Recent content by gkeusch

I leavi it in FV for a full two weeks. I don't know about co2 and raft particles but it is a layer that looks like krausen but not active. There are no rafts, it is completely across the top surface.

I brew ales, use a variety of yeasts. Safale-05 is my go-to dry yeast but what I am going to desribe happens with other yeasts too: Sometimes after complete fermentation there is a layer of inactive yeast still on the top in the fermenter, sometimes it all drops to the bottom. I know...

My HBS supply store has quit carrying WL yeast. I want to brew my dubbel recipe this weekend but have no WLP500 or 530. Can anybody recommend a dry yeast that will get me close?

Thanks! I figured I should have waited but I just get nervous letting it sit without yeast.

I brewed a six gallon batch yesterday. Because it is so warm now my counterflow chiller didn't quite get it done and the wort was at 85+ degrees. I did not have time for it to cool further before I had to leave so I pitched it anyway with Safale 05 dry (which packet was at around 75 degrees) and...

Oops, I did that #3 thing somehow... Anyway, I step up from slants 3 times on a stir plate, 50ml to 250 ml to 2L. M.Malty's "Proper Yeast Pitching Rates" does state 4.5 billion/ml, but then goes on to say that, according to Fix, in a slurry, only about 25% of the mass is yeast solids. So I'm...

I can't reconcile the amount of slurry I get in my 2L starters (made using the prescribed calculators) with how much is supposed to be there based on the following: Not having a microscope, I have looked through the literature and it seems that there is general agreement (if there ever is such...

Thanks Folks! I hoped that was the case.

I am struggling with this too. I think the calculators assume a certain number of viable cells in a yeast pack or vial as a starting point, and I don't know how that correlates to starting from a slant and stepping up. Not having a microscope, I have looked through the literature and it seems...

I have a Stir-starter plate with 3/4" bars. It creates a nice little vortex in a 1 L E. flask but now I got a 2 L E. flask; the bar spins fine but no sign of vortex. If it is spinning then is it still stirring without the vortex? If I buy a longer bar will that help, and if so, what is the...

So I learned how to employ an STC-1000 controller on this forum for my fermentation chamber and it works like a charm. It is so simple and straightforward (Thanks to the people who wrote those posts!). Now for a non-brewing heating application I want to control a 1500 watt heater, but the...

I put mine through a meat grinder. A while back I started a thread about this in the hops section. I dried them then ground them, vacuum sealed and froze them. The experts on the thread said I likely wrecked them - oxidation, etc. But when I open them I get a lot bigger hop aroma than with...

I'll be darned...thanks. I feel better buying that six pack of Bell's knowing that I can harvest the bottle and the yeast!

I was just looking at the thread "Commercial Beer Yeast Harvest List" and someone said that as long as the beer was not filtered or pasteurized it did not need to be bottle conditioned in order to harvest yeast. Is that right? Everything I see about the topic starts with the assumption that...