I'm about to attempt my first two lagers utilizing Sam calagione's Extreme Brewing recipes, but I have a couple questions the book does not answer.
1) when adding milled peppercorn to my rye bock, do they go into a grain bag, or do you throw them directly into the wort? Will Peppercorns sink or float in the primary if not in a grain bag? I can't seem to find many references to HOW to add the peppercorn into the beer.
2) For the imperial Pilsner, I bought the ingredients from the book and only discovered afterwards that I might have some potential problems with a 1.090 SG and one packet of wyeast Pilsen Lager. I've read about requiring a starter. Can i achieve this by brewing the entire batch and then setting 1 gallon aside, and pitching the yeast into that one gallon. My understanding is that once there is visible signs of fermentation, I add the 1 gallon to the other 4?
3) Alternatively I've read I can purchase another yeast and pitch two for a better pitch rate. I have to drive a fair distance to get any wyeast but I was considering combining my wyeast with something else, but I don't think those grocery-store dry-yeast packets would work, and I have a Wyeast Belgian abbey in the fridge, but that would probably be a disaster. Any advice on how to deal with that kind of gravity?
1) when adding milled peppercorn to my rye bock, do they go into a grain bag, or do you throw them directly into the wort? Will Peppercorns sink or float in the primary if not in a grain bag? I can't seem to find many references to HOW to add the peppercorn into the beer.
2) For the imperial Pilsner, I bought the ingredients from the book and only discovered afterwards that I might have some potential problems with a 1.090 SG and one packet of wyeast Pilsen Lager. I've read about requiring a starter. Can i achieve this by brewing the entire batch and then setting 1 gallon aside, and pitching the yeast into that one gallon. My understanding is that once there is visible signs of fermentation, I add the 1 gallon to the other 4?
3) Alternatively I've read I can purchase another yeast and pitch two for a better pitch rate. I have to drive a fair distance to get any wyeast but I was considering combining my wyeast with something else, but I don't think those grocery-store dry-yeast packets would work, and I have a Wyeast Belgian abbey in the fridge, but that would probably be a disaster. Any advice on how to deal with that kind of gravity?
