Liquid or Dry Yeast?

BrewMasta said:

Yes, I take it out of the fridge, pour off most the beer that the starter produced, I save only enough to swirl the yeast back into suspension for pitching, but I let it come to room temp prior to yet swirl, and pitching. IMO it's not really advisable to pour the whole starter in because the beer in your starter is aerated, and not of the best caliber. There is still yeast in the beer you created with the starter, but most has formed a yeast cake on the bottom of the flask, and is more than enough to get a 5 gal batch kickin. GL, and happy brewing, making yeast starter is easy and fun, just keep sanitary, it's like brewing a mini batch of beer.

Click to expand...

Do you cover the opening with anything while its fermenting? Such as an airlock or something?

I've done about 20 batches now. First 5 were kits, used the dry yeast that came with the kits. Beer was ok, but not great. Really doubt that can be blamed on the yeast. As I progressed I moved to full boils, and built a temp control fridge. Learned better sanitization techniques. Learned to use software to design my own recipes.

Since then I've done 16 more batches, about half partial mash and half all grain. Beer keeps getting better and better. Have 2 or 3 recipes on 3rd iteration moving towards Eric's Haus Ale, IPA, CDA and Amber. Funny thing is I've yet to explore yeast. Since I started designing my own recipes I've used 2 packs of US-05. What I do is start with a batch of Amber Ale, about 1.050 OG and 40 IBU, no dry hops. That yeast cake fills 2 quart mason jars, after settling I get about a quart of firm, clean cake. I divide the cake into 4 pint jars, use these for my next 4 batches (using between 1/4 and 1 cup of yeast depending on gravity and age of the cake). Batch 3 or 4 is another Amber, harvest a new cake...after 4 generations I bought a new pack of yeast and started over.

Beer keeps getting better and seems I've still got a lot to learn. Am sure at some point I'll try another yeast...but I do kind of like having that one variable controlled while I experiment with other variables. Not to mention I like being Thrifty think about it, I've brewed 16 batches for $8 worth of yeast...

At some point when I've really dialed in the recipes and understand what they are supposed to taste like using US05 I'll try those same recipes with different yeasts. Probably get a pack of Nottingham and brew up a batch of Eric's Amber...

I provided a cartoon pictorial on the first page of this thread, take a look at it. I use sanitized tinfoil on my starter flasks.

BrewMasta said:

I provided a cartoon pictorial on the first page of this thread, take a look at it. I use sanitized tinfoil on my starter flasks.

Click to expand...

I saw the pics. Guess I missed that part, thanks!