Recent content by ThePearsonFam

Awesome. Looking forward to hearing how it goes. Good luck!

he's on a roll

yup, that's kinda where I was going w/ my peace of mind comment. it's tough to tell from a photo. another option would be to bring it to a club or lhbs for their assessment.

Concur... They look fine, but... It's your beer. If you are worried at all, then just buy some new yeast. Put your mind at ease and drop the extra $10 for a couple vials. Otherwise you'll wonder the whole time and certainly stress more than you need to. That being said, I'd brew with it.

check here to see in any are close... http://www.beerinfo.com/index.php/pages/homebrewclubNJ.html

way cool... Good luck. Do you have a brew club you belong to? Sometimes they are great resources for watching an AG brew before attempting it for yourself.

As previously stated, if there's a krausen, then it's fermenting. Be prepared for the barrage of "airlock/blow-off activity is not a sign of fermentations" posts... As long as the yeast didn't smell 'off' before it was pitched, then you'll be fine.

I would bottle condition for a couple months but I am assuming the beer is done fermenting. The only way to know for sure is to take your hydrometer readings.

Yes, I'd just use something like Hopville.com to determine the IBUs from the original recipe and then tinker with it to get it where you want it. Something else that's been addressed here is the convention for stating hop additions. The norm is to state the hop addition in time in the...

Yeah, you'll be fine pouring it in (after boiling to sanitize and chilling). If you can, pour into a funnel with a tube that gets it below the wort's surface (in the fermenter). Don't forget to sanitize everything.

Yup, sure can. Just boil enough water to dissolve it and then boil the solution for ~ 10 minutes to sanitize. Chill it down and pour it in. Try not to splash in order to prevent oxygen from getting in. Has it already started fermenting? What's the style?

More malt will up the abv and reduce the ibus, but it will take longer to ferment and age. I can't assess the difference here since I'm on my phone though. I'd reduce the hops instead of increase the malt if you want a quicker turnaround.

In an effort to specifically answer your question; 1) yes, it is possible to over-pitch 2) as previously stated, short of counting yeast cells, the average home brewer has the Mr. Malty yeast calculator or other calculators available online/in brewing software. 3) over-pitching can result...

Especially with a Kolsch yeast that is 'lager-like' in its flavor profile. Overpitching is probably less of a factor in that case. Just know that there won't be much of an ale profile to it. This is an educated guess on my part though since I've never done this...

No, but the lagering is typically done at colder temps that help the yeast and others stuff drop out.