Recent content by blitzd

Just checking back in. The yeast for this did indeed ferment like nobody's business, despite all I put it through, but I was way off on the amount of ginger (.5 oz dried, .25 fresh per 6 gal), and it overpowers everything even after a month and a half. It's not bad when mixed 50/50 with another...

My starter turned out to be a thick layer of trub instead of yeast! The upside - I now know the difference between trub and yeast! :) Second attempt I ended up with some definite yeast, smelled a bit of acetic acid, but I went ahead and used it anyway - my wort ended up going moldy sitting...

All my starters were entirely uncovered for a 15 min boil, using light DME (Briess I believe). I only cover them when they're cooling, generally in an ice/cold-water bath. I'm wondering, if it is DMS in the starter if such a small amount would affect the flavour/aroma of the beer the yeast is...

This is also my first time doing up a starter from dregs, so it's a bit of an experiment. I think I'm just going to go with it this time around, in the name of brew science!! :D I'll collect some more yeast while this batch is brewing and see if it turns out any different as well. If you...

Hmmm, I have read up a bit more since I posted that and it's apparently not uncommon to have sour or nasty tasting starters. I can't find too much on the burnt creamed corn smell I have though. So far as I can tell it's likely either from DMS - but I used non-pilsen DME for my starter wort, or...

I posted this in the beginner forum but it probably belongs here: I have a yeast starter that I've been stepping up from some Hennepin dregs. The first two steps went good, and I have a nice thick layer of yeast at the bottom after the third - but it smells of burnt creamed corn now. It most...

I have a yeast starter that I've been stepping up from some Hennepin dregs. The first two steps went good, and I have a nice thick layer of yeast at the bottom after the third - but it smells of burnt creamed corn now. It most certainly did not have this smell after the first two steps...

Not sure how I didn't see that it was for bottling on the first read, thanks for clarifying ;)

Just out of curiosity, why decant the starter? I'm planning to do a tripel myself in the next week or two using a mix of a full wort kit, some additional DME/hops, and two lbs of Belgian candy syrup added after 2-3 days. Just thinking that if I don't decant it's that much less DME to use...

I wonder if it was maybe bad storage of the Westmalle? Trappist/abbey tripels are one of my favorite styles, and I can't say I have ever gotten and band aid flavors off of any of the commercial brews that I have tried. I have noticed that some of the ones I have held on to for longer periods of...

Ah, well in that case - here's a couple pics of the beginning of the end of mine! :D It was actually the second krausen, the first dropped out after a couple of days. That one big bubble had me wondering, and about 13 hours later it turned into a full on goo monster, didn't drop back down for...

Sorry, didn't mean to imply yours was infected. My own searches at the time didn't seem to indicate mine was infected based on the krausen, if that helps at all.

My krausen ended up lasting about two weeks, and was very thick and gooey. It may have even been normal for the wlp568 yeast I used - was the first time I used it... I actually had to put a blow off on about a week and a half in, as it was just growing and growing.

I had something similar on a saison, turned out it was infected and turned wicked sour!

Thanks, I am using both - PBW after brewing or before putting equipment away, and star-san before using anything... I'm a bit paranoid that everything is infected now though, so I'm thinking I'll re-clean everything with PBW or Oxy before the next bottling session too. I was mainly concerned...