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Brewed a 1.050 Pale Ale one week ago with Wyeast American Ale II. This yeast was repitched for the 4th time. The first time I used this yeast (after doing a starter), and after the first repitching, I had very active fermentations (I.e. thick krausen formation, wild bubbling, etc). The past two...

So I rinsed yeast from a recent brew with the hope of brewing within a week or so. It’s been about 3 or 4 weeks, so I assume I will need to do a yeast starter just to be safe (or am I wasting time?). My question is, how much yeast should I use in the starter and how big of a starter should I...

Ordered a pack of Omega West Coast Ale yeast online back in the summer. It arrived somewhat swollen. Package date was May 2019. Finally got around to making a starter (1500 ml) on Wednesday night. Used a stir plate. Saw almost no activity until about 24 hours (last night). Now it appears to be...

Hello! Thinking about getting into Spunding so I can try naturally carbonating my brews. Right now, my carb process for lagers is typical and simple...pitch and ferment at 50ish (in a glass car boy), slowly ramp up temps into a D rest (usually 10-14 days total), rack to secondary, slowly chill...

Hello! Thinking about getting into Spunding so I can try naturally carbonating my brews. Right now, my carb process for lagers is typical and simple...pitch and ferment at 50ish (in a glass car boy), slowly ramp up temps into a D rest (usually 10-14 days total), rack to secondary, slowly chill...

Hello! Yesterday, I made a 1.5L starter for a 1.050ish lager with one pack of yeast. I want to step up and do another 1.5L starter. I plan to decant the original 1.5L starter before stepping up. Do I absolutely need to cold crash that batch before decanting or can I just decant warm after it’s...

Just got my scores back from the 3rd Homebrew competition I’ve ever entered. I know the feedback received is way more important than scores, but I was happy to receive a 35 on one of my entries. Highest I’ve ever gotten (also received a 14, my lowest ever! YIKES!) However, I did not place in the...

Hello all. Quick background info. I’ve been doing lots of ales (~1.050) lately (blondes and ambers) using the wyeastII American Ale strain. I’ve reused the yeast (washed) four times now. I salvage as much as I can from the previous batch, decant and just pitch everything I salvage into the new...

Hello all. I just went through my first yeast washing process. Seemed to go pretty well. I ended up stashing what I saved in 3 (1 quart) mason jars. I’ve had the jars in my fridge for about 24 hours now. The picture below is what I’m seeing now. Am I right in thinking that the white layer on...

I recently got into doing starters for all my 5 gallon batches. So far I’ve done 3, 1 Ale and 2 lagers. Had no issue with the Ale, but had to dump the first lager (a maibock) due to not pitching enough yeast and I’m afraid I’ve done the same thing with this most recent lager (OG:1.054 FG:1.013)...

Recently brewed a 5 gal amber ale using wyeast American Ale II. Decided to try yeast washing for the first time. Boiled a gallon of water, let it cool and added to the trub and placed in a gallon jug for separation. I wasn't able to start until late in the evening, so I stored the gallon jug...

Recently brewed a 1.060 Maibock (which I know is low for the style) using Wyeast 2487 Hella Bock. I made a 2 L starter with 2 smack packs. Let it ferment for about 36 hours. This was my first time making a starter and I'm not sure I grew enough yeast. The ferment has been very uneventful and...

Long story short, I turned my back for two minutes and the tube jumped out of my kettle and about a gallon of pre sparge wort went literally down the drain. Had about 2.5 gallons of wort pre sparge for a 5 gallon brew. Lost almost half. Ran my 4.25 gal of sparge water as normal and added about a...

Why are there so few options available for dry yeasts? I really want to branch out and try different yeast strains, but liquids take more effort and time than I can give. It's hard to find time to brew and I generally don't have a week's notice as to when I'm going to brew...so it's tough to go...

Brewerd a 3 gal maibock on Saturday (1.067). Pitches 3 packets of 34/70 dry yeast and fermented at 50F. Saw this today, which I've never seen in a ferment using this yeast. Looks like one big brownish/greenish clumping. Could just be the high Krausen forming and maybe it will spread to the rest...

I brewed an all grain Maibock yesterday with mostly German Pils malt. I read online that a 90 minute boil (never did one before) is a good idea to drive off DMS from the pils, so I decided to do it. One problem: I forgot to change my boil length time on the recipe software so I ended up using...

So, I'm currently enjoying a Vienna lager that I kegged a week ago. I made 3 gallons, all grain. I just started experimenting with caramel malts. I'm not sure why I forgot about the guidelines for how much of the grain bill should consist of caramel malts, because I've definitely read it...

Brewed a fest bier 10 days ago. Fermenter was set at 50 and bumped to 52 the other day. Used 34/70 dry yeast. Usually, my lagers clear up and floc out pretty well on top. This batch has a pretty solid layer of gooey yeast on top still and bubbling has just about ceased. I did notice this ferment...

I'm a homebrew nut (obviously) and also a bit of a history nerd. I've gotten pretty interested in the local brewery history of my town, which had quite a few breweries in the early 20th century. One thing I've never been able to find is recipe info from any of these breweries. No historical...

So I've just gotten the results back from the second homebrew competition I've entered a beer in, and I'm somewhat miffed... This was a local competition with 162 entires. I brewed a Vienna lager and there were 23 lagers entered. I was super happy with this beer. The least flawed one I've...