I have a Yeast load question!!!!

[Bfranklin007]

I am brewing an imperial nut brown extract brew. I am tweaking it a little and adding some sugars and honey for a boost abv (which is 9.1 according to beer smith) . I am concerned that the safale S-04 yeast that came with the kit is not going to live long enough to give me my abv (9.1). Can anyone tell me what percentages the S-04 will handle? If it is lower than 9.1, can you suggest a yeast that will do work? Thanks for any and all input!
Cheers!!

 

[brettg20]

I would either do a yeast starter and if you can't, pitch a couple of packs. You want to pitch the correct amount of yeast, especially for a beer that big.

 

[Kaz]

I think S-04 will easily chew through 9.1 abv. Make sure to rehydrate and pitch enough cells and you'll be fine.

 

[Bfranklin007]

I am extremely new at this, so some of what I see confuses me a little. This kit only came with a 11.5 g package of yeast.

@brettg20...When you say pitch more yeast, are you saying I should use two packages?

@kaz Can you explain what it means to rehydrate the yeast?

 

[Trox]

I am extremely new at this, so some of what I see confuses me a little. This kit only came with a 11.5 g package of yeast.

@brettg20...When you say pitch more yeast, are you saying I should use two packages?

@kaz Can you explain what it means to rehydrate the yeast?

This should answer both questions:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter6-5.html


Edit: for a big beer like your looking at I would advise making a yeast starter even after rehydrating your yeast; you can use a site like Mrmalty.com to figure out how big of a starter/how many yeast cells you'll need for your ABV. For the Mrmalty site you'll need to know your expected OG.

 

[Kaz]

Higher gravity worts will benefit from pitching more yeast, so using 2 packs won't hurt anything. Rehydrating the yeast will help acclimate the cells before you dump them into the wort. See link for instructions http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_S04.pdf

I don't ever make a starter with dry yeast, not necessary.

 

[brettg20]

Without a starter I would definitely use 2 packs for that big of a brew. Check out this link, a handy tool you will use as you get more involved with brewing...

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[BigFloyd]

I am extremely new at this, so some of what I see confuses me a little. This kit only came with a 11.5 g package of yeast.

@brettg20...When you say pitch more yeast, are you saying I should use two packages?

@kaz Can you explain what it means to rehydrate the yeast?

You rehydrate dry yeast in warm (about 100*F) tap water. For the two 11g packets that you'll certainly need for this beer, boil some tap water so that you end up with one cup. I normally do this before I begin brewing in the microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup. Cover it with foil that you've sanitized by spraying with StarSan (if you don't have StarSan, get some ASAP and have some in a clean spray bottle) and let it sit to cool while you brew.

After you've started chilling the wort, check the water temp with a sanitized thermometer (you need a good thermometer to brew, trust me) and add the yeast if it's 90-105*F. Don't stir it yet. Let it sit (covered) 15 minutes, stir it around, cover up and let it sit another 5 minutes. Hopefully, you now have the wort chilled to 60-65*F. The yeast will be warmer, so you have to stir in small amounts of the cooler wort and let it sit (covered) a few minutes. It may take a few times of doing this to get the yeast to within 10*F of the wort. Now you can pitch it and seal the fermenter.

You don't do a starter with dry yeast. If it's a high gravity wort, you rehydrate and pitch multiple packs.

 

[Demus]

Starters are not recommended with dry yeast because of the process used dehydrating them. For a brewer who doesn't know what rehydrating yeast is or how to do it a 9.1% abv beer is a poor choice. Have you ever heard of "crawl, walk, run"? Well, try to run first and you fall on your face. You may write me off as being harsh,but you've been warned. Beers that strong are not for new brewers...

 

[Bfranklin007]

Starters are not recommended with dry yeast because of the process used dehydrating them. For a brewer who doesn't know what rehydrating yeast is or how to do it a 9.1% abv beer is a poor choice. Have you ever heard of "crawl, walk, run"? Well, try to run first and you fall on your face. You may write me off as being harsh,but you've been warned. Beers that strong are not for new brewers...

@Demus I live my life with the motto, Go big of go home!!!! If I fail on this one, guess what..... I figure out what went wrong, fix it, and then I have a quality product. If I wanted an average beer, I would not even fool with brewing myself. I want something extraordinary. Something no one else has or has done. I want to be creative and push the limits. So what if this one doesn't work out. I just pick myself up and drink my failure while I'm brewing the 2nd version of it to remind me what I did wrong in the first version. I do appreciate all comments that are positive and helpful. If you want to bring someone down, do it on someone else’s thread. I am a positive and encouraging person by nature and appreciate the same in return.

 

[Bfranklin007]

You rehydrate dry yeast in warm (about 100*F) tap water. For the two 11g packets that you'll certainly need for this beer, boil some tap water so that you end up with one cup. I normally do this before I begin brewing in the microwave in a Pyrex measuring cup. Cover it with foil that you've sanitized by spraying with StarSan (if you don't have StarSan, get some ASAP and have some in a clean spray bottle) and let it sit to cool while you brew.

After you've started chilling the wort, check the water temp with a sanitized thermometer (you need a good thermometer to brew, trust me) and add the yeast if it's 90-105*F. Don't stir it yet. Let it sit (covered) 15 minutes, stir it around, cover up and let it sit another 5 minutes. Hopefully, you now have the wort chilled to 60-65*F. The yeast will be warmer, so you have to stir in small amounts of the cooler wort and let it sit (covered) a few minutes. It may take a few times of doing this to get the yeast to within 10*F of the wort. Now you can pitch it and seal the fermenter.

You don't do a starter with dry yeast. If it's a high gravity wort, you rehydrate and pitch multiple packs.

@bigfloyd Thank you for your input and helpful information. Cheers!!

 

[Demus]

I'm not trying to discourage; quite the contrary. Nothing is more encouraging than early success. After teaching several brewers in my garage now as well as instructing other things in my professional life, I've learned the process we humans seem to have the most success with. That process doesn't involve jumping right in to higher more complex levels of the task at hand. There are building blocks and skills that are best learned in a logical order. A good teacher tempers unbridled enthusiasm. Think of golf; if you goal is to hit a 300 yard drive and you never lifted a club, am I dragging you down to start you off with a 9 iron?

 

[BigFloyd]

I do appreciate all comments that are positive and helpful. If you want to bring someone down, do it on someone else’s thread. I am a positive and encouraging person by nature and appreciate the same in return.

I don't think that Demus was meaning to bring you down. There's a lot to the process of brewing beer and "bigger" beers do present greater challenges, especially to newer brewers. It's also really tough for a newer brewer to brew/ferment/bottle something and then have to box it up wait another 3-6 months while it ages (which is often needed to get decent flavor from higher ABV and complex brews). Once you've got a few batches in the pipeline and have something to drink/share, that long of a wait isn't quite so bad.

For most of us, it took the first few batches just to become comfortable with the basic process of handling the materials, sanitization, transferring liquids, etc. It will take a while to develop some understanding of how to recognize any gaps in your practices so that you can correct them. Temperature issues tend to cause the most problems. Chilling wort to the correct temp (low 60's for most ales), pitching sufficient yeast and maintaining the optimal temperature throughout the ferment is critical to making even decent beer.

Just about everyone here is eager to help. Sometimes that will involve them saying things like, "whoa, wait a bit before you try doing that." I personally tend to steer newer brewers in our local brew club away from attempting a lager (since they present some additional challenges) until they have at least a few successful ales under their belts and have gathered the extra equipment needed to do a lager.

 

[PistolaPete]

I would either do a yeast starter and if you can't, pitch a couple of packs. You want to pitch the correct amount of yeast, especially for a beer that big.

Everything I've read says to NOT do a starter w/ dry yeast or you will hurt the yeast more than help it...Where are people getting this info from?

 

[duboman]

Under the yeast and fermentation forum there is a great new stickie by boydster, I highly recommend it

 

[BigFloyd]

Under the yeast and fermentation forum there is a great new stickie by boydster, I highly recommend it

+1. That's an excellent sticky that gives very useful info about using dry yeast.

 

[Bfranklin007]

@bigfloyd I understand what you are saying. I just believe the "craw, walk, run..." thing rubbed me the wrong way. This is not my first brew. It will be my 3rd brew in the past 2 months. The other two were a relative success, so I wanted to challenge myself a little. I done a pale wheat which was the better of the two. I also done an Expresso Milk Stout that if that was all I was shooting for, would have been right on, but I added pumpkin and spices that didn't show up in the taste. At any rate, I brewed this recipe today. The OG was 1.098. I ended up pitching an additional half pack of yeast (@70 degree). Thanks for the input and Happy Brewing.