How Much Yeast for a 1.5 Gallon Brew

[Satokad]

Hey Folks,

I am getting ready to brew a 1.5 gallon recipe I found on Brewer's Friend. When it gets to the yeast, it says the quantity is 1 (see below - copy and a link for the whole recipe).
If I understand this correctly as 1 packet, everything I have seen seems to indicate that a full packet would be overkill and detrimental to the fermentation.
Can anyone shed some light on this?
Thanks.

Yeast
Danstar - American West Coast Yeast BRY-97
Amount: 1
Attenuation (avg): 72%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Temp: 62 - 75 °F
Starter: No


https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/487187/citrus-ipa

 

[RPh_Guy]

Full packet is totally fine, assuming it's 15g or less.

Many times in small batches I've pitched 5x to 8x the suggested amount of dry yeast.

 

[Satokad]

Thanks.

 

[bkboiler]

ooh, i just fermented a one gallon extract pale ale using that yeast. very pleased with the clean ferment. i did a little less than half a pack and it turned out fine.

 

[bkboiler]

as an fyi on a separate note that beer may turn out quite a bit darker than desired for an IPA. i had similar steeping grains to yours but only used extra light DME and it was on the darker end of what i desired for an american pale ale. extract “darkening” during the boil is hard to avoid even if you add half the extract at the beginning of the boil and half at 15 mins.

 

[Satokad]

as an fyi on a separate note that beer may turn out quite a bit darker than desired for an IPA. i had similar steeping grains to yours but only used extra light DME and it was on the darker end of what i desired for an american pale ale. extract “darkening” during the boil is hard to avoid even if you add half the extract at the beginning of the boil and half at 15 mins.

Does the darker color affect anything except appearance?

 

[bkboiler]

Definitely, the amber DME has a higher percentage of crystallized malt, so you may end up with a sweeter beer, as if you had used too much crystal in an IPA, which is a no-no, imho...

 

[NGD]

ooh, i just fermented a one gallon extract pale ale using that yeast. very pleased with the clean ferment. i did a little less than half a pack and it turned out fine.

Bk, have you ever experimented with adding 1/4 the DME or just making a hop tea and adding fermentables at flameout?

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

... too much crystal in an IPA, ...

I suspect this depends on the sub-style of IPA. The op schedule is all classic C-hops, so the sub-style is reasonably an "early west coast" IPA - and for many of those timelessly delicious recipes, 5-10% crystal was common.

As for the Amber DME, if one assumes Amber DME intended to be a base malt for Amber Ales, then the suggested composition here: http://barleypopmaker.info/links-an...-grain-recipe-equivalents-to-common-extracts/ is likely to be reasonable. If so, the Amber DME would add about 3% 60L and 1.5% Munich 10L to the fermentables.

72% attenuation (BRY-97) may be a little low for an IPA. Yeast selection, rather than amber DME, often contributes more sweetness when brewing with extract.

Does the darker color affect anything except appearance?

Overall, the malt and hops looks reasonable to me. Not sure about BRY-97 (72% attenuation) for the yeast selection.

If color is a concern, but you still want to brew extract+steep, there are a couple of things you could do: 1) add the amber DME towards the end of the boil, 2) do a 30 minute boil (rather than a 45 minute boil).

 

[bkboiler]

all good suggestions.

yep, the reduced crystal is just my personal preference.

i thought the bry-97 did well, but not as well as wlp-001 for IPAs, that’s my favorite.

ive not experimented much with hop tea or swapping some dme for lme.

i know you need some sugar to isomerize the alpha acids for bitterness. generally, i add half at the beginning of a 30 minute boil and half at 15 minutes.

 

[NGD]

ive not experimented much with hop tea or swapping some dme for lme.

i know you need some sugar to isomerize the alpha acids for bitterness. generally, i add half at the beginning of a 30 minute boil and half at 15 minutes.

I recently started doing similar with my LME/DME additions. Short boils (30 min max), half at the start and the rest at flameout while stirring like crazy. My color is noticeably lighter than previous batches for the belgian blonde I usually keep on hand.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I recently started doing similar with my LME/DME additions. Short boils (30 min max), half at the start and the rest at flameout while stirring like crazy. My color is noticeably lighter than previous batches for the belgian blonde I usually keep on hand.

Probably drifting way off topic with this, but ...

the idea of "15 minute pale ale" and/or "one hour brew day" using DME has been around for a while. Maybe it's just a "novelty" as most people go all-grain (and probably don't look back). But I have a couple of recipes in this category - it's fun to be able to brew a good beer quickly after work.

• http://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/
  
• https://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/comments/6loai2/anybody_have_any_luck_with_an_all_extract_wort/ (for ideas on brewing styles other than pale ale)
• ... and don't overlook Basic Brewing Radio's "no boil" hop tasting experiments (starting in late 2017).

 

[Satokad]

Hey All,
Thanks for all your help and suggestions. We split the DME powders between 60 minutes and 22 minutes. Ended up pulling it off the burner at about 52 minutes and tossed the last hops in at that point. It was dark but looked lighter in the gravity tube. Target gravity was 1.074. We got 1.071. I’ll take that.
It occurred to me about half way through this that just because I found a recipe on Brewer’s Friend, that didn’t mean it was a good recipe. Time will tell.
I’m assuming that two weeks in the bucket is good and then I can bottle it.
On a side note, we dry hopped the Chinook IPA that was our first go (my son and I). We got all excited when we opened the bucket and it smelled like beer. We even tasted it and it wasn’t bad (although I have no idea what it’s really supposed to taste like at this point).
The target FG for that is 1.010 - 1.015. We are currently at 1.010. We will bottle that next Thursday.
Here’s a pic of today’s wort...

 

[bkboiler]

awesome! would love to hear how it turns out for you!

 

[Satokad]

I will report back.

 

[NGD]

@Satodad if you guys ever decide to make this again, I highly suggest shortening it to a 30 min boil. Tighten the hop schedule up, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Look forward to hearing how it turned out!

 

[Satokad]

@Satodad if you guys ever decide to make this again, I highly suggest shortening it to a 30 min boil. Tighten the hop schedule up, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the results.

Look forward to hearing how it turned out!

Sounds good. It's getting some bubbling through the airlock, but nothing major yet.
Should all 1 Gallon batches be 30 - 40 minute boils?

 

[Satokad]

Update - We put this in a 2 gallon bucket Thursday afternoon. At 2:00AM Sunday morning, I went down to look at it and my airlock was taking on overflow and a little bit had leaked out onto the lid. I would have thought that 1/2 gallon's worth of head space would have been enough, but then again, I still believe in Santa Claus, too. Cleaned out the airlock, re-sanitized it, and put it back in. Started a slow steady bubble right away. The good news is that it smells like beer already.
Gotta say, I'm having a lot of fun learning and brewing.

 

[Satokad]

This is what the airlock looked like. I’m sure you’ve all seen this many times, but it’s uncharted territory for me...

 

[jschein]

This is what the airlock looked like. I’m sure you’ve all seen this many times, but it’s uncharted territory for me...

Get another airlock and next time make a blow off hose, no worries

 

[Satokad]

Get another airlock and next time make a blow off hose, no worries

I bought tubing for a blow off hose today. Didn’t think I’d need it so fast. I will start with that from now on in the 2 Gallon bucket.
Thanks.

 

[NGD]

Should all 1 Gallon batches be 30 - 40 minute boils?

Its not so much the size of the batch as it is using extract. I do 30min boils with 5gal batches.

The analogy that was told to me and I’ve repeated a few times on here was to think of extract like reheating leftovers. You don’t fully recook leftovers. Your simply bringing them back up to temp; in this case for hop utilization. If this beer turns out well, it would be fun to try and repeat the recipe with a shortened boil and compare.

Awesome to hear you got your first overflow. Those yeasts are amazing little critters.

 

[Satokad]

Its not so much the size of the batch as it is using extract. I do 30min boils with 5gal batches.

The analogy that was told to me and I’ve repeated a few times on here was to think of extract like reheating leftovers. You don’t fully recook leftovers. Your simply bringing them back up to temp; in this case for hop utilization. If this beer turns out well, it would be fun to try and repeat the recipe with a shortened boil and compare.

Awesome to hear you got your first overflow. Those yeasts are amazing little critters.

Thanks for the wisdom. I'm looking forward to trying the next recipe with the shorter boil.