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Four months isn't an unreasonably storage time. You might be near 50% viability. (Haven't finished that research yet). Glycogen will be just about entirely depleted which would result in a long lag time. How long seems to be fairly strain dependent, and I'm not familiar with Edinburgh...

Putting them back in the fridge was probably the best thing you could do since you didn't have the resources to make a starter. When the yeast warms they begin metabolizing their glycogen reserves. If they were left out they would deplete these reserves and begin to starve resulting in...

If I answer the question do I really get a million dollars? Cell density is roughly 2 billion cell per milliliter for settled yeast slurry. You can use that to figure out how many cells you are starting with. Alternatively, you could use a cell density meter or hemocytometer to get a better...

@amcclai7 Thanks! You have some good questions. Yes, the conversion is very poor. I assume I am getting all of my sugars from the extract and none from the specialty grains. Even with the short contact time the flavors of the specialty grain have been what I would expect. I've never had a...

@geoffey Without a pressure cooker you could do of your hops in the same pot as the flavor and aroma hops. For bittering you could increase the amount of hops, or you could use an alternative bittering source. @Austin I feel your pain. :) @Gavin C Thanks. Everything I have made using this...

That's great that you are reusing yeast, but you don't need to wash it to reuse it. If you enjoy the process it's not going to hurt much, but you are throwing away good yeast, inducing another possibility of contamination, and storing the yeast in a less than ideal environment. More details...

Depending on the size of your beer, the starter volume will vary. The question here is what size do you normally end up making for your beers? Based on that, what size would you find most useful?

I agree with the other posters. The water bath to control temperature and a yeast starter are going to be the most effective at improving beer quality. If you already have a huge pot and propane burner, great, go for the full boil. If you haven't made that purchase you might consider...

Thank you everyone for your comments, and especially the positive feedback. It's reassuring to hear that this is something that others are interested in. For those that don't want to change the way you brew and love long brewing sessions, that's fine. Keep doing what you are doing, my intent...

It's all good yeast. Most people will save the white creamy layer. How it stratifies is very strain depend. You probably don't need to sterilize the glycerin, but you may as well do it when you are autoclaving the vials. I use 10% glycerin and the rest slurry. It freezes and stays solid if...

Here are some ideas: http://www.woodlandbrew.com/2012/11/top-ten-ways-to-restart-fermentation.html Brett will probably do the trick, but it will take time.

A large head space shouldn't cause a contamination issue, but bacteria trapped in the wood might. Wine barrels are often retired and sold relatively inexpensively once they start to show signs of contamination.

Yes, that's a very clear way to communicate the idea.

That sounds solid assuming that you mean you are using two flasks for one of the stages. For the comparison perhaps you want to set up your final stage just how you normally would and let the stir plate run for a few minutes to homogenize the suspension. Then pour half into another vessel that...

The signs of active fermentation that you are seeing indicate that there is a significant biomass present. Pitching more yeast at this point would have very little effect unless the yeast was substantially different then the first.

It sounds like the stir plate is working for you. That's great. No need to change what you are doing. That's a fine way to compare yield if the wort was identical. Do you have some data that I could look at? Were the experiments the same except for agitation method? Here is my most...

I'll have to find that section and read it again, but he is probably referring to growth 48 hours after inoculation. At that point in time, yes, there is considerable more growth with agitation. If a starter is allowed to run to completion the yield has been about the same ever time I have run...

This seems to be a misconception that has been unfortunately widely propagated. I'm sure Jamil Zainasheff had the best intentions when creating his Mr. Malty Starter Calculator, however it seems that brewers have taken the results out of context and drawn conclusions from the calculator that I...

Good questions. Yes, tripling the cell count is very reasonable in one step of a starter. Breweries often use fermentation of beer to produce the volume of yeast that they need and have great success. Even in the adverse propagation conditions during fermentation including lack of agitation...

Most folks don't bother with a secondary fermenter, but I understand why you want to in the situation. You'll be fine racking either tonight or tomorrow. Off the cake the beer will finish fermentation a little slower, and may take a little longer to mellow.