I'd probably pour the yeast and starter in a big sanitized pitcher, and decant, and then guestimate the amount of slurry and guestimate the proper pitch amount. "Close enough" is close enough for me.
I'd probably pour the yeast and starter in a big sanitized pitcher, and decant, and then guestimate the amount of slurry and guestimate the proper pitch amount. "Close enough" is close enough for me.
Ok, this is a double post to a new thread I just posted, but I'm fishing for feedback.
So, I'm doing my first 10 gal batch this weekend, and it's basically this recipe. I began my yeast starter yesterday. Turns out, I had the calculator set to lager pitch rate. I had thought I needed to do one step yesterday, and then was planning on stepping up again tomorrow. I should have checked my numbers, but it's too late now. I have roughly 3L of starter right now which is already an over pitch for my recipe.
My calculated pitch should be 392 Billion Cells. The starter I have going calculates out to 479 Billion Cells.
I would normally say, I'll just pour some off. Problem is, the yeast is wy1968, and it floccs like a beast. It's not exactly a homogenous mixture that can easily be portioned out.
Should I... Just over pitch.
Should I... Try to pour off some and take close enough.
Should I... Bump up the recipe with some DME to make the yeast I have a more proper pitch. My recipe is 1.052, but 1.064 would make the starter I have on target. Not sure I'd go that far with DME, but maybe 1.058-1.060.
Should I... Any other ideas?
Cheers.
I brewed this about 2 months ago and had one last night.
Mine came out super thin. I hit all of the numbers and everything. Does this have anything to do with the 'thin mash'?
I am mashing this in right now...so far my pH and mash temp look spot on!
Just on a side note, have you verified temps with that kind of thermometer? I found mine to be off by about 5-7 degrees. Those mechanical types of thermometers have been known to be really inaccurate. (mostly meant to show a ballpark temperature for frying turkeys) I bought a cheap but good digital thermometer and have been really happy with it knowing that my readings are accurate.
Just on a side note, have you verified temps with that kind of thermometer? I found mine to be off by about 5-7 degrees. Those mechanical types of thermometers have been known to be really inaccurate. (mostly meant to show a ballpark temperature for frying turkeys) I bought a cheap but good digital thermometer and have been really happy with it knowing that my readings are accurate.
I'm on my second attempt at this recipe and I had a similar problem the first time. OG was 1.059, but only got to 1.033 after a week (and stayed there for two more). I tried rousing the yeast with a temperature raise and pitching new (S-04) yeast and neither worked so I dumped it since I didn't want to risk bottle bombs. I think my problem was I using frozen water bottles in an attempt to cool the fermenter and may have overdone it. It worked fine on the Cream Ale I did before that but was a lot warmer in the house at that time.
On my current attempt I mashed at 152 instead of 156 and left the fermenter alone. Started at 1.067 (likely due to a much more vigorous squeezing of my BIAB bag) and it's sitting stable at 1.027 after 10 days. It's looking a lot better than my first attempt (58% attenuation vs 42%) and if you look at the original recipe it was only 68%. I'll likely bottle this batch (targeting a low CO2 volume) and risk it...
Next time I'll likely switch to either Denny's Favorite yeast or Wyeast 1318 and see how that affects things.
You know that the ball valve is supposed to be open during fermentation right? Otherwise the yeast will cake over the valve and block it up
Interesting. What could you not source to recipe at your LHBS?
I can strongly recommend addition of vanilla beans.
I dont think that would fit too well for an Oatmeal Stout Citrusy/Fruity doest really blend with chocolatey/roasty.
Mashing in this recipe right now! (10/3/15)
Edit: and several hours later... I have 6 gallons of wort @ 1.053 O.G. !!!
Edit: and 3 weeks later (10/25/15) it finished at 1.016, capped 61 bottles in total. It's a complex tasting stout! Looking forward to tasting it in another 6 weeks ( ;
Edit: and 2 days after bottling I couldn't stand it so I uncapped one... it fizzed! Used Denny's Fav 50, it was green obviously but seriously tastes like one of THOSE stouts that will get so good in a month or so. (think I will uncap a second one LOL)
What was the fg of yours? I'm sitting at 1.023 using wlp007. Sound about right? Also og was 1.061.
On my current attempt I mashed at 152 instead of 156 and left the fermenter alone. Started at 1.067 (likely due to a much more vigorous squeezing of my BIAB bag) and it's sitting stable at 1.027 after 10 days. It's looking a lot better than my first attempt (58% attenuation vs 42%) and if you look at the original recipe it was only 68%. I'll likely bottle this batch (targeting a low CO2 volume) and risk it...
What would create the gushers? How much corn sugar did you use at bottle? I hover around 114grams 3/4 cup for my 5 gallon batches. Like you said with incomplete fermentation would be the only other thing that comes to mind. But if it were steady at 1.023 and no activity in the airlock?
it carbed up in 3 days and was gushing by.
I'm fairly new to brewing and did a LOT of reading after the fact, but from what I can tell infection and too much fermentables are the main causes of gushers. A prior batch (porter with Belgian yeast) started out tasting fine but gradually (over 8-12 weeks) got more odd tasting and eventually started gushing from the bottles. I initially thought the odd taste was caused by fusel alcohols (I had to ferment at a high temp, hence the choice of a Belgian saison yeast)....but I guess it was an infection. I did have a rather bad head cold when I brewed so I may have made some mistakes.
On this batch I'm thinking/hoping it was just an incomplete fermentation, especially since it carbed up in 3 days and was gushing by 7. I used a BeerSmith to calculate the corn sugar addition (and carbed low at 2.0 volumes). I tried rousing the yeast and warming it up as well as pitching some US-05 and nothing helped the FG. I can only guess that when I racked the beer into my bottling bucket, it woke things up again (maybe the additional oxygen of being in the open bucket caused it).
Did you notice any film or sediment forming in the neck of the bottles? The only time I had gushers/bottle bombs was from when I accidentally dropped a dust display bottle into my bottling bucket when I was bottling. I noticed stuff accumulating at the top of the beer level in the neck of the bottle.
The only thing I noticed was the typical sediment at the bottom due to being bottle conditioned (and maybe some hop debris...the beer is so dark I couldn't really tell when I started hitting the trub with the siphon).
In any case I spent last night gently prying up the caps just enough to vent the bottles (and still remain sealed when I stopped prying). I got them to the point where the beer didn't foam up at room temperature, so hopefully it'll fix the carbonation.
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