Few general questions I have run into.

[Bobbo404]

Doing my third homebrew. Ive seen and read different things, when sprinkling the yeast onto the top of the wort, do you stir it in or just leave it on the top? With my carboy having a small bottle neck i cant get it evenly distributed on the top of the wort.

Also, my OG reading seems to be lower than the "predicted" level that the instructions said it would be, is this because I possible put too much water in it with the wort?

When i get the wort/water to a "rolling boil" before i put the dry malt and the liquid malt into the water: is it okay if the temp just keeps rising with the boil? or should i just get it to the boiling temp and keep it there? Does it matter at all?

 

[NeoBrew]

Doing my third homebrew. Ive seen and read different things, when sprinkling the yeast onto the top of the wort, do you stir it in or just leave it on the top? With my carboy having a small bottle neck i cant get it evenly distributed on the top of the wort.

Just dump it in. It will hydrate itself. It's better to sprinkle if you can. It's not worth trying to sanitize and sticking something else in your fermenter to mix it. It would be even better to rehydrate your yeast before you put it in the fermenter.

Also, my OG reading seems to be lower than the "predicted" level that the instructions said it would be, is this because I possible put too much water in it with the wort?

Yes. When doing extract brewing there are only 3 things that can affect your gravity. How much malt extract you add, how much water you add, and how much you boil off. If you are lower than predicted, you either put too much water in or not enough extract.

When i get the wort/water to a "rolling boil" before i put the dry malt and the liquid malt into the water: is it okay if the temp just keeps rising with the boil? or should i just get it to the boiling temp and keep it there? Does it matter at all?

Water cannot get hotter than boiling and stay in a liquid state. It's physics.

Once you get a rolling boil you can back off on the heat just to maintain it. You don't want to evaporate too much water over the course of your boil.

 

[Bobbo404]

Oh right hahaha good point about the boil.
I will do some investigating oh how to rehydrate the yeast!
I appreciate the advice!

 

[jdauria]

Empowering Dry Yeast with Simple Rehydration | American Homebrewers Association Pretty simple process to rehyrdate and then it makes it easier to pour into the beer from a measuring cup.

 

[RM-MN]

I use dry yeast. I've sprinkled it on top, dumped in the bottom and poured wort on top of it. I've stirred it in, and I've rehydrated. I always get beer and I seem to hit pretty close on the expected FG. I don't worry about it any more and I don't rehydrate because I haven't seen any benefit to it.

One final reason to be low on OG with extract. If you pour top off water on top of the wort that you just boiled, you often get stratification as the concentrated wort is much denser than the top off water. As long as you are brewing with extract, forget taking an OG. Look at what the kit projects. If you measure the water correctly you hit the correct OG.

 

[D.B.Moody]

deleted

 

[D.B.Moody]

I use dry yeast.. I don't rehydrate because I haven't seen any benefit to it.
aking an OG. Look at what the kit projects. If you measure the water correctly you hit the correct OG.

I agree with this. I can't speak to the FG thing, because I don't have expected FGs and I haven't even used my hydrometer for over a decade.

 

[mashpaddled]

Doing my third homebrew. Ive seen and read different things, when sprinkling the yeast onto the top of the wort, do you stir it in or just leave it on the top? With my carboy having a small bottle neck i cant get it evenly distributed on the top of the wort.

I think you'll be ok sprinkling on top and maybe gently stirring it in after a few minutes of soaking on the surface. There is evidence that the sudden change in osmotic pressure if you immediately stir in the yeast kills off cells so letting them sit on top and start to rehydrate or rehydrating before adding it to the wort can help ensure more cells survive pitching. But I wouldn't agonize over a perfect layer of yeast on the surface.

Also, my OG reading seems to be lower than the "predicted" level that the instructions said it would be, is this because I possible put too much water in it with the wort?

Are you adding exactly what the kit says to add? Are you thoroughly mixing the wort and water before testing gravity? Assuming you add the correct volume of top-off water you may have a low OG reading if you don't mix in the water thoroughly because you have the denser wort on the bottom and the less dense water more on top. It's eventually going to even out during fermentation but it will be a chronic source of low OG readings.

When i get the wort/water to a "rolling boil" before i put the dry malt and the liquid malt into the water: is it okay if the temp just keeps rising with the boil? or should i just get it to the boiling temp and keep it there? Does it matter at all?

The temperature shouldn't increase much with the addition of extract if at all. Once you get a thorough boil going you can back off the heat until you are down to a little more than a simmer. You don't need to boil hard and if anything the extra energy is degrading the grain and hop compounds you want to keep in healthy shape for delicious beer.

 

[Bobbo404]

I've added exactly what the kit says.
The yeast, I'm kinda worried now because I stirred it in... and some got stuck on the outside of the stiring stick, and I didn't "gently" try to get it unstuck.

 

[ncbrewer]

The yeast, I'm kinda worried now because I stirred it in... and some got stuck on the outside of the stiring stick, and I didn't "gently" try to get it unstuck.

I doubt if you lost enough yeast to cause a problem, although I didn't see it.

By "stirring stick", I hope you mean a stainless spoon rather than a wooden spoon. Sanitizer won't work on wood since it's porous.

 

[Bobbo404]

no i used the end of the plastic siphon.

 

[IslandLizard]

some got stuck on the outside of the stiring stick, and I didn't "gently" try to get it unstuck.

There's not all that much dry yeast in a typical sachet. You be the judge how much %-wise was lost to the stick.
Depending on your batch size and gravity (OG) it may be insignificant.

For reference, an (11 gram) sachet of Fermentis or Lallemand dry yeast is good for 5 gallons of 1.060 OG wort or lower. There are some decent margins too.
You probably got nothing to worry about unless you lost close to 30-50%.

 

[Bobbo404]

So ive come across another question.
If my fermentation is stuck and i add another packet of yeast to it, (and lets say that i didn't actually need to do that, because it just finished fermenting early or whatever) would it hurt the wort?