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Yeast Washing 101

Yeast washing is a simple, yet useful procedure that will allow you to harvest, store, and re-use yeast from your own yeast bank for pennies per brew session. Please review how to make a starter and why a stir plate to help you best re-activate your yeast after cold storage.

SANITATION: You must sanitize everything in this process! Storing yeast successfully is fully dependent on keeping the samples pure.

YEAST STOCK: You will harvest the yeast that you are about to wash and store from a recently (same day) emptied fermenter. This yeast cake or slurry will be the basis for all that you are about to do. This is the yeast that will go on to propagate new colonies in future brews. See Fig 1

Fig 1.

HARVESTING: After racking the fermented beer from atop a yeast cake, there will generally be some liquid left along with the yeast cake. Swirl this around and loosen the yeast cake so that you can pour the slurry (sometimes chunks) of yeast into a sanitized flask or 1 gal. carboy. You want plenty of spare volume. Your yeast slurry will be full of trub, some break material, and hop particles. Currently, it is probably looking VERY thick and has no defined layers, though we are about to fix this! Fig 2

Fig 2.

WASH: You will want to have about a half gallon (ample amounts) of boiled and cooled water on hand (so we don’t cook the yeast). In your flask or carboy use enough of this water to double or triple the volume of the slurry that you currently have. Give it a few swirls to mix all of the contents (slurry and water) together. Cover with sanitized foil. See Fig 3

Fig 3.

WAIT: Given as little as 15-20 minutes to sit, you will be able to see some drastic stratification in your slurry. The heavier particles, trub, and break material will settle out quite quickly, leaving a dark layer with progressively lighter layers above it. Atop these dark layers you will have a creamy layer of liquid. This is what you want, water and yeast in suspension. See Fig 4

Fig 4.

SEPARATION: You will want to have several sanitized jars available to decant this creamy, yeast filled liquid into. Pour the creamy liquid containing the suspended yeast off of the sediment and into as many jars as it takes to hold it. Now you will have 2-4 jars full of this creamy looking liquid that you will place sanitized lids on, and then place into the refrigerator. See Fig 5. After some time has passed in the fridge you will see that the liquid is now much clearer and there is a nice bright layer of clean yeast at the bottom of each jar. See  Fig 6

Fig 5.

Fig 6.

STORING: If your sanitation practices are good, you can store this yeast for months. The yeast should remain in these jars, sealed and refrigerated, until you are ready to make a yeast starter to awaken them. It would also be a good idea to mark these jars with the yeast name, the date, and R1, for “reuse #1”, This way you can keep track of how many times you have re-used this yeast. See Fig 7. Typically after repeated uses the yeast will begin to mutate and its characteristics may change to a degree. You can typically feel confident re-using yeast 4-5 times before degradation is detected.

Fig 7.

RE-USING: When you would like to re-use this strain of yeast, simply allow a single jar of washed yeast to gradually warm to room temperature, decant the liquid and pitch the washed slurry from the bottom of the jar into some new starter wort. See how to make a yeast starter HERE.

IMPORTANT NOTES:

1. You can NEVER be too careful with sanitation when it comes to yeast washing/storing.
2. Do use a large clear glass container (large flask or 1 gal. carboy) for the HARVESTING and WASH steps in the process.
3. Ball or Mason jars make excellent containers for the WAIT and STORAGE steps in the process.
4. Be sure to sanitize the jar lids before securing them and storing your yeast.
5. Mark your jars with the yeast name, the date and the reuse/generation number (R1, R2,…) and so on to keep track of how many times you have washed this yeast and re-used it.

Update 11/12/2011: Check out the article on Bad Batches to see why you might want to avoid re-pitching yeast, or if you do so, make sure to understand the risks involved.

Posted in Yeast Cultures | 32 Comments »

Malt Conditioning

I find that the longer I brew, the more involved I become in the process and the mechanics of every detail. Learning new techniques and testing them on your own is part of the joy of having a hobby as vast as home brewing. Some new processes or techniques offer little advantage, and thus are disregarded. However, some techniques require so little effort and provide such a noticeable difference that they become standard. For me, malt conditioning is one such technique.

Malt conditioning is a very simple process which consists of adding a very small amount of water to your grain bill prior to milling. The addition of water to your un-crushed malt results in more resilient grain husks. The husks take on a more “leathery” feeling. They are less dry and brittle, which means that they will remain much more intact during the milling process.

Why would a brewer care to leave their grain husks more intact during the milling process? There are several reasons that would lead one to consider malt conditioning:

• Pulverized husks can lead to tanning astringency in beer
• Intact husks will create a more free flowing grain bed (fewer stuck sparges)
• You can crush finer to increase conversion efficiency without shredding husks

Items you will need:

• Atomizer bottle (for misting the malt)
• Scale, preferably digital (to accurately measure the water you are about to add)
• Large spoon or paddle (to thoroughly mix the malt)
• Malt
• Grain mill

The amount of water that you are about to add to your malt is VERY important. If you do not add enough water, the husks will not absorb enough and will remain brittle. If you add too much water, you will potentially moisten the kernel, thus affecting your crush and perhaps causing gumming of your mill rollers. No worries, this technique is EASY.

You will want to add 2% of the weight of the malt bill, in water, to the grain. For example, if you have a 10 pound grain bill, which is 160 ounces, multiply this by .02 (2%) and your result will be 3.2 ounces. This is the WEIGHT of water that you will want to add to your grain bill for conditioning. By doing so, you will thoroughly wet the grain husks, but you will not create a sticky mess in your rollers.

Malt conditioning is easy. A few simple steps and you will be on your way:

1) Weigh the atomizer bottle of water
2) Mist the surface of the grain, and stir
3) Weigh the atomizer bottle again
4) Mist the surface of the grain and stir
5) Repeat until you have added the calculated weight of water to your grain
6) When complete, allow 10 minutes for the husks to absorb this water

As you add water to the grain, it will become more difficult to stir. You may find it easier to add the water to half the malt, or a third of the malt, at a time. When milling, there is no need to change your mill setting, unless you are also wishing to do so. This process will NOT affect the crush of the grain itself, only the condition of the husk material after milling.

If by chance you notice grain sticking to your rollers after milling, you can simply run a handful of dry malt through the rollers to clean them. Also, this could be a sign that too much water may have been added to the malt. You can adjust the water proportions accordingly for your process. Feel free to experiment with 2%, 1.5%, etc,. I have had excellent results, though, using the 2% rule.

Please note that just because this process will allow you to mill your grain finer without shredding the husks, it is not advisable to crush too fine. There will come a point where you will produce too much flour and no amount of husk material will protect you from a stuck sparge.

Below are a series of malt conditioning comparison photos, the results are astounding! The setting on my Barley Crusher for the test was .035”.

NON conditioned malt on the left, conditioned malt on the right.

Closeup of conditioned malt:

Closeup of NON conditioned malt:

I have to give credit to Kaiser over at www.HomebrewTalk.com, who also has his own website www.BrauKaiser.com. His website and informative posts within the online brewing forums have been instrumental in educating me on this process.

Posted in Brewing | 2 Comments »

StirStarter Equipment Review

An essential tool in the home brewer’s kit is a stir plate. Using a stir plate with a yeast starter boosts yeast cell counts dramatically*. This leads to healthier fermentation, and thus better beer! I recall using a stir plate in chemistry lab. In that case it was a hot plate and stir plate combined. When I looked these up online, I found they were quite expensive (excess of $100).  Thankfully the StirStarter exists and fills this need for brewers perfectly at a much more affordable price. https://www.stirstarters.com/.

The stir starter comes complete with everything you need. It measures 4”x6” which is fine for up to a 1 gallon vessel. Any Erlenmeyer flask for yeast starters would fit comfortably on StirStarter.

It includes a rubber mat for the top so the flask grips the surface nicely.

Stir bar, catch magnet, instructions, and power supply (not pictured) are also included.

Using the StirStarter is simple. A yeast starter is prepared as normal. A sanitized magnetic stir bar is dropped into the flask containing the yeast starter. The stir bar is then centered in the bottom of the flask with a catch magnet (kept on hand). The flask is then set down on top of the stir plate. Gently the spin speed is increased to a steady rate. A whirlpool effect is not needed. If the dial is set too high the magnet can get spun off center. The spinning stir bar continuously mixes the contents of the flask. This increases the surface area potential of the yeast, leading to more yeast activity.

Some other notes about Dan at StirStarter. He ships fast, my package got here within three days. There is also a lifetime guarantee on the product. That is hard to beat.

In case you are thinking about building one yourself, here is the inside of the unit:

There are a few things going on in there involving electronics that have to be correct. One is the power level for the fan, the other is the wiring for the speed switch. The StirStarter website provides instructions on how to build your own. After just a couple seconds of reading, I realized building my own would be trouble. It would take me several trips to the electronics store and the better part of a weekend to build my own.  At the low price of the StirStarter, there is not much savings potential over buying a StirStarter worry fee built by a pro.

This site will feature an upcoming article about yeast washing, which explains saving and recycling yeast over and over again.

* According to MB Raines’ article about yeast starters, stirred yeast starters can get as much as ten times the amount of active yeast compared to a standard shaken yeast starter. According to the brewersfriend.com article on stir plates, it may be closer to a 100% increase.

StirStarter was kind enough to hook me up with a StirStarter for writing this post.

Posted in Equipment, Yeast Cultures | 5 Comments »

Beer Style Guidelines – What kind of beer is this?

Beer style guidelines are as numerous as the types of beers that you will find around the world. In fact there are different types of beer styles… styles of beer styles if you will. One organization that produces beer style guidelines is the Beer Judging and Certification Program (BJCP). They have a long list of beer style guidelines. Another organization that created beer style guidelines is the American Homebrewing Association (AHA), who publishes even MORE styles than the BJCP. Both offer copious amounts of information pertaining to any beer style that you can imagine.

For the home brewer, learning the details of the beer style guidelines is a natural progression. One of the first things I learned was the difference between ales and lagers. This was quite a fascinating discovery and fueled my curiosity and need for more brewing equipment. From there, I went on to explore the categories and branch out into brewing different styles. I have not tried the Rauchbier (smoked beer) category yet, nor the sour ales or lambics, but there is always something new to try! At this point, when brewing for personal use or a party, what really matters is having fun.

Home brewers should begin to consider guidelines more closely when crafting their own recipes. When it comes to entering beer into a competition, the guidelines must be given careful attention. For most competitions, the judges will be comparing your beer against the standards set forth for the category. One path to becoming a master taster is to become a BJCP certified judge. The best way to start is to join your local home brew club and inquire.

BCJP currently has approximately 70 styles of beer, plus a handful of classifications for meads and ciders. AHA has over 120 styles and gets very intricate with subtle differences between categories.

BCJP guidelines include descriptions of: Aroma (smell), Appearance, Flavor, Mouthfeel, Overall Impression, History, Comments, Ingredients, Vital Statistics (OG, FG, IBU, SRM, ABV). Commercial examples are also provided. I found these useful when I wanted to try a commercial variety.
The following websites will guide you to both BJCP and AHA beer styles. Cheers!

AHA Website: https://www.beertown.org/
AHA Guidelines: https://www.beertown.org/education/pdf/BA_Beer_Style_2009.pdf

BJCP Website: https://www.bjcp.org/
BJCP PDF Guidelines: https://www.bjcp.org/stylecenter.php (available in web or PDF format)

Posted in Beer Styles | No Comments »

Beer Head Retention

Beer head formation and retention can tell you more about your brewing process than you could have imagined, as you will soon see. Shortfalls in your brewing practices can be robbing you of that long lasting head that you are seeking on your favorite pint.

So, what makes beer foam?

LTP1 is a low molecular weight compound and is the primary substance in your beer needed for head formation. It has been shown that during the wort boil this compound is denatured and converted from an inactive form to a form that will actively make good foam in your beer.

Protein Z is an albumin, which means that it is soluble in water and coaguable by heat. This compound has a higher molecular weight than its partner, LTP1, and is the primary substance in your beer needed for head stabilization, or retention.

From what we have discussed, you may think that simply adding malts high in protein, such as wheat malt, are the answer to creating and retaining more foam. I have read this in the past, tried this, and have had no success, because it is almost certain that the malt bills that I used at the time were overflowing with enough proteins to create and retain beer foam.  One thing that might help for certain recipes is adding 1/2 pound of flaked wheat to the mash (or steep for extract brewers). Extract brewers in general may struggle with head retention depending on the age and quality of their extract. This is one more reason for extract brewers to take the plunge into all grain brewing.

So, where is the foam?

ANSWER: Foam destroying compounds that exist in your beer, bottles, kegs or glasses are robbing you of the foam that you strive to create. This is where the lack of foam, or lack of foam stability, can indicate flaws in your brewing process. Here are some examples:

• High alcohols (fusel oils from high fermentation temperatures, under pitching)
• Low carbonation levels (bubbles drag these proteins to the surface, causing more bubbles, more foam)
• Shaking kegs during carbonation (causing your beer to foam can use up these foam producing compounds before the beer ever meets the glass)
• Fat (soap scum or other fats occupy space on the surface of the beer, reducing foam)
• Protease production from stressed yeast (under pitching or under aerated, high gravity fermentation)

Good brewing practices are essential for good foam formation and foam stability. Here are some things to keep in mind when exploring how to improve beer foam creation and stability:

• Fermentation temperature must be proper for strain used (Belgian and German strains can tolerate more heat typically, others not so much)
• Vigorous boils are necessary to denature LTP1, so that it becomes an active foam producer
• Use the proper yeast pitching rate for your volume, OG and beer style (lager vs. ale)
• Make sure you have proper carbonation levels
• Proper water chemistry – see the brewer’s friend water chemistry calculator
• Clean all glassware (carboys and glassware)
• Adequately aerate the wort prior to fermentation
• Avoid the use of chilies, cocoa or any other food that contains fats or oils
• Do not shake your kegs to speed carbonation

You can easily determine if your beer is lacking foam forming compounds (ProteinZ or LTP1) or if you have too many foam killers such as the ones listed above. Here is a simple test:

• First, shake the problematic beer you are about to test
• Pour the beer into tall, clear and CLEAN glass
• Observe the amount of foam

If the shaking and the pouring has created foam, then your beer most certainly has all of the protein Z and LTP1 needed to create beer foam. If this is the case, your brewing processes may require some refinement as stated in the factors above. Your beer probably has some foam killers lurking in it that will not allow for a long lasting head.

If, however, the shaking and pouring do NOT produce foam, you may wish to experiment with the addition of malts that are high in proteins, such as wheat malt. A lack of foam after shaking almost certainly points to a lack of foam producers.

There are numerous factors that come into play when discussing beer foam formation and stability. Many studies have been completed, many resources written, and this article is by no means a complete resource on how brewing processes and chemistry affect this facet of beer production. This is, however, a very eye opening look at how good brewing practices can affect the production and stability of that sometimes elusive foam! The importance of solid brewing practices cannot be overstated.

For more resources on beer foam and stability:
https://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/747-head-games

https://www.byo.com/stories/article/indices/35-head-retention/625-fabulous-foam

Posted in Brewing | 5 Comments »

Yest Review SafLager W-34/70 Dry

An excellent property of dry brewing yeast is that they have a very high cell count, they store well (years) and the yeast are packed with nutrient reserves which allow for fast starts. When brewing lagers, the vast majority of yeast strains are liquid yeast strains, requiring large starters for lager beers. Liquid yeasts contain a much lower cell count and lack the nutrient reserves that the dried yeast strains hold. For this reason it is nice that there are a few dried lager yeasts available to home brewers. Here is a review of Saflager W-34/70, a very popular (worldwide) German lager yeast strain.

• Starter recommended?: YES and NO **see commentary below.
• Starter size (for 5 gallons): 3L
• Starter OG: 1.040 – 1.050
• Starter incubation time: 24-48 hours
• Blow off recommended?: NO
• Optimum fermentation temperature: 48F-59F
• Suggested ambient air temp during first 24 hours of fermentation: 53F
• Suggested ambient air temperature after 24 hours of fermentation: 53F
• Scent during fermentation: Sulfur
• Flavor profile: Very malty and clean, great for German lagers and pilsners, low diacetyl
• Flocculation: Medium
• Attenuation: 73%-77%

**Being that W-34/70 is a dry lager yeast, a yeast starter is not necessary under one condition… you pitch enough of the re hydrated dry yeast to properly inoculate the wort.  www.MrMalty.com contains a yeast pitching calculator which will guide you as to how much dry yeast you will have to pitch in your lager.

**A lager with an OG of approximately 1.050 will require (2) 11g dry yeast packets, OR a 3 liter starter. In this case I would prefer to pitch (2) packets of re hydrated yeast and forgo the starter, here is why. The dried yeast is ready to ferment, it is packed with nutrients, and while using (2) packets you will meet or slightly exceed the required yeast count for your wort. Even a 3 liter yeast starter, though still meeting the required yeast count for your wort, will have burned up much of the stored nutrient reserves that were in the dry yeast prior to creating the starter.

Pitching the re hydrated dry yeast will give you a faster start for this reason. Two packets of W-34/70 will cost you about $6.00, . If you prefer to create a starter while using W-34/70, see how to make a yeast starter at brewersfriend.com.

When pitching lager yeasts, there are two methods by which to do it, pitching warm or pitching cold. A warm pitch will take place at a temperature of 65-70F, then the temperature is slowly lowered to the ideal fermentation temperature of 48-59F. This is done by some brewers to accelerate the start of the fermentation and lessen the lag time, it will also require a slightly lower pitching rate for these reasons.  There are concerns however of off flavors being produced from the limited time at warm temperatures, but the yeast can clean this up with a diacetyl rest after primary fermentation.

Pitching cold is simply the process of pitching yeast at fermentation temperatures ranging from 48-59F. This will result in a slightly longer lag time and require a healthier yeast count to get fermentation started in a timely manner. This is preferred however by many lager brewers to avoid any possibility of off flavors that can be created during a warm pitch.

Considering the high quality of this yeast strain, the ease of use as a dry yeast and its popularity in brewing circles around the world, it is a must try both for the novice and advanced lager brewer. Buy (2) packets, rehydrate them and pitch straight into your wort.

The beer turned out very clean, slightly malty, it was a great example of a German Pils. I am enjoying it thoroughly after about 2 months of lagering. Enjoy!

Posted in Yeast Cultures | 1 Comment »

Randall Enamel Test For Even More Hoppiness in Your Beer

In recent years, craft brewers (especially in the Pacific Northwest) have tried to push the envelope on hop flavor in beers, from increasing the aroma and flavor hops to aggressively dry-hopping. For fans of that style, there is one more step that can be taken to add extra hop flavor to beer, and that is using the Randall.

The Randall sits between a pressurized keg of beer and the tap; the cylinder is filled with hops, and the finished beer is forced through the hops before being drawn from the tap. The alcohol in the beer strips the resins from the dried hops; the combination of pressure & alcohol essentially creates a “hop tea” with the beer. The final product has a unique hop flavor & aroma, as well as a distinct mouth-feel. Nicknamed the “Enamel Animal”, the Randall gives the beer a tremendous hop punch, as well as giving an odd sensation on the enamel of one’s teeth.

One charm of the Randall is that any beer can be used with any hop; not only does the Randall expose non-brewers to the role of hops, but home-brewers wanting to learn how a specific hop smells & tastes have no better resource.

The Randall has a few significant drawbacks that make it an exotic item. (I had to make a special appointment with the brewmaster at Hopworks Urban Brewery) As pointed out by Hopworks Brewmaster Christian Ettinger, the hops in the chamber provide a lot of nucleation sites for the dissolved CO2. In non-brewer speak, the beer is incredibly foamy coming off the tap.

As the beer flows through the hops, it compresses them, which means the hoses often can become clogged. And, since the Randall has a fitting to both the tap line and the keg line and runs pressurized beer, extra care needs to be taken in fitting all the components together. Rare is the Randall set-up that doesn’t leak.

Lastly, the hops in the Randall do need to be changed out after a few quarts. Given the price of hops to most home-brewers, unless you’re buying in bulk, or growing your own, it’s a costly treat.

Still, with all these downsides, is it worth it? If you are at this website, the answer is most certainly yes!  If you are a hophead, (if you love the smell & taste of hops), it’s the purest pleasure you can have.

Posted in Fun | 1 Comment »

The Four Brewing Seasons (1 of 4)

Each season has at least one beer style that it is known for, if not several. This is part one in a four part (season) series about these seasonal brews. Winter is quickly approaching, and has already placed some parts of the US and other countries in its grip, so there is no better time to discuss winter beer styles and share some recipes.

Winter beers are typically (not always) dark beers with relatively high levels of alcohol (ABV). These beers are not your typical summer quaffers that are made to satisfy a thirst, no, these ales and lagers are typically like a meal in a glass. Full bodied, robust, spiced (or not) and made to be sipped during the cold winter months while they warm you from the inside out. The spiced versions often utilize spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom and allspice.

All of this being said, you will find that winter ales and lagers come in all colors, spiced and un-spiced, heavy hitters with ABVs exceeding 10% ABV and lighter quaffers that will come in at or about 4% ABV. Here are a couple recipes, one from each genre.

Belgian White Winter Ale (5 gallons)

This ale is light in body, light in color and just plain refreshing. It is spiced with coriander and bitter orange peel (a famous combination), but also receives some of its spicy nature from the Wyeast 3944 and its phenolic character.

MALT BILL:
Belgian 2-Row 4.00 pounds
Belgian White Wheat 3.00 pounds
Flaked Oats 0.75 pounds
Carapils 0.50 pounds
Flaked White Wheat 0.50 pounds

Mash at 155F for 90 minutes

HOP BILL:
Hallertau .50 ounce 60 mintues 7.7 IBUs
Crystal .50 ounce 60 minutes 6.3 IBUs
Hallertau .50 ounce 5 minutes 1.5 IBUs
Crystal .50 ounce 5 minutes 1.3 IBUs

SPICES:
Bitter Orange Peel 2.00oz 15 minutes
Coriander Seed 1.50oz 5 minutes

YEAST:
Wyeast 3944

FERMENTATION:
Ferment at 68F for 3 weeks

RECIPE STATISTICS:
OG: 1.049
FG: 1.012
IBU: 16.8
SRM: 4.3
ABV: 4.86

Samichlaus Clone (5 gallons) (BYO 150 Classic Clones Edition)

This lager should be brewed in the spring if you hope to have it ready in time for winter sipping, and I do mean sipping. A heavy hitter with the grain bill of a 10 gallon brew, boiled down to 5 gallons and then inoculated with the yeast from a nearly 2 gallon starter… this is the definition of specialty beer.

MALT BILL:
Pilsner Malt 21.00 pounds
Vienna Malt 2.00 pounds
Carahell Dark Malt 1.50 pounds
Cane Sugar 2.00 pounds

Step mash to rest at:
104F for 15 minutes
122F for 15 minutes
140F for 15 minutes
158F for 45 minutes

Collect 13 gallons of wort and boil down to 5 gallons. Yes, collect 13 to achieve a final volume of 5 gallons! If you are using propane to boil, you will need to have a spare gas tank at the ready!

HOP BILL:
Northern Brewer 1.50 ounces 60 mintues 28.8 IBUs
Tettnang .50 ounce 15 minutes 2.3 IBUs
Hallertau .50 ounce 2 minutes .3 IBUs

SPICES:
Bitter Orange Peel 2.00oz 15 minutes
Coriander Seed 1.50oz 5 minutes

YEAST:
WLP 885 (7L starter!!!) The yeast must be treated well, and the size of the starter is not only to manage the high OG, but also to create a large enough cell count to overcome the cool fermentation temperatures of this lager. Remember to oxygenate your wort very well prior to pitching, your yeast will need all the help that they can get. See How to Make a Starter here at www.BrewersFriend.com

FERMENTATION:
Ferment at 52F for 30-45 days
Rack to secondary, add fresh yeast and allow temperature to rise to 60F, then lager for about 180 days at 38F

RECIPE STATISTICS:
OG: 1.139
FG: 1.034
IBU: 31.4
SRM: 15
ABV: 14%

Winter brews are typically specialty beers and therefore the style specifics are wide open. Try one of the above recipes the next time that you brew a winter lager or ale, or formulate something that fits your tastes. Who cares about style points here, brew what you like and offer your friends and family members something special when they arrive for winter visits.

Posted in Recipes | 3 Comments »

Holiday Spice Ale – Ready in a month

A lot of breweries sell a “winter beer” or “Christmas beer”, and they’re typically high-gravity, with complex flavors. Our brewing group wanted something that was exactly the opposite: a low-gravity, easy-to-drink beer that would complement our turkey with cranberry sauce. This is pretty similar to most “holiday spice beer” recipes you’ll find, with one nice difference. Most of those recipes call for cinnamon sticks to be ground and cloves to be crushed, and generally have you doing a lot of work to get your aroma & flavor right. We use allspice; it lets you get those cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg flavors & aromas without having to work at it. The other charm of this beer is its speed. Two weeks in the carboy, two weeks in the bottle, and it’s ready to go. It’s easy to drink, goes well with a meal, and makes a great gift.

Holiday Spice Ale (all grain)

Style: American Ale
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.013
ABV: 4.6%
IBU: 19
Volume: 5.5 gallons

Grain Bill:
5.5 lbs Pale Malt (adjust to suit your efficiency factor)
1 lb Belgian Aromatic
1 lb Honey Malt

Adjuncts:
1 lb Honey
1/8th pound Molasses

Hops:
Bittering Hops: 1.5 oz Fuggle (60 minutes)
Flavor Hops: .5 oz Fuggle (10 minutes)

Yeast: Wyeast 1028 London Ale

Extras: 2 tablespoons ground Allspice, added to the last 10 minutes of the boil.

Posted in Recipes | 15 Comments »

Stir Plates and Growing Brewing Yeast Quickly

Creating a simple yeast starter as outlined here at brewersfriend.com will greatly increase your yeast cell count, but there is a way to easily supercharge this process. By using a stir plate you will be able to grow nearly 100% more yeast cells using the same volume of starter in the same amount of time. Basically, for the same investment in yeast, time and starter liquid, you will be able to double your yeast production with a stir plate.

A stir plate is a simple machine consisting of a base which houses a motor with variable speed control. Fig 1. This motor is used to spin two precisely spaced magnets, which in turn will spin a magnetic stir bar inside your flask. The intent here is to use this stirring motion to:

1. Keep the yeast in suspension
2. Release CO2 from the starter solution
3. Continuously aerate the starter liquid

Fig 1.

There are several important guidelines to follow when utilizing a stir plate to create a starter:

1. Ideally, boil the starter wort in the flask that you will be using to create the starter, this will help to sanitize the flask.
2. DO NOT use an airlock on a stir plate starter as it will impede the ability of the stir plate to exchange CO2 from the fermentation for O2, which will help grow yeast.
3. DO use foil to cover the top of the flask instead of an airlock.
4. Ferment the starter at 75F – 80F. While not optimal for flavor production, you are trying to grow yeast, and warmer temperatures will accelerate this process.

By doing the above, you are creating the perfect growing environment for your yeast cells, allowing them to grow at a much greater rate than they would with the use of a simple starter with no stir plate. After the starter has fermented out completely (approx 24 hours), remove the starter from the stir plate and chill so that the yeast may settle. After a short period of time (several hours), the yeast will form a nice thick slurry in the bottom of the flask, allowing you decant the starter wort prior to pitching. Decanting is required since the wort has been oxidized and fermented at a higher temperature than is optimal for most yeasts (75F-80F recommended). Though this temperature is excellent for yeast growth, it does not leave a very favorable flavor in the starter liquid.

Our yeast pitching calculator makes choosing and hitting your desired pitch rate very simple.

Our calculator will allow you to enter all of the vital statistics about your wort so that it can properly calculate the number of yeast cells you will require, the required volume of your starter wort and the volume of yeast slurry that you must pitch to meet your ideal pitching rate.

Below is a side by side comparison of the number of yeast cells created in a 1.5L simple starter (no stir plate) and a 1.5L stir plate starter. The results may surprise you!

Starter volume: 1.5L
Amount of Yeast used in starter: (1) Liquid Smack Pack / Vial – 100B cells
Fermentation Time: 24 hours
Temperature: 75F (recommended to quickly grow yeast)

Using the above criteria, a simple starter will produce approximately:

182 billion yeast cells, pitch rate of 0.71 M cells / mL / °Plato (just below the pro recommended pitch rate)

Using the above criteria, a stir plate starter will produce approximately:

282 billion yeast cells, pitch rate of 1.09 M cells / mL / °Plato (a very healthy pitch rate)

As you can see from the above comparison, utilizing a stir plate you are able to increase by 100% the yeast growth with the same amount of starter wort while using the same amount of yeast pitched into said starter. Conversely, you can also create the same amount of yeast in a stir plate starter as you are able to with a simple starter, with nearly half the starter volume. The latter is of great interest to lager brewers who will routinely need to create very large starters to reach the proper pitching rate for their lager beers. Lagers will routinely require a 3L-4L stir plate starter. If you utilized a simple starter (no stir plate), you would be in the neighborhood of 6L to reach the proper pitching rate.

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