Following Mr. Malty's pitching rates

Hello All,

I'm an extract brewer and I recently began to follow Mr. Malty's pitching rates for my brews. I've got a few questions that I hope you might shed some light on:

1) I'm pitching 2 - 3 vials of liquid yeast for the various brews, following Jamil's instructions. Not ready to make starters yet. Within two - three days I'm getting krausen moving out of the carboy, through the blow-off tube and into my "sanitation pail".
It is happening with each brew (IPA @ 68°F, Stout @ 67°F and 2 Hefeweizens @ 62°F). My fermentation is monitored with a love controller, the thermometer taped to the carboy wall, so I'm fairly confident about the temps.
Is it alright to have such a vigorous fermentation or am I producing too many esters and losing hop flavor (at least in the IPA) with it being this active?

2) How often should I be cleaning out the "sanitation pail" at the end of the blow-off tubes? It is now filled with a yeasty, foamy slurry (that doesn't smell half bad).

3) Am I doing something wrong to have this strong a fermentation each time? Should I examine my temps a little closer? Aerate less (I can't believe that that is the problem)? Everything is tasting pretty good (the IPA is a little underwhelming) so perhaps I need to just RAHAHB.

Thanks,
Alex

I'd rdwhahb. And dry hop your ipa after cold crashing.

You've already got temp control covered, and you're not ready to make a starter? I have to admit, I've done the 'pitch 2 vials' thing b/c I was too lazy (or didn't have enough time), but between extract and buying 3 vials of yeast, that's an expensive batch of homebrew!

If you're concerned about fermentation being too active, I'd RDWHAHB... and you could try using a drop or two of Fermcap-S
Don't worry about cleaning out the blow off container unless it's overflowing (happened on my own recent Hefe!) You could consider using some

Eventually that blow off jug is going to stink something awful. I change mine out every brew.

Thanks all, I figured I should probably just relax but I can be pretty A-type on occasion

@ biochemedic - I've been really lucky was gifted a stand-up freezer upon moving into our current house. Couldn't pass up that kind of control so starters got pushed back. Then I was gifted a keggerator (helping a friend move) and so spent on the kegging setup instead of moving towards a starter plate - but yes, yeast is a little too expensive @ $7 a vial.

The whole blow-off issue could be caused by having a small, or a larger batch size. In other words, its not process related but size-related.

If I'm too lazy to do a starter, I go with dry yeast. If I'm ambitious enough to do a style-specific brew then I get my s#it together for a starter.

I was wondering that too. I use 6-gal BetterBottles but I've never marked the sides for volume - one more thing I need to do.

You should definitely start doing starters -- it's a much more cost effective way to propagate yeast. For example, you can easily find the calcs telling you to use 4 packets of yeast. $5 for a pound of DME sure beats $18 for 3 more packets of yeast. You can use a $5 growler to propagate (or even a plastic 2-liter bottle); no need for expensive flasks. And quite often, the LHBS won't even have that much yeast on hand anyway.

With the $13 you just saved, pick up a nice 6-pack.

3 vias of yeast...ouch. I would suggest in this order, trying dry yeast, reclaiming active yeast from a batch, propogating starters from vials.

I find myself waffling in between. I make starters in growlers, usually with 1 pack/vial. Given that all the pitching rate calculators say I need a bigger starter than that for higher gravity beers (or lagers, which I haven't really done), I just end up making the same size starter with two packs/vials for high gravity beers. It's not just the cost of the yeast vs. extract for me, but the time and effort I'd have to spend to step up the starter. Fortunately, most of my beers don't need more than one pack/vial in a starter a day or two ahead of time.

alexsaunders said:

I was wondering that too. I use 6-gal BetterBottles but I've never marked the sides for volume - one more thing I need to do.

Click to expand...

5 gal is just below where it starts to taper.

@ biochemedic - thanks, that's where I usually fill to - good to know.

I've done dry yeast, just not the selection I'd like and I'm with Qhrumphf - I just can't seem to get the steam up to start a starter the day before (usually because I'm at work or brew day is spontaneous). I certainly hear you on the potential cost benefits however.

Thanks again all.

alexsaunders said:

... I'm with Qhrumphf - I just can't seem to get the steam up to start a starter the day before (usually because I'm at work or brew day is spontaneous). ....

Click to expand...

Then you're in luck, because you should start a starter 5-7 days before brewing. After it's done fermenting in a few days, just toss in the fridge to cold crash it and await your brew day.

SpeedYellow said:

Then you're in luck, because you should start a starter 5-7 days before brewing. After it's done fermenting in a few days, just toss in the fridge to cold crash it and await your brew day.

Click to expand...

I've heard differing techniques on this. One is to let the starter go through fully, cold crash, decant and pitch only the slurry, the other is to pitch the entire starter volume while its at high krausen. I do the latter.

alexsaunders said:

@ biochemedic - thanks, that's where I usually fill to - good to know.

I've done dry yeast, just not the selection I'd like and I'm with Qhrumphf - I just can't seem to get the steam up to start a starter the day before (usually because I'm at work or brew day is spontaneous). I certainly hear you on the potential cost benefits however.

Thanks again all.

Click to expand...

Making a starter isn't the issue foe me, i almost always make starters. My issue is making a larger pitch out of multiple steps to build a very large cell count from a small initial amount of yeast. I'd rather just make one starter with more packs.

Make your own stirplate. There are a lot of threads on this site. You should be able to make one for $20 or less. You can make most starters with one vial/pack.

Using a stirplate allows you to make smaller starters and they will be ready faster.

With a stirplate I make a small starter and let it ferment overnight and pitch the whole thing. With a larger one I do it 1 day ahead and chill it and decant the liquid.

Another way to save money is to freeze yeast. I use 20ml vials. 5ml yeast + 5ml Glycerin and 10ml water. I make a starter a little bigger than what I need then use the extra yeast to make 4 vials to freeze. If I made 4 more from each for 4 generations that would make 256 brews from the original vial for only the cost of DME for the starters.

Qhrumphf said:

I've heard differing techniques on this. One is to let the starter go through fully, cold crash, decant and pitch only the slurry, the other is to pitch the entire starter volume while its at high krausen. I do the latter.

Click to expand...

Sure, nothing wrong with that. The OP expressed difficulty squeezing in brew time during the week, so I was merely giving him a way to keep the week open.