Recent content by HomebrewPadawan

Oh the suspense! Tasting notes from 2012!! Haha. I was excited to hear what was said about his brew...oh well.

How'd it turn out, Roadie? Sounds nice.

Rise from the ashes all mighty Phoenix Thread! I found this thread while thinking of adding some flaked barley to a saison I'll be brewing shortly. After reading this article Denny linked, I still think I'll go ahead and try the brew with ~5% flaked barley. I'm thinking a slightly...

Any iDip users having good or bad results with the unit now that it has been out for a bit?

Was having a problem with my new auto siphon, tons of air was getting sucked in somewhere. It ended up being the seal where the tip of the cane meets the inside of the tube; I slowly bent the rubber a little bit until it fit more snugly against the inside walls of the tube and that helped a...

That's a fun article for sure, "yeast is a nuclear weapon." If that is the case it pretty much equalizes the 1-4 billion cells per ml thought...as long as you were gestimating in that range you'd be ending up at the same finishing count anyway at the end of fermentation. Interesting.

I have also heard the 1-4 billion per 1 ml number, but that's a huge variance when we are talking about 50ml of yeast in the bottom of a jar either being 50, 100, 150, or 200 billion cells. I started a thread trying to figure out what factor people use when estimating their yeast count by the...

Interesting. I think the vials are 35ml, and for simplicity sake saying 1/2 of the vial is pure yeast when settled would be a fine place to start (I have read that not all strains are the same size and some would theoretically take up more or less room; but 1/2 is a fine assumption, since...

Simple question...I know there is not a simple answer. But assuming we are homebrewing, without a microscope, and all we have is fresh yeast, a stir plate, and some DME. How do you guys go about gestimating the amount of yeast in the bottom of your starter after it has been crashed for a...

Good stuff! I came here looking for a simple answer, and after reading all 7 pages of discussion, I now understand that there is no simple answer! The question I had was roughly; "How many billion cells are in 1 ml of cold crashed yeast at the bottom of a starter?" WoodlandBrew seemed to...

Great write-up GavinC, I also like to employ the overbuild yeast starter method whenever I get a new strain of yeast.

I'm no scientist, but in my experience; if you cold crash the starter for a couple of days and then decant the liquid (leaving a little to swirl up the yeast), let the yeast warm to your beers pitching temp and then pitch...I haven't seen any ill effects to this process. Anyone who knows...

Great write up, I found some helpful info. Whenever I get a new yeast strain, I also like to do the overbuild method. It seems like the easiest, most efficient, way to retain a clean pitch of the strain for a new starter.

I see what you're saying for sure, I certainly don't have any specialist lab gear...unless you count a pH meter and a stir plate, haha. I try not to rinse it much out of the fermenter, but when I drain my 6 gallon carboy of all the good fermented beer there is usually not much to swirl up the...

Nice article, I also agree with it. No scientific data on my part but I feel that mr.malty accelerates the viability drop too fast as well; I know older samples start up fine. I have always been concerned about the contamination/mutation of the stored yeast, although I only keep a particular...