Yeast

[nordic man]

Hi all,

I'm brewing with liquid yeast for the first time, and have been storing it the fridge. Thing is, that it is gone compact in the bottom, and very liquidy on top, is it still ok or could it be gone if it has ben too warm too long?

[Dr Jacoby]

Yeast always flocculates (clumps together) at low temperatures. I'd be more worried if there wasn't some separation happening.

Let it rise to room temp and give it a good shake to mix it all together again prior to pitching. Are you planning to use a starter?

[nordic man]

no, don't have that planned, brewin a double IPA, first BIAB brew!! 

[Dr Jacoby]

If you're planning to use just one vial, I'd strongly recommend a starter. DIPA's are big beers that require lots of healthy yeast to make sure you get a good attenuation and a nice clean finish (to let the hops shine).

Try using the Mr Malty yeast pitch calculator.

[Alex Lawes]

Hi Nordic Man,

I have to go with Dr Jacoby on that too and warn that your beer at that strength won't be as nice as you can make it.

Those vials start with about 100 billion cells and are generally only for direct pitches to a beer of around 1.040 or less, at a volume of around 19L

I can't recommend a starter enough.

If you can't use a stir plate try to just make a stationary starter and give her a good shake every few hours to increase bio-mass.

If you just go straight in you'll stress the yeast to the point of creating some nasty alcohol flavours that won't mellow out before the hops are a distant memory.

[DEMPSEY]

+1 on what is said here.

[nordic man]

Thanks for good advice!

I think I'll try to make a starter. Another new adventure:-)

OG is around 1092, so say the book here, so guess I should make one...

how do I make a stationary starter?

[Alex Lawes]

How much sauce are you making and what's the date on the yeast vial?

[Dr Jacoby]

There are various ways. Here's what I do. Get yourself some dry malt extract (DME). For a 1 litre starter, add 100 grams of DME to 1 litre of water and boil for 10 minutes. This will yield wort with a gravity of roughly 1.040, which is an ideal density for growing yeast (the point of a starter is not to produce alcohol, it is to grow yeast). This ratio of 10 parts water to 1 part DME can be scaled for any starter size. It will always produce a medium strength wort.

Next, cool your starter volume to pitching temperater (say, 20C), pitch your vial of yeast (also at 20C) into the starter and give it all a good shake. Try to keep the starter at roughly 20C for 24-48 hours. Shake it as often as possible to keep the yeast in suspension.

On brew day,  when you are ready to pitch your yeast, you can either chuck the whole starter in or let it settle and decant off the liquid and pitch just the yeast sludge. That's pretty much it.

For the perfectionists out there, you could add yeast nutrient when you boil the starter wort and build yourself a stir plate to keep the yeast in suspension throughout the growth phase. In any case, using a starter will give you better results that using a vial alone.

[nordic man]

I'm making 22 liter, and the date is best before 10. of July. It's a WLP007.

[Alex Lawes]

Yeah looking at this now and it says you'd need in the region of 4L without a stir plate.
Why not use your vial for a medium sized brew and then pitch the slurry into your double IPA when that's done? Means you can avoid the starter just for the moment too.

[nordic man]

mr malty say I should have 3,2 vials... I don't have that, hmm, what to do..... No DME either.

[nordic man]

someone around Clonakilty with some DME ?? 

[Alex Lawes]

Do a nice session beer with your yeast right now. Something around 1.036 so as not to stress or kill the yeast.
When you siphon the beer off keep the yeast cake and pitch that into that big lovely DIPA.

[nordic man]

Well, the grain has been in the "mashtun" (my pot) for about an hour. There are about 23 liters of water in there, guess around 13 left when I take out the grain. Should I take some of that wort and boil it for 10 minutes and chill it and put my yeast in that?