Brew day -1

pat3rol · Jan 23, 2014

First try of a yeast starter. I got a Guinness clone from AHS several months ago and wasn't able to brew it. I figured I'd do a starter to see if yeast was good or not.

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Only one minor boil over

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Thank you 18 degree weather plenty of COLD tap water

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And there we go. I know I know I could use a stir plate. I'll see how this goes. And I could just use tin foil over the flask but we were out need to go to BJ's.

If the yeast was bad or I did something wrong I'll have to stop at the LHBS tomorrow before I sart my brew.

More to come.

Hello · Jan 23, 2014

Is that a sponge being used as a bung?

I assume you'll be fine. It was liquid yeast yeah? What's the date on it?

pat3rol · Jan 23, 2014

It's a foam stopper that came with the flask and yeast starter kit.

White labs WPL 004 yeast best before 11-14-13. It was stored in the fridge I just didn't have a chance to brew until now.

tally350z · Jan 23, 2014

Are you using yeastcalc or mrmalty to determine the size of starter you need? Yeast viability will be pretty low so I would think a few steps would be needed to get the proper pitching rates..

pat3rol · Jan 23, 2014

I just wanted to see if the yeast was any good. If I get nothing I'll buy more.

UglyDude · Jan 23, 2014

How long can you store yeast in the frige? I have a couple tubes at home that have been around for about a year

[had some brewing location difficulties, but its all good now]

kombat · Jan 23, 2014

FYI, I've heard a few horror stories about people boiling directly in their Erlenmeyer flask, then going straight into an ice water bath to chill it. Repeated cycles of this can stress the glass, eventually resulting in cracks or a total break.

ArcLight · Jan 23, 2014

If the yeast has been in the fridge for a year i would first make a very small starter, like 50-100 ML, let it ferment out for a week, then step it up, say to 500 ML for a week, then use it normally.

>.FYI, I've heard a few horror stories about people boiling directly in their Erlenmeyer flask, then going straight into an ice water bath to chill it. Repeated cycles of this can stress the glass, eventually resulting in cracks or a total break.

Thats what the flask was designed for and how I use it. Except that when I take it off the flame, I let it sit a minute on a oven mitt to cool, then place in tap water, not ice water.

Rdom · Jan 23, 2014

UglyDude said:
How long can you store yeast in the frige? I have a couple tubes at home that have been around for about a year

[had some brewing location difficulties, but its all good now]

I've used yeast that's about a year old. Had to make a starter and then step it up again to a larger starter. Worked fine. There's a tutorial on how to use Mr malty to calculate the size of two-stage starters at seanterrill.com. I found it helpful.