liquid and dry yeast

[ipabrewer23]

Today I brewed a monks in a barrel abbey ale and the gravity was a little too high for one white labs yeast vial .so I added a half pack of dry brewers yeast, Im not necessarily worried just curious on the effect of mixing the two. If it will effect my beer

 

[max384]

Unless you're doing one gallon batches, you nearly always need to create a starter if you're using liquid yeasts.

Which yeasts did you use? How come you mixed the two instead of just using the entire dry packet?

 

[ipabrewer23]

White labs monestary ale yeast is what I used. Also some brewers dry yeast. I pitched the white labs and spilled some and I didnt have anyother liquid vial so I pitched half a packet of dry yeast just to make up for what I spilled. I dont think I did any harm was just curious. I dont have a vial or stirplate yet to make starters.

 

[ipabrewer23]

Also its a 5 gallon batch

 

[max384]

Which dry brewers yeast did you use?

You don't need a stirplate or flask to do a starter. It sure helps, but if you need to, you can make one using any vessel you choose (like a gallon water jug), so long as you stir, shake, or otherwise oxygenate it regularly. You can also build a stirplate for just a few dollars very easily; just Google for directions. Either way, if you're doing five gallon batches and can't do starters, you should really switch to dry yeast, since you just can't get a proper pitching rate with liquid yeasts if you don't make a starter.

As far as doing any harm? It depends upon the dry yeast strain you used, and how compatible with your beer style it is. Either way, you'll still make beer!

 

[ipabrewer23]

Muntons active brewers yeast. I probably used less than half of a pack with white labs monestary ale yeast. (Wouldent normaly do that but I maybe had too much homebrew in me when pitching.) Probably no harm done hopefully they dont start battleing eachother haha

 

[max384]

Haha. Nope. Won't battle each other! They'll both eat, reproduce, and make booze. They'll produce their own subtle flavors and characteristics. Munton's dry yeast is a cheap and never-recommended yeast that is included in most starter kits solely because it's inexpensive. That won't help your flavor profile, but good beer can still be made with this yeast.

 

[jekeane]

Darwin is about to be proved right here... The fitness of each yeast strain will be tested against each other within the environment of your wort and a winner will be crowned... the result of the battle will be your beer! You should watch it play out might be as interesting as a game of thrones episode.

 

[ipabrewer23]

Thanks for insight max.jekeane I already have popcorn and videotape. Looks like bruce lee vs chuck norris is my carboy. Should be a good fight xd

 

[beardown2489]

^Hahaha^

Chuck Norris never loses. You know that, right?

 

[amcclai7]

Especially with a belgian yeast (really aggressive, esters are usually pleasant) I would much rather underpitch (which will give you higher ester production and higher attenuation leading to a drier beer, both of which are desirable in most belgian styles) than to mix two yeasts. My guess is that the Belgian yeast will still impart a lot of flavor, but not as much as if you would have left it alone. Just my 2 cents.

P.S. I know we've all been lectured on the evils of underpitching but there's actually a fair amount of reasearch that says it can be great for certain beers. Basically anytime you want a lot of esters (Belgians, Saisions, Certain English Ales, Hefes) you should underpitch, sometimes significantly so. Ironically enough, I think underpitching has been the biggest thing that has increased the quality of my beers recently. (Again this only works for estery styles)

Really cool experiment on this: http://sciencebrewer.com/2012/03/02/pitching-rate-experiment-part-deux-results/

 

[ipabrewer23]

Just a update on how its going useing both liquid and dry yeast. I woke up this morning and my blow off is going crazy nonstop all day sounds like a machine gun going off in my closet with about 1 1/2 krausen. By far the most intense blow off I have ever had maybe becuase of the 1lb hard rock candi sugar my kit told me to put in. Has anyone ever had a fermentation this intense with relatively small krausen?