I love big stouts and have been wanting to brew one for awhile so I've decided to take the plunge this Sunday and brew up something in the 1.100ish range while I still have a good 6-8 months for conditioning before wintertime stout drinking weather rolls back around.
As a happy coincidence, I brewed a 5% brown porter about 3 weeks ago with London Ale yeast, which seems like a great choice for the stout so I have a nice yeast cake to work with. Almost every single ingredient in the porter is in the stout recipe so I have no concern of off flavors from the trub.
My question is more one of amount... Should I pitch the stout onto the entire cake? Or should I remove some, and if so, how much? I should clarify that the fermenter is an unmodified (other than taking the spear out) 1/4 barrel keg so I can't really reach in and scoop out yeast or anything but I could dig the siphon around in the cake to get some out while racking to the keg.
I looked at MrMalty, but I don't really know where to set the sliders on the slurry page. How would I know what my non-yeast percentage is for example? Nor do I have a way to measure the volume of slurry that's in the fermenter.
Thanks in advance for any help. Obviously this is a big beer that will have lots of materials and time involved so I want to make sure it has the best possible fermentation!
Cheers
As a happy coincidence, I brewed a 5% brown porter about 3 weeks ago with London Ale yeast, which seems like a great choice for the stout so I have a nice yeast cake to work with. Almost every single ingredient in the porter is in the stout recipe so I have no concern of off flavors from the trub.
My question is more one of amount... Should I pitch the stout onto the entire cake? Or should I remove some, and if so, how much? I should clarify that the fermenter is an unmodified (other than taking the spear out) 1/4 barrel keg so I can't really reach in and scoop out yeast or anything but I could dig the siphon around in the cake to get some out while racking to the keg.
I looked at MrMalty, but I don't really know where to set the sliders on the slurry page. How would I know what my non-yeast percentage is for example? Nor do I have a way to measure the volume of slurry that's in the fermenter.
Thanks in advance for any help. Obviously this is a big beer that will have lots of materials and time involved so I want to make sure it has the best possible fermentation!
Cheers