thu, 23 May 2019 18:02:09 +0000

Just want to share my experience. My passion is british bitters and some say that british yeast does a better job in open wide fermenters. I tried a split with West Yorkshire Yeast (Wyeast). One in a wide open steelbucket put in my fermenter-refrigerator and the other one in my SS 3.5 gallon conical fermenter with a blowoff tube attached. There is a huge difference between them both in aroma and taste. The open fermented one is absolutely a better bitter. Go ahead and try. Put the lid on until you see some evidence of fermentation just to be on the safer side.

Comment on Answer for Shaken not stirred yeast starter by Dawson

Dawson — Thu, 23 May 2019 18:00:01 +0000

You’ll be happy to know Denny and Drew actually address this method in the “Techniques” column in the upcoming July-August issue of BYO. Stay tuned for their views…

Comment on Dry vs. Whirlpool Hopping by Harold

Harold — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:58:07 +0000

And what temperature do you like for whirlpooling?

Comment on Answer for Gap spacing on a mill by Colin Kaminski

Colin Kaminski — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:54:41 +0000

Remember, your goal here is good retention of any solids that are not dissolved in the wort and a high efficiency sugar extraction. Milling to fine and you risk transferring husk and other off flavor producing things to the boil. Too coarse and you risk not getting enough sugars out to hit your target gravity.

Comment on Answer for Shaken not stirred yeast starter by Harold

Harold — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:52:22 +0000

The basic premise in the shaken not stirred method is that a stir plate stresses the yeast and is not needed. The viability isn’t a factor either as the yeast is multiplying at a rapid rate and you are pitching the yeast at high krausen.

Comment on Answer for Refractometer reading by Colin Kaminski

Colin Kaminski — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:47:21 +0000

If you can afford a densiometer it is fast and accurate. I think they are about $350 however.

Comment on Open fermentation by Colin Kaminski

Colin Kaminski — Thu, 23 May 2019 17:45:20 +0000

Interesting, yes, using spunding valves is really popular right now.
I always ferment to completion at 0 pressure. I have many friends who cap early, based on gravity. I have done some trials with fermenters capped at 15 and 30 psi with WLP001 variants. It is very important for the process to match the abilities of the yeast. Some strains will not ferment under pressure at all and some are very good at it. I am told that warm, 90F, high pressure ferments with tolerant yeasts don’t produce as much esters as a open fermenter. However, the fusel production remains very close. Since, I dont like the flavor of fusels, I have not pursued the process.