I purchase my supplies from morebeer.com with their free shipping option so it takes a week to get my order from CA. Last year I did a 5 gallon lager that used mainly Pilsner LME, calculated at 1.048 OG and 40 IBU. I cooled it to 70 degrees, vigorously stirred, pitched a single vial of WLP800 Pilsner Lager, put it in the refrigerator at 50 degrees for a week, racked to secondary, slowly lowered to 32 over the next week, and lagered for 12 weeks before bottling with 8 oz of Pilsner LME. It turned out great, but the yeast was shipped during winter so it wasn't exposed to heat during shipping.
Last month I made 5 gallons of wort with 7 pounds of Extra Light LME, calculated at 1.048 OG and 80+ IBU. My intention was to make a light APL with major hop flavor. I cooled my wort to 70 degrees, vigorously stirred, pitched a pack of Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lager 3 hours after smacking it, put it in the refrigerator at 50 degrees for over a week, then slowly lowered to 32 over the next week. This was my first time using Wyeast and I'm not sure if the pack even swelled after smacking it. I never saw any indication of activity, but I was out a lot, and I had never seen any indication of activity with my previous lager either. After two weeks of lagering I got a hydrometer and measured the gravity at 1.048. It tasted like sugary hop water. Seems the Wyeast 2007 never activated.
I had just received a Wyeast 1272 American Ale II in anticipation of making an IPA, so I decided to try to turn my month old wort into an ale rather than throw it out. I smacked the Wyeast 1272 pack on Friday and by Saturday night it had barely swelled up. The Mrmalty calculator said I needed 168 billions cells for a 1.048 OG beer, and based on the manufacture date of 2 months prior, I needed a 1.65 L starter. I felt the Wyeast 1272 pack was even weaker than the 54% given since it was in shipping for a week, so I decided to do a 2-step starter. I made 1.65 L of 1.040 wort with Pilsner LME, cooled to 70, and pitched the pack into 0.65 L on Saturday night. I measured it at 1.020 72 hours later, so I added the final liter for my full 1.65 L starter and measured the gravity at 1.032. The gravity was still 1.032 8 hours later when I measured it this morning.
I was searching all over to find out about pitching or stepping up yeast starters based on change from 1.040 OG, but the only thing I could find was some information on Wyeast that said the gravity should drop by 50-75%. I'm using the 50% number, hence why I stepped up the starter at 1.020 and plan to pitch the full 1.65 L starter at 1.016. Based on a 75% drop, I would have stepped up at 1.010 to create a 1.65 L starter at 1.028 and would pitch that once it drops to 1.007. Any thoughts on whether it's better to pitch or step up at 50%, 75%, some number in between, or some other gravity entirely.
Finally, I was thinking about doing my IPA on top of the yeast cake for this beer. I'm shooting for an OG of 1.064 and 80 IBUs. I'm even thinking I can do a DIPA with 1.080 OG and 90 IBU on top of the IPA yeast cake, and get 3 generations out of this yeast. However, I'm now trying to make an ale with a highly hopped month old wort that was originally supposed to be a lager, and there is probably some dormant lager yeast in my wort, so I have no idea how this beer will even turn out, much less what kind of yeast cake it will produce, so I'm worried that might not be a good idea. Any thoughts?
Last month I made 5 gallons of wort with 7 pounds of Extra Light LME, calculated at 1.048 OG and 80+ IBU. My intention was to make a light APL with major hop flavor. I cooled my wort to 70 degrees, vigorously stirred, pitched a pack of Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lager 3 hours after smacking it, put it in the refrigerator at 50 degrees for over a week, then slowly lowered to 32 over the next week. This was my first time using Wyeast and I'm not sure if the pack even swelled after smacking it. I never saw any indication of activity, but I was out a lot, and I had never seen any indication of activity with my previous lager either. After two weeks of lagering I got a hydrometer and measured the gravity at 1.048. It tasted like sugary hop water. Seems the Wyeast 2007 never activated.
I had just received a Wyeast 1272 American Ale II in anticipation of making an IPA, so I decided to try to turn my month old wort into an ale rather than throw it out. I smacked the Wyeast 1272 pack on Friday and by Saturday night it had barely swelled up. The Mrmalty calculator said I needed 168 billions cells for a 1.048 OG beer, and based on the manufacture date of 2 months prior, I needed a 1.65 L starter. I felt the Wyeast 1272 pack was even weaker than the 54% given since it was in shipping for a week, so I decided to do a 2-step starter. I made 1.65 L of 1.040 wort with Pilsner LME, cooled to 70, and pitched the pack into 0.65 L on Saturday night. I measured it at 1.020 72 hours later, so I added the final liter for my full 1.65 L starter and measured the gravity at 1.032. The gravity was still 1.032 8 hours later when I measured it this morning.
I was searching all over to find out about pitching or stepping up yeast starters based on change from 1.040 OG, but the only thing I could find was some information on Wyeast that said the gravity should drop by 50-75%. I'm using the 50% number, hence why I stepped up the starter at 1.020 and plan to pitch the full 1.65 L starter at 1.016. Based on a 75% drop, I would have stepped up at 1.010 to create a 1.65 L starter at 1.028 and would pitch that once it drops to 1.007. Any thoughts on whether it's better to pitch or step up at 50%, 75%, some number in between, or some other gravity entirely.
Finally, I was thinking about doing my IPA on top of the yeast cake for this beer. I'm shooting for an OG of 1.064 and 80 IBUs. I'm even thinking I can do a DIPA with 1.080 OG and 90 IBU on top of the IPA yeast cake, and get 3 generations out of this yeast. However, I'm now trying to make an ale with a highly hopped month old wort that was originally supposed to be a lager, and there is probably some dormant lager yeast in my wort, so I have no idea how this beer will even turn out, much less what kind of yeast cake it will produce, so I'm worried that might not be a good idea. Any thoughts?