I have searched and researched this forum and others and I'm still not sure what I want to do. I'm hoping you wonderful folks will help me decide.
Let me start by saying this question is about my 3rd batch ever, which I plan to brew in about a week. I'm still doing partial boil extract kits. This one, I want to add some white, clover honey that I have laying around. I am going for aroma and dryness, not sweetness. So I am prepared for a long secondary. I just need the right yeast, type and pitch rate.
The base kit is Brewer's Best American Amber, a 1.054, 32 IBU. It comes with an 11g Danstar Nottingham sachet of dry yeast. The question is how much yeast, what kind and when to pitch.
Brew day will be per the kit instructions. I am going to add the honey at high krausen. I am going to dilute so it is near the OG of the wort/beer. According to this, Specific Gravity Of Honey Water Solution | Brew Dudes , I'm looking at ~1-1.5lbs honey plus enough water for a total volume of 1 gallon to match my ~1.050. I've been hitting my kit's OGs at ~4.5 gallons, so my 6 gallon primary will handle it (I will have blow off tube ready).
Ok, so, obviously, I plan to pitch the yeast and let fermenting begin to get me to high krausen. What I'm trying to figure out is if this type and amount of yeast can handle all that honey sugar. I think I'd rather pitch more yeast than add a nutrient. I don't think this will be so much alcohol that I need a mead or wine yeast. But maybe I do to get it to attenuate highly, as I desire? I am planning for 1 month in primary and 1+ month in secondary to make sure it finishes nicely. Enough rambling....
Option 1) pitch and pray, or better said, RDWHAHB - just use the kit yeast, pitch as normal, add honey+water at high krausen? Danstar says it can attenuate to 1.008, which would be great, but this is dependent upon pitch rate and nutrition of the wort...which honey has ~0 nutrition, right? So that leads to,
Option 2) pitch more - get another sachet of the same and double the pitch to handle the extra sugars. I like this idea as it might speed up fermentation, but I have no idea how to know if I am over-pitching and what that limit would be. I am a noob, and this is an extract, so I don't know how to estimate the ideal pitch. Instead of buying more yeast, I could re-use my current yeast with or without washing, but it has a hoppy 1.083 ale sitting on it and I've heard don't re-use with a smaller beer.....or,
Option 3) pitch another kind - a mead or wine yeast might be better to handle the higher alcohol and the desired higher attenuation?
Related to both #2 & #3, does anyone ever pitch a 2nd time after adding more sugars? Since it is only ~2 days after the first pitch, I am guessing the normal/Right Way is just pitch the right total amount right up front?
Sorry for the long post, I wanted to get my current thinking down. Please, tear me to shreds about anything I've mentioned, I just want to learn. Thanks.
Let me start by saying this question is about my 3rd batch ever, which I plan to brew in about a week. I'm still doing partial boil extract kits. This one, I want to add some white, clover honey that I have laying around. I am going for aroma and dryness, not sweetness. So I am prepared for a long secondary. I just need the right yeast, type and pitch rate.
The base kit is Brewer's Best American Amber, a 1.054, 32 IBU. It comes with an 11g Danstar Nottingham sachet of dry yeast. The question is how much yeast, what kind and when to pitch.
Brew day will be per the kit instructions. I am going to add the honey at high krausen. I am going to dilute so it is near the OG of the wort/beer. According to this, Specific Gravity Of Honey Water Solution | Brew Dudes , I'm looking at ~1-1.5lbs honey plus enough water for a total volume of 1 gallon to match my ~1.050. I've been hitting my kit's OGs at ~4.5 gallons, so my 6 gallon primary will handle it (I will have blow off tube ready).
Ok, so, obviously, I plan to pitch the yeast and let fermenting begin to get me to high krausen. What I'm trying to figure out is if this type and amount of yeast can handle all that honey sugar. I think I'd rather pitch more yeast than add a nutrient. I don't think this will be so much alcohol that I need a mead or wine yeast. But maybe I do to get it to attenuate highly, as I desire? I am planning for 1 month in primary and 1+ month in secondary to make sure it finishes nicely. Enough rambling....
Option 1) pitch and pray, or better said, RDWHAHB - just use the kit yeast, pitch as normal, add honey+water at high krausen? Danstar says it can attenuate to 1.008, which would be great, but this is dependent upon pitch rate and nutrition of the wort...which honey has ~0 nutrition, right? So that leads to,
Option 2) pitch more - get another sachet of the same and double the pitch to handle the extra sugars. I like this idea as it might speed up fermentation, but I have no idea how to know if I am over-pitching and what that limit would be. I am a noob, and this is an extract, so I don't know how to estimate the ideal pitch. Instead of buying more yeast, I could re-use my current yeast with or without washing, but it has a hoppy 1.083 ale sitting on it and I've heard don't re-use with a smaller beer.....or,
Option 3) pitch another kind - a mead or wine yeast might be better to handle the higher alcohol and the desired higher attenuation?
Related to both #2 & #3, does anyone ever pitch a 2nd time after adding more sugars? Since it is only ~2 days after the first pitch, I am guessing the normal/Right Way is just pitch the right total amount right up front?
Sorry for the long post, I wanted to get my current thinking down. Please, tear me to shreds about anything I've mentioned, I just want to learn. Thanks.
