PeatReek

Recipes 

My next project is an old ale, and I have one bottle remaining of my favorite example brew (bottle conditioned -- looks like a huge layer of yeast on the bottom too; score!). From some previous posts in this forum, I have a pretty decent idea of what to do, but what's an approximate schedule?

I'm assuming I'll have to go through at least a mini-starter with the < 1gm of yeast currently in the bottle, and then re-pitch THAT to get up close to the amount I'll need for 5 gallons. If I'm planning to brew just before christmas, is it already too late?

ajf

Recipes 

I used to use the sediment from Worthington White Shield. (A naturally conditioned English Pale Ale.) I decanted the beer, filled the bottle 1/2 to 2/3 full of cooled wort, and added an air-lock. Then I drank the decanted beer. Within 5 - 7 days, the starter was ready to use and I never had to wait for more than 24 hours after pitching before the brew was fermenting nicely.

You seem to have more yeast than I ever had, and I brewed in 6 Imperial Gallon batches (7.5 American gallons.)

If I were to brew a lager, I would probably use a higher pitching rate, but for ales, it always worked for me.

-a.

PeatReek

Recipes 

Huh, so you only do a 1-stage thing, not a re-pitch into a bigger starter before the main tank? Hmm... thanks for the info.

ajf

Recipes 

That's right. In those days (1970's), homebrewers didn't know much about pitching rates; but we still made good beer. If we hadn't, the homebrew industry would have died.

In actual fact, my pitching rate was considerably higher than you would get nowadays by using Wyeast without a starter (which many people do).

In The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Papazian states that pitching from a bottle containing 16 to 20 oz of fermenting wort has produced excellent results. That is not much more wort than I used to use.

In your case, you have plenty of time to do three or four stages to increase the pitching rate, and to far exceed the pitching rate mentioned by Papazian.

-a.