Home Brewing Tips and Techniques
I think that you should get more yeast. From what I have read, freezing yeast with out taking the proper steps leads to ice crystals forming in the solution and rupturing the yeast cells. You should beable to store harvested yeast in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks without it going bad I would imagine. I wouldn't go too long though.
Cheers
Continuation of tips:
- When making yeast starters, let the quart or half gallon sit out at room temperature 2-5 days so it can mature, colonize, and create more cells. Slowly shake every once in a while. Once you pitch it, the fermenation can take off within hours, or less! This is a good, healthy starter.
- For those with glass carboys, look into The Brew Hauler. MOST homebrew shops don't carry this. It is FAR better than the lame neck ring. This is a nylon strap that goes all around the carboy and has handles for carrying. If you google search the term, you will find it. Even at $12 this is a steal! I absolutely HATE those neck rings. Almost all of my carboys use the brew hauler.
- If you use Star San as a sanitizer, you only need about a 1/2 cup (or less) to sanitize a fermenter (plastic or carboy), it is a contact sanitizer, meaning it doesn't have to fill the entire vessel. I have sanitized an entire carboy off one cup of this. Swish it around real well for 30 seconds. LEAVE THE FOAM BEHIND. That is helping the process! Do not worry about racking your beer or using any equipment for brewing with the foam behind. It is food grade! I have had LOTS of foam in my kegs, racked beer right over the top, carbonated it, then drank some. Tastes just fine. Star San is excellent and reuseable!
- Some stores carry 5 gallon plastic water jugs. I have seen these at Target. The jugs I saw cost about $12 and are obviously food grade since they hold water. This is a cheaper alternative to buying new carboys at $20-$25, unless you find them used.
- Use blow off tubes!! Airlocks are great, but wheat, porters, stouts, fruit, and probably other beers can easily clog them. So can regular high gravity beers! A typical 4' blow off tube should only run you about $5. Yes that is more than an airlock. It is also peace of mind. Tube off tubes do not clog. I recommend buying several.
- Email Wyeast and White Labs and request a yeast strain poster. I wrote to both and asked for more information and a poster, and they gave me copies. This is very helpful when I am brewing and unsure what yeast to use. I just consult the poster.
In case anyone finds this easier than taking OG and FG readings and then doing the math to find their alcohol %, there is another set of lines on hydrometers made for homebrewing with a scale that goes from 0-15. Simply record the number prior to pitching the yeast, this is the alcoholic potential of the brew. Take measurements as usual to determine when the brew has fermented out and subtract the final number from the original one for the % alcohol.
If you simply subtract the OG - FG, that is Alcohol By Weight, which is not commonly used. OG - FG x 125 or 129 (I have heard both) is Alcohol By Volume.
I suppose whichever method you want to use will work, but I have never once seen any microbrew with the ABW on it, always ABV.
I've got a technique for dry hopping that I'd like to share with you guys.
Recently dry hopped a double IPA with 2 ounces of Amarillo (whole.) I'm sure like a lot of you guys I like to do my secondary fermentation in a glass carboy. This makes it a little tricky to dry hop. Originally I would just throw the hops loose in the bottom and rack onto them. I still think this is a good method and very easy to do but I just felt like the hops were absorbing a fair amount of liquid. So I then went to the bag method which isn't the easiest to cram two ounces of whole hops in a bag through the small carboy opening much less getting it out again. My problem with this method is the hop bag floats and a large amount of my hops are sitting above the liquid line. I understand that they have absorbed fluid but it didn't seem like a very effective way. So next I heard of sanitizing marbles and throwing them in the hop bag causing it to sink in the fermentor. Better but I didn't care for the idea of my hops buried in a layer of trub at the bottom so again back to the drawing board. Finally my brew buddy devised a great solution. We crammed the hops into the bag through the mouth of the carboy with the marbles in place but we used fishing line to tie up the hop bag and ran a length to the bottom of the airlock keeping the hop bag suspended in the middle of the carboy, fully submerged yet off of the trub! This is definitely not the easiest route but with a little practice gauging how many marbles (steelies work best) and how much fishing line you need this is a pretty effective way to dry hop. Not to mention when it's time to bottle you pop the airlock and the hop bag comes with it. No more trying to fish out a swollen bag of hops, getting it back out the carboy mouth still takes some finnese though.
cubx wrote:
- Nylons (new obviously) bought in a pack for 99 cents can be great for hops. After the boil, just throw it away! I have seen quite a few people do this. Personally, I just throw mine loosely into the kettle. But with nylons, there is no worry of contamination since your wort is boiling, and there is no grain bag to clean afterwards, you just throw it away! Be warned: you might not want to buy dozens of packs of nylons if your a guy, as you might appear to be a cross dresser at the store. But then again, what you do in your private life is your business.
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Well, I decided to try this out after I didn't get enough muslin bags at the LHBS.. and I was a bit skeptical. To test it, I took the nylon and boiled it alone in clear water to test its effects. It turned about 1/2 c of water very considerably the color of the nylons. The wierd thing was it didn't smell funny, and, in the name of science, I tasted the nylon juice to see if maybe people tossing the filled nylons into their wort wouldnt notice b/c of lack of scent and taste being affected, and there was no taste.
to Andrew Jensen
That is one heck of a list of brews on the bottom of your replies. Where do you store all of those? Are they bottles or kegs?
Brew&I,
I bottle everything I do. I understand it may be little more time consuming, but it doesn't bother me much. If I'm not brewing, racking or bottling at least once every couple of days I fell like I'm starting to fall behind. I really do enjoy this hobby as do all of my friends. The majority of the batches that I do are five gallon batches that I split with my brewing buddy. So I pretty much end up with right around a case of everything. Works out well to continously have a good variety of homebrews in your fridge. I store all of the full bottles and fermentors in my closet in my room, it's about double the size of normal standard closets. Nice because it holds my wine rack as well and with doors keeps things dark the majority of the time. My pantry closet in my kitchen was converted to my brew closet where I store all empties and various equipment and ingredients.
I saw that we lost track of the numbers so I started over.
1. Toasted Malt:
Toasted malt or amber malt adds a wonderful nuttiness without the roasted or burnt flavors associated with roasted malts. Toasted malt is very easy to make at home in your oven. Preheat oven to 275°F. Spread pale malt on cookie sheet and place in oven for 60 minutes. Raise the temperature to 350°F, and toast an additional 30 minutes. Allow malt to cool and then use as you would any malt.
2. Smoked Malt:
An easy way to recreate authentic smoked beers requires no more than a small barbecue grill, a clean piece of metal wire mesh, and some wood chips (like hickory or apple wood). Soak the chips in water or beer. Ignite a small amount of charcoal in your grill. When the coals are almost ready to cook on (i.e., gray ashen-colored with a red glow), crush your grains and soak them in water for 5 to 10 minutes. Spread the wood chips on the coals. Spread the grains on the window screen and place it on the rack over the coals. Cover and let smoke for 15 to 20 minutes. Check the grains occasionally, mixing if they seem to be smoking unevenly. Keep a water spray bottle handy to spray the grains if they seem to be burning. Use the grains as with any other specialty grain.
3. Starting a Liquid Culture:
Some liquid cultures require amplification that is further growth than is provided with internal starter pouches. In the case of a liquid culture with no starter packs (advanced brewing cultures from Wyeast) a starter is required and not just recommended. After starting a fresh pack of liquid culture that has a nutrient pouch, even when grown under optimal conditions, you will still be under-pitching. This amount of yeast should be boosted, as the amount of yeast directly relates to the start up time of fermentation, the better your pitching rate the quicker fermentation will get underway thereby reducing the ability for other organisms to possibly contaminate you beer. White Labs Pitchable Cultures do not require amplification; however, making a starter will reduce lag times.
No matter how good your technique is there will always be some degree of contaminants in your wort and given enough time they will take over the fermentation. This means that you want the yeast to get going first, take hold of the media, and effectively beat all other organisms. The best starter media to use on the market today is the Super Starter formula by Fermentation Products. The ingredients in this starter are used by breweries around the world today, and much better than creating your own. However, if you must, the procedure is below.
4. Kraeusening Your Beer:
To preserve the integrity of your beer, one option is to use malt extract or unfermented wort to bottle your beer. The most economical method is to use unfermented wort (called gyle), a process called kraeusening. True kraeusening actually involves adding freshly fermenting wort into a finished beer. This method is more time consuming but the carbonation period is significantly less. You will find the following method is easier and very effective.
A simple method of kraeusening is to thoroughly clean a Mason jar or large beer bottle and fill with hot tap water as your wort reaches the end of the boil. Just prior to adding the finishing hops transfer the needed amount of the boiling wort to the jar or bottle (empty the hot water first) and cap immediately. Let the wort cool to less than 90°F and then refrigerate until your batch is ready for bottling. At bottling time, boil the saved wort for 10 minutes and chill, and then add to the fermented beer and bottle. It is important to use the proper amount of gyle for the particular beer you are priming.
5. Head Retention:
There are many reasons why your beer may not have a rich, creamy head when you pour it. The first thing to do is check your glass. If the glasses you are using haven't been rinsed properly, soap residue will break down the bubbles instantly, resulting in a very unimpressive beer. The next thing to check is your carbonation: if bubbles are flowing steadily from the bottom of your glass, this is not your problem.
Certain proteins develop during the mashing process that will inhibit heading in any beer. There are many ways to battle these proteins, but this may not be enough. If you simply can't get a good head, it may be time to take the offensive. Your Homebrew store stocks a variety of artificial heading agents, but you can maintain the purity of your recipe and get a boost in head retention by using wheat malt. When used at a ratio of about 5 percent of the total recipe, it will not alter your flavor profile significantly. Torrified wheat, basically unmalted puffed wheat, is harder to find, but does not affect your original gravity when used in amounts similar to that of malted wheat, above.
6. Carbonation Levels:
Just as each style of beer has its own balance of hops and maltiness, so the appropriate level of carbonation varies from beer to beer. British ales should be less carbonated than lagers or wheat beers. The accompanying table shows typical carbonation levels for various styles of beer. Exact values are a matter of personal preference, but you can see that a good starting point for a homebrew is 2.4 volumes CO2.
Beer Style Volumes CO2
British-Style Ales 1.5 - 2.0
Porter, Stout 1.7 - 2.3
Belgian Ales 1.9 - 2.4
European Lagers 2.2 - 2.7
American Ales & Lagers 2.2 - 2.7
Lambic 2.4 - 2.8
Fruit Lambic 3.0 - 4.5
German Wheat Beer 3.3 - 4.5
7. Conversion & Extraction Rate:
When all-grain brewing, you're going to want to check a couple of things. First is conversion. To do this, place a sample of your mash water onto a white plate. Place a drop of iodine in the sample. If the color of the iodine stays the same, conversion is complete. If the color turns to a dark blue or black, starches are still present and conversion is not complete.
Second, you'll want to check your extraction rate. To do this, first take a hydrometer reading of your wort. Then apply this formula:
(Gravity - 1) x 1000 x Gallons Of Wort = Points Per Pound
Pounds Of Grain...................
Example:
Gravity reading: 1.044
.044 x 1000 x 6 gallons = 264
264 ÷ 8.2 pounds of grain = 32.19 points per pound
Your extraction rate should be around 30, but anything above 28 is acceptable.
8. Converting All-Grain to Extract & Vice Versa:
It is fairly simple to convert recipes from all-grain to extract and vice versa. It is not an exact science for an extract formula but it will put you in the ballpark.
Below is a listing of conversions to go both ways.
a. All-Grain to Extract:
Amount of pale malt x .8125 = amount of liquid malt extract
(example: 8 lbs. pale malt x .8125 = 6.5 lbs. liquid malt extract)
Amount of pale malt x .6875 - amount of dry malt extract (DME)
(example: 8 lbs. pale malt x .6875 = 5.5 lbs. dry malt extract)
Amount of wheat malt x .937 = amount of liquid wheat malt extract
(example: 6.5 lbs. wheat malt x .937 = 6.1 lbs. liquid malt extract)
b. Extract to All-Grain:
Amount of liquid malt extract x 1.23 - amount of pale malt
(example: 6.6 lbs. liquid malt extract x 1.23 = 8.1 lbs. pale malt)
Amount of dry malt extract x 1.45 - amount of pale malt
(example: 5 lbs. dry malt extract x 1.45 = 7.25 lbs. pale malt)
Amount of liquid wheat extract x 1.07 - amount of wheat malt
(example: 6.6 lbs. wheat extract x 1.07 = 7 lbs. wheat malt)
More information on yeast and starters...
Pour the remaining yeast from your primary fermenter into a clean, sanitized quart mason jar, or equivalent. Cover with tin foil or saran wrap and a rubber band, lid, lid+airlock, or otherwise, label with type of yeast, date, and usage number. Most yeast cultures can be reused 5 times. That is a big savings!
When you are ready to make a starter, boil 1 quart of water (add extra water to account for evaporation), add 1 cup of DME (light, amber, etc), boil for 15-20 minutes, and if you have any yeast energizer, add the amount stated on the package in the last 5 minutes. Cool down to 80F or less. Mix this along with the yeast slurry from the mason jar (this will probably require 2 jars now) OR you can mix it with a fresh smack pack or vial. Allow to sit at room temperature (DO NOT refrigerate) for 2-5 days, which allows the yeast to colonize and grow, wakes it up, makes it healthier, and starts your fermentation faster.
A quick note about using DME in your starter. If you are making a pale, it makes sense to use light DME, an amber should use amber DME, and so forth. Does this mean you cannot use wheat DME in a pale? You certainly can, it just doesn't make much sense to. You can also add some wort if you like, but I never do.
When collecting the yeast cake at the bottom of the fermenter, simply turn it over and pour it out. You want to get as much of the yeast from the bucket or carboy as you can. If you collect 1-2 jars, that is perfect. Sometimes I can only get half a jar. I have been known to pour a cup of water into the fermenter, swish it around, and collect the remaining yeast.
You will want one quart per 5 gallons of beer. If you are making a high gravity beer (1.065) or larger, it is a good idea to make a double starter, 2 quarts (half gallon) worth.
You CAN pitch less than a quart, but the idea is to maximize your yeast and get the most cells possible. Can you use MORE than a quart for lower gravity? Absolutely! You can pitch half a gallon if you want. But remember, there are only so many fermentable sugars in your wort. You may not benefit at all from pitching lots of extra yeast.
Many of my yeast jars are only 1/8 to 1/2 full, so I will usually take out 2 in order to get maximum yeast. Along with the DME I boiled, I can get 1 to 2 quarts. Don't worry about having tons of extra yeast. Whether you end up with a starter of 1 quart or 3, you can pitch them all. Just one quart is really all you need for low gravity beers.
Most sealed mason jars of yeast will last AT LEAST one month in the fridge. I have kept reused yeast that was 4 months old, and as much as 6 months. Be wary, they won't last forever! Several of the cultures I made starters for and repitched were fine. I just took out a jar from June 2006, opened it, and got hit with some strong, rubbery, sharp odors. BAD YEAST! It is best reused in 1 to 2 months. You certainly can go longer, but don't push it.
After the yeast has been in the fridge for a month or so, you really should feed it. Take the jar out, add a little bit of yeast nutrient (the package should tell you how much to add), let it sit at room temperature a couple of days, and store it back in the fridge.
IF YOU ARE EVER IN DOUBT ABOUT YOUR YEAST, THROW IT OUT! I had used some out that had a slight off aroma, but there were no horrible tones coming off, so I used it. However, if it just doesn't seem right, get rid of it! There is no sense in wasting good beer on bad yeast!
It is very important to always label the mason jar, fermenter, and anything else with the type of yeast and usage you are on. Don't rely on memory. Once you hit 5 (6 at the most) generations, get rid of it.
You can keep reusing yeast for dozens of generations if you acid wash it. However, this requires using phosphoric acid with the right water pH, using bodily protection, and using soon after washing. Since not many people I have talked to use the same culture within 1-2 weeks, and existing cultures can last months, not many brewers wash their yeast. It is still something that is good to know.
What is the reason for washing it? The more uses you get from yeast, the rounded cells clump together more and more. The problem is, when they clump together, only certain sides of the cell are exposed to the wort, leaving a good portion unused. By acid washing, they loosen up and more walls of each cell are accessible.
As always, clean and sanitize all of your equipment during use. This is by far most the critical step. You don't need to sterilize or have a hospital grade clean room, but you do need to pay careful attention.