TimpanogosSlim
Well-Known Member
Last saturday i treated myself to a bottle of Hazelnut Brown Nectar. $7 in Utah - just doing my part to fund public schools.
After i finished pouring it into my glass, i poured in some warm pre-boiled water, swished it around, and dumped it into a sanitized 500ml erlenmeyer flask. I topped it up to the 500ml mark with more warm pre-boiled water, and then just sort of poured in DME until the color looked right. Added a sanitized stir bar, and stuck a sanitized drilled stopper w/ sanitized airlock containing vodka in the mouth.
Put it on my super nifty solid state stir plate, adjusted until it was silent, and left it there until last night.
Fermentation was apparent within hours. By the next morning there was a cone of bubbles swirling and regular airlock activity.
Last night it appeared that fermentation was complete so i turned off the stir plate and put the flask in the fridge.
Just now i took it back out of the fridge, used a magnet to manipulate the stir bar to free up the sediment around the water line, then pulled off the airlock, used the magnet to draw out the stir bar, installed a sanitized stopper, dropped stir bar in bucket of sanitizer, then shook the flask until all of the sediment was in solution again (including the stuff that was stuck to the walls).
My dastardly plan is to make a 5.5g batch of hazelnut brown using yeast cultured from that one bottle. Tomorrow or sunday.
I looked around and could not find anyone saying whether they expected that the sediment in the RHBN bottle is Pacman or just a bottling yeast, so here's hoping it's pacman.
Using an all-grain recipe found here, brewtarget estimates the OG at 1.062.
Clearly I will need more yeast than is found in my little 500ml flask.
So, based on my vague interpretations of building yeast starters gleaned through the help of various google services, here's my plan:
Wait for yeast to precipitate back out of the solution in the 500ml flask, decant off the liquid.
Mix 800ml of 1.040 wort from boiling water and DME. 800ml is the maximum stir capacity of my little stir plate. Don't knock it - it's dead silent and it was a gift.
After carefully sanitizing the various involved surfaces with starsan, pour some of this mixture into the 500ml flask, swish to collect yeast sediment, and then add that and the rest of the wort to my 1000ml flask w/ vented screw-top closure.
Add sanitized stir bar, put on stir plate in warm place until brew day.
On brew day, turn off stir plate, add another 200ml of wort, close vent, shake up, reopen vent, leave in warm place until pitching time.
Does this sound sane? Am i destined for failure? My backup plan if i get a stuck ferment is to re-pitch with nottingham i already have on hand (my nearest LBS is 40 miles away - close to work but not to home).
After i finished pouring it into my glass, i poured in some warm pre-boiled water, swished it around, and dumped it into a sanitized 500ml erlenmeyer flask. I topped it up to the 500ml mark with more warm pre-boiled water, and then just sort of poured in DME until the color looked right. Added a sanitized stir bar, and stuck a sanitized drilled stopper w/ sanitized airlock containing vodka in the mouth.
Put it on my super nifty solid state stir plate, adjusted until it was silent, and left it there until last night.
Fermentation was apparent within hours. By the next morning there was a cone of bubbles swirling and regular airlock activity.
Last night it appeared that fermentation was complete so i turned off the stir plate and put the flask in the fridge.
Just now i took it back out of the fridge, used a magnet to manipulate the stir bar to free up the sediment around the water line, then pulled off the airlock, used the magnet to draw out the stir bar, installed a sanitized stopper, dropped stir bar in bucket of sanitizer, then shook the flask until all of the sediment was in solution again (including the stuff that was stuck to the walls).
My dastardly plan is to make a 5.5g batch of hazelnut brown using yeast cultured from that one bottle. Tomorrow or sunday.
I looked around and could not find anyone saying whether they expected that the sediment in the RHBN bottle is Pacman or just a bottling yeast, so here's hoping it's pacman.
Using an all-grain recipe found here, brewtarget estimates the OG at 1.062.
Clearly I will need more yeast than is found in my little 500ml flask.
So, based on my vague interpretations of building yeast starters gleaned through the help of various google services, here's my plan:
Wait for yeast to precipitate back out of the solution in the 500ml flask, decant off the liquid.
Mix 800ml of 1.040 wort from boiling water and DME. 800ml is the maximum stir capacity of my little stir plate. Don't knock it - it's dead silent and it was a gift.
After carefully sanitizing the various involved surfaces with starsan, pour some of this mixture into the 500ml flask, swish to collect yeast sediment, and then add that and the rest of the wort to my 1000ml flask w/ vented screw-top closure.
Add sanitized stir bar, put on stir plate in warm place until brew day.
On brew day, turn off stir plate, add another 200ml of wort, close vent, shake up, reopen vent, leave in warm place until pitching time.
Does this sound sane? Am i destined for failure? My backup plan if i get a stuck ferment is to re-pitch with nottingham i already have on hand (my nearest LBS is 40 miles away - close to work but not to home).