Me and my big ideas

[beerisyummy]

I am now going to invite everyone to have a good laugh at my expense.

Hell, we're all under quarantine, right, what else ya gotta do.

I've been reading in several sources about stepping up starters, growing enough yeast for lager fermentation, etc. Won't bore you with the bibliography, and in any case no one said to do this, I just kinda thunk it up and decided to try it.

Here's the "this" that I did. I made a 1L starter of WY2124 Bohemian Lager yeast. I then stepped that up with another 2L. Let it finish, settle, then cold-crashed it. I then brewed some wort for a Dortmunder Export roughly based on Zainasheff & Palmer, and it came out at about 1.062.

Now here's where the rubber meets the road ... I had siphoned off 1L of the Dortmunder wort, and after the wort was cool, I decanted the starter, added a little of the yeast to the 1L of wort, and pitched the rest into the carboy. The 5 gal. and 1.5L worts fermented happily side-by-side, and when I thought they were both near high Kraeusen, I pitched the little into the big. You see what I was tryina do here, right? But how many of you have already predicted the beer geyser that occurred?

It was pretty spectacular actually. All is right with the world, I cleaned up the mess, attached the blow-off tube and put the carboy back in the lagering fridge, and said to myself, as Thomas Edison supposedly did thousands of times, "well, I've discovered another way NOT to do this."

When you're done wiping the tears from your eyes, grab a home-brew and give me any thoughts you may have on this little adventure of mine.
In particular: was this just a bad idea or was it a pretty good idea and maybe my timing was just off?

In spite of the fact that my Dad was a physicist, I am not very scientifically inclined; but if you want to lay some science on me I will try to understand as much as I can and I will appreciate your efforts to inform.

Prosit!

 

[bracconiere]

I am now going to invite everyone to have a good laugh at my expense.

NO YOU AIN"T TAKIN' MY JOB! lol

Thomas Edison supposedly did thousands of times, "well, I've discovered another way NOT to do this."

i thought it was telling life long virgin, nicola tesla, "you don't get an american sense of humor"

 

[madscientist451]

The 5 gal. and 1.5L worts fermented happily side-by-side, and when I thought they were both near high Kraeusen, I pitched the little into the big. You see what I was tryina do here, right?

Sorry, I don't get it. What were you trying to achieve? You stated that the 5 gallon batch was "fermented happily".

I make 4-5 batches of Lagers this time of year in my cool basement and then have enough for the summer.
Here's my yeast method:
-Make a starter
-Brew a 2 or 2.5 gallon batch using the starter yeast then pitch the entire yeast cake into the next full size batch. Lager yeasts are pretty hardy and I've found you can re-pitch them many times and even save it for a year or more, but I usually start off with new yeast each season.

 

[RM-MN]

In spite of the fact that my Dad was a physicist, I am not very scientifically inclined; but if you want to lay some science on me I will try to understand as much as I can and I will appreciate your efforts to inform.

Opinion only, I have no proof that this is what really happened.

Like a bottle of soda, beer, anything carbonated, there was a lot of CO2 dissolved in the beer that was actively fermenting, more than it could hold indefinitely, and when you poured in you "starter" it added even more and created many nucleation points for the dissolved CO2 to come out of solution all at once.

Just for giggles, open a bottle of beer, hold it over the sink, and pour in half a teaspoon of sugar. Similar circumstances.

 

[bracconiere]

Opinion only, I have no proof that this is what really happened.

Like a bottle of soda, beer, anything carbonated, there was a lot of CO2 dissolved in the beer that was actively fermenting, more than it could hold indefinitely, and when you poured in you "starter" it added even more and created many nucleation points for the dissolved CO2 to come out of solution all at once.

Just for giggles, open a bottle of beer, hold it over the sink, and pour in half a teaspoon of sugar. Similar circumstances.

that's what happens when i dropy hydro in the fermenter to check if it's done and it isn't....


edit: i'm going to leave dropy in for comedic effect, but i have no idea how it got there, lol

 

[beersk]

that's what happens when i dropy hydro in the fermenter to check if it's done and it isn't....


edit: i'm going to leave dropy in for comedic effect, but i have no idea how it got there, lol

Looks like you wanted to say "drop my hydro" but you hit the x for the back button on your phone or whatever you were using to type and the y got pushed over into the "drop". Happens to me all the time.


On topic:

I don't think this is actually a bad idea. I've done something similar. The idea is to get the yeast familiar with the environment it'll be working in. And I think some big breweries do something similar, but in a different sorta way where they'll have to brew twice to fill a fermenter but don't have enough yeast to pitch into the filled fermenter. So, what they'll do is brew to fill half the fermenter (let's say they have a 30bbl brewhouse and 60bbl fermenters) and they'll pitch enough yeast for 30bbl into the fermenter. Then, they'll brew the exactly same recipe and by that time the 30bbl of beer will be going and they'll transfer the finished 2nd batch into the fermenter. Voila, it'll ferment great with plenty of active yeast going already.

This is kind of the reverse of that, but I can see the logic. What I would've done, though, is probably just take some of that dortmunder wort, pitch it into the starter for a few hours to get it accustomed with the yeast, then pitch it into the main wort. Instead of pitching a little yeast into both. Zim zam?

 

[beerisyummy]

NO YOU AIN"T TAKIN' MY JOB! lol



i thought it was telling life long virgin, nicola tesla, "you don't get an american sense of humor"

 

[beerisyummy]

Sorry, I don't get it. What were you trying to achieve? You stated that the 5 gallon batch was "fermented happily".

I make 4-5 batches of Lagers this time of year in my cool basement and then have enough for the summer.
Here's my yeast method:
-Make a starter
-Brew a 2 or 2.5 gallon batch using the starter yeast then pitch the entire yeast cake into the next full size batch. Lager yeasts are pretty hardy and I've found you can re-pitch them many times and even save it for a year or more, but I usually start off with new yeast each season.

My bad, I should have said they >were fermentING< happily.

And I guess what I was tryina do was just have a HOLLATA frikkin yeast working on that lager. Your method sounds very interesting, thanks!

 

[beerisyummy]

Opinion only, I have no proof that this is what really happened.

Like a bottle of soda, beer, anything carbonated, there was a lot of CO2 dissolved in the beer that was actively fermenting, more than it could hold indefinitely, and when you poured in you "starter" it added even more and created many nucleation points for the dissolved CO2 to come out of solution all at once.

Just for giggles, open a bottle of beer, hold it over the sink, and pour in half a teaspoon of sugar. Similar circumstances.

Dang, that sounds like fun!!! LOL

 

[beerisyummy]

Looks like you wanted to say "drop my hydro" but you hit the x for the back button on your phone or whatever you were using to type and the y got pushed over into the "drop". Happens to me all the time.


On topic:

I don't think this is actually a bad idea. I've done something similar. The idea is to get the yeast familiar with the environment it'll be working in. And I think some big breweries do something similar, but in a different sorta way where they'll have to brew twice to fill a fermenter but don't have enough yeast to pitch into the filled fermenter. So, what they'll do is brew to fill half the fermenter (let's say they have a 30bbl brewhouse and 60bbl fermenters) and they'll pitch enough yeast for 30bbl into the fermenter. Then, they'll brew the exactly same recipe and by that time the 30bbl of beer will be going and they'll transfer the finished 2nd batch into the fermenter. Voila, it'll ferment great with plenty of active yeast going already.

This is kind of the reverse of that, but I can see the logic. What I would've done, though, is probably just take some of that dortmunder wort, pitch it into the starter for a few hours to get it accustomed with the yeast, then pitch it into the main wort. Instead of pitching a little yeast into both. Zim zam?

Well, like bracconiere's tag line says, he's been drinking

Your suggestion seems most excellent, thanks!