A few more brew day questions:

[rwabdu]

1) I'm making a short (3-4 hours) starter for my WLP001 (I expect an OG of 1.056). I know that I don't need to make a starter for this OG but book recommends it (brewing with style). I also wanted to save some of the yeast and have a permanent strain living in my refrigerator. When I make a starter with a few cups of water and some LME, how much should I pitch? and how do I preserve it for months to be ready to use later?

2) I'm using LME and my batch says that the final volume should be about 7 gallons, i can only hold about 3.5 gallons in my brew pot, will it affect anything if i just add the last few gallons of water in the carboy after the boil?

Thats all for now, I may post more questions later as I think of them.
Thank you for your help

 

[MeatyPortion]

1) I'm making a short (3-4 hours) starter for my WLP001 (I expect an OG of 1.056). I know that I don't need to make a starter for this OG but book recommends it (brewing with style). I also wanted to save some of the yeast and have a permanent strain living in my refrigerator. When I make a starter with a few cups of water and some LME, how much should I pitch? and how do I preserve it for months to be ready to use later?

2) I'm using LME and my batch says that the final volume should be about 7 gallons, i can only hold about 3.5 gallons in my brew pot, will it affect anything if i just add the last few gallons of water in the carboy after the boil?

Thats all for now, I may post more questions later as I think of them.
Thank you for your help

1. Pitch it all. If you want to save some for later look into the Yeast Washing Illustrated sticky in the yeast forum.

2. The final volume includes the water you add to it in the fermenter. For an extract brew it's typical to just brew 1.5-2.5 gallons in the brew pot. Just add the rest after you cool the wort down.

 

[Runyanka]

1) I'm making a short (3-4 hours) starter for my WLP001 (I expect an OG of 1.056). I know that I don't need to make a starter for this OG but book recommends it (brewing with style). I also wanted to save some of the yeast and have a permanent strain living in my refrigerator. When I make a starter with a few cups of water and some LME, how much should I pitch? and how do I preserve it for months to be ready to use later?

That's a really short time for a starter, you typically want at least 2-3 days before brewday. I would crop some yeast off the top of the fermenter, if you want to store some.

2) I'm using LME and my batch says that the final volume should be about 7 gallons, i can only hold about 3.5 gallons in my brew pot, will it affect anything if i just add the last few gallons of water in the carboy after the boil?

That's what almost everyone does when you don't have the capability to do full boils.

 

[rwabdu]

thank you! maybei WLP says i dont need a starter but i thought id just do a shorter one?

anyone know how to use irish moss? i bought some to try to clear my beer at the end of the boil? how much to I put in and at what temp? do i need to worry about those little grains staying in my wort or can i just pour the hole batch into the fermenter?

 

[MeatyPortion]

thank you! maybei WLP says i dont need a starter but i thought id just do a shorter one?

anyone know how to use irish moss? i bought some to try to clear my beer at the end of the boil? how much to I put in and at what temp? do i need to worry about those little grains staying in my wort or can i just pour the hole batch into the fermenter?

Typically you add about a teaspoon near the end of the boil around the 15-10 minutes mark, for example: a Belgian Dubbel I'll be brewing next has 1 tsp at the 10 minute mark. I swear I've also brewed a batch where it was at the 5 minute mark but my memory's shaky on that.

edit -- ok, I went back to look at my recipe notes and found a Bitter that had the tsp of Irish moss at 15 minutes but nothing about a 5 minute addition. Not sure where I got that from.

 

[Kaz]

That's a really short time for a starter, you typically want at least 2-3 days before brewday. I would crop some yeast off the top of the fermenter, if you want to store some.

I agree, 2-3 hours is too short, I don't know about 2-3 day though. Everything I've read says that the yeast have reached peak growth in 12-24 hours. I usually make the starter about 24 hours before I think I'll be pitching and then pitch the whole thing. I'm making one right now for a wit that I'll brew tomorrow afternoon actually.

 

[unionrdr]

I made a starter for some rather old Cooper's ale yeast out of 1 1/2C of 150F water with 1/4C DME stirred in. Put in a quick check thermometer & covered it with plastic wrap. When the temp went down to 75F,I pitched the yeast.
It sat on the counter while I went about the rest of my brew day. It was 3 hours & 35 mins till I stirred & pitched it that evening. Early the next morning,I saw krausen pushing against the lid. Saw that for a lil over 3 days.
But,of course,it was a pale ale. But it's working just fine. Something heavier would take more time for the starter to do it's thing.

 

[Kaz]

2) I'm using LME and my batch says that the final volume should be about 7 gallons, i can only hold about 3.5 gallons in my brew pot, will it affect anything if i just add the last few gallons of water in the carboy after the boil?

Just curious, how large is your carboy? A final volume of 7 gallons? I've only ever seen 6.5 gallon carboys.

 

[rwabdu]

I think my fermenter is about 8 gallons, not sure. I thought it was weird the recipe I got was for 7 gallons (but its from "brewing classics style" p134 which is a pretty reputable book) so I'm just going with it, but if I cant fit in all my wort I might have a high OG. or I might split it up and do some experiments with other stuff like try different yeasts or something.

 

[rwabdu]

its 7 gallons pre boil, so it'll probably be like 6.5 or less in the fermenter

 

[rwabdu]

at what time should skim yeast off the top to save? do i just take out some of the Krausin on the top or should I wait until fermentation ends?

 

[MeatyPortion]

its 7 gallons pre boil, so it'll probably be like 6.5 or less in the fermenter

If you're doing an extract then the pre boil should not be 7 gallons. Are you looking at an all grain recipe and trying to substitute lme?

 

[dantose]

I've done exactly that with extract batches without issue

 

[MeatyPortion]

I think the best thing would be to post the recipe you're attempting to brew. There are a few things that aren't adding up.

 

[MeatyPortion]

I've done exactly that with extract batches without issue

Not saying you can't, just saying that 7 gallons for an extract's pre-boil seems excessive.

 

[rwabdu]

Ok PAle ALe recipe from: "brewing With Style"

Extract:
Light LME 8 lbs
Munich .5 lbs (replaced with partial mash Munich 10)
Wheat LME .5 lbs
Steeping grains: Victory 20

OG: 1.056
FG: 1.013
IBU 30-35
5.7% ABV
preboil volume 7 gal
preboil gravity 1.048 gal

Hops:
Horizon --> using Cascade instead for less bitterness .66 oz 60 min
Centennial .5 oz 10 min
Cascade .5 oz 10 min
Centennial .5 0 min
Cascade .5 oz 0 min

my plan was to partial mash grains, then boil 3 gallons, cool it and put it in my fermenter then add cold water until i get to my OG of 1.056.

 

[MeatyPortion]

Thanks for posting the info. Odd that the pre-boil would be that high. When I get home I'll take a look at it some more.

 

[rwabdu]

cool, thank you for all your help.

 

[Kaz]

I'm brewing the Wittebrew recipe from 'Brewing Classic Styles' tomorrow. All the recipes in that book are for a FULL boil. Somewhere around p.35 it explains that the recipes are a 7 gallon pre-boil, assuming you will have 6 gallons left in the kettle after the 60 min. boil. Then transferring 5.5 gallons to the fermenter and finally bottling or kegging 5 gallons. They allow for .5 gallons to be left behind with the break material and post ferm. trub. He does tell you on those pages a procedure to convert the full boil recipe to a partial boil with a top off in the fermenter at the end.

edit: After reading the procedure Jamil gives for scaling to a partial boil, it basically gets a little technical but has you steep your grains in your boil volume, then add enough extract to create wort that would be the same gravity if you were doing a full boil. This would ensure that the hops utilization would be the same for your smaller boil. Then add the remaining extract at flameout, chill, transfer and topoff.

 

[MeatyPortion]

ok, I guess that makes a bit more sense. I juat had never seen such a large pre-boil for an extract or even a partial mash. Learn something new every day.