Recent content by Scoggin

I don't know what you mean by "balance" of the yeast.. They are microorganisms. And I don't think anyone could eye-out the amount of cells in billions.. Have you ever tasted the starter beer that you decant out? When you do, you'll understand why people don't want that in their beer. I'm sure...

When/if the gravity stalls out. Make a starter of some really high alcohol tolerant ale yeast. Wait till the krausen high, and the starter is most active, then pitch the whole thing. That way the yeast will be somewhat used to an alcoholic environment, and pitching at high krausen should get...

a saison barleywine would certainly be interesting.. but saisons are the way to go for higher temps. defiantly something to think about for future summer batches. try some commercial versions. I'd recommend La Merle by north coast. If you cant find that, Saison Dupont, Ommegang Hennepin, and...

I have a hard time getting a low FG on big beers with just a little crystal and base malt

well red star champagne yeast is "best" between 15 and 30 C. so thats 59-86F. sounds like you could keep it in your house..

great link! thank you!

why champagne yeast? and that's a lot of specialty grain. i'd assume you would be left with a rather high FG

Id like a copy of the water report. but i have a hard time finding it in the link above. if anyone can post the portlands water, it would be greatly appreciated

i used it for the first time this year on a partigyle stout. i absolutely loved it. very clean english yeast. I need to try S04 again, but as of right now, i prefer the notty

a lot of experimenting has been done and published. which is where sites like mrmalty get their info. I'm not saying your beers wont be good when you underpitch. just that they could be better and 5 gallons is a lot to risk. it becomes more important with bigger beers. in a pinch, id recomend...

a beer 1.040 and under wont need additional cells your beers will still ferment fine. and im sure they will taste fine. but for a good healthy ferment, you want to pitch more yeast. you are underpitching A LOT if you pitch 1 smack pack into 1.070 wort. your fine beers could be great with...

im sure your beers have been just fine. you can usually get away with just pitching from the packets, but it is not ideal. Starters are the best and cheapest way to grow cells. and if you pitch the proper amount, i bet you will see an improvement in your beers. just somethin to think about good...

Extract usually finishes higher than all grain. I'd think you are done fermenting I wouldn't say 1 packet is more than enough. You still under pitched, especially if the wyeast packet was a little older. 2 packets would have been better for 1.051 Go to mrmalty.com and use their yeast pitch...

the cell count in the bottles will be very low. the reason people make starters is to increase the yeast cell count to healthy levels for good beer. I'd assume the yeast in the bottles will be very slim, and you would be severely underpitching your fermenter. www.mrmalty.com has a great yeast...

1. i don't think the time will be an issue. although anything is possible. 2. your hydrometer reading was just concentrated. meaning: the 'top off' water you added, and the wort weren't mixed 100% causing a false reading. which is not an issue. fermentation will do the mixing for you. If you...