Liquid Yeast/No starter

[Palmetto33]

I recently ordered a vile of white labs irish ale yeast from my LHBS. They however, did not ship it with a freezer pack like they said they would. It got here over night and I plan on brewing my red ale either today or tomorrow. Should I refrigerate it or just leave it at room temperature?

Also, the reason I got the liquid yeast was because the Munton's dry ale yeast didn't fully attenuate my first 2 batches. But I don't have a growler to make a starter with. Would it be alright to just toss it in the wort straight from the vile?

 

[Yooper]

Well, if you're brewing today, you don't have time to make a starter anyway. It's always recommended to use a starter to ensure you have viable yeast as well as reproduce more yeast. If you're brewing now, you should keep it out of the fridge and let the yeast warm up to room temperature, and then pitch it into the wort when the wort is around 70 degrees.

You don't need a growler to make a starter, you could use a quart jar, milk jug, etc. and cover it with sanitized foil.

 

[Palmetto33]

So, I don't need an airlock for it?

It won't make a difference that it was shipped at room temp.?

 

[Palmetto33]

By the way, Yooper, I'm glad you responded. I've actually been meaning to ask you a couple of questions about your dead guy clone, which I want to make next. This will be my third brew and they've all been ingredient kits so I'm a little unsure about what ingredients to order.

With the German malt, what brand do you use. I looked on a couple websites and didn't see anything that said specifically "German Malt." Also, did you use 8 pounds of extra light DME or less as the og recipe calls LME.

Appreciate it.

 

[HP_Lovecraft]

But I don't have a growler to make a starter with. Would it be alright to just toss it in the wort straight from the vile?

According to whitelabs, those pitchable vials are a condensed version of a 750ml starter. They also suggested warming them up for 24 hours or so, so it sounds like you are perfectly fine.

nick

 

[Palmetto33]

Yeah, I actually just ended up trying it in my 6.5 primary. So I've got a very thin layer of yeast/wort at the bottom of it. I noticed it bubble after just a few minutes which surprised me cause there's so much head space in there.

One thing that bothered me was when I opened the vile of yeast, after shaking it vigorously, it exploded on me. Anyone had experience with this?

 

[Yooper]

By the way, Yooper, I'm glad you responded. I've actually been meaning to ask you a couple of questions about your dead guy clone, which I want to make next. This will be my third brew and they've all been ingredient kits so I'm a little unsure about what ingredients to order.

With the German malt, what brand do you use. I looked on a couple websites and didn't see anything that said specifically "German Malt." Also, did you use 8 pounds of extra light DME or less as the og recipe calls LME.

Appreciate it.

Well, I'm reposting the recipe here so I can look at it while I respond.

13oz Belgiun Cara-Munich
13oz German Munich
7oz US Crystal 40 deg L

Steep grains in a bag at 155 degrees. Sparge with 1/2 gallon 170 degree water. Allow grains to drip into pot, but don't squeeze. Discard grains. Bring to a boil and add:

4lbs Alexanders Pale LME
4LBS LDME
(I substituted all XLDME)

1 oz perle 60 mins
1/4 oz perle 30 minutes
1/4 oz perle 5 mins
1/4 oz saaz 5 mins.

1 tsp Irish Moss 15 minutes

I used pacman yeast. If pacman is not available, try 1056 (American Ale yeast).

o.g. was 1.066
f.g. was 1.018

Ok, any brand of Munich malt, and caramunich would be ok. I think I used 7 pounds DME total. It should be very close to 1.068 with that amount. When you steep the grains, you can steep them up to 45 minutes and get plenty of color and flavor from them. That recipe is designed for about a 2.5 gallon boil. I steeped the grains in 2.5 quarts of 155 degree water, then "sparged" with the water as directed. You can add water to get you to your boil size, bring it to a boil, and then add the extract as usual. Let me know if you have more questions, and I'll be glad to help out. Feel free to PM me, because I don't always have the time to read every post and I'd had to miss it.

You don't need an airlock for a starter, because you are not trying to make beer, you're trying to grow yeast, and sanitized foil is fine. You even should shake up your starter a little each time you walk by, to make sure there is plenty of oxygen in there for yeast reproduction. Some day, I'd love to get a stir plate to make starters with, but for now the growler/shake method does work!

 

[Yooper]

Yeah, I actually just ended up trying it in my 6.5 primary. So I've got a very thin layer of yeast/wort at the bottom of it. I noticed it bubble after just a few minutes which surprised me cause there's so much head space in there.

One thing that bothered me was when I opened the vile of yeast, after shaking it vigorously, it exploded on me. Anyone had experience with this?

Absolutely. I've even posted about my yeast explosions. Now I know to shake it, wait for a moment and sllllloooooowwwwwwlllly open it to release the air, then pour it into my wort. I had such an explosion the first time, there was no yeast left to put in my wort so I had to use a package of dry! Thank goodness I always have extra dry yeast in my fridge.

 

[Rick_R]

One thing that bothered me was when I opened the vile of yeast, after shaking it vigorously, it exploded on me. Anyone had experience with this?

Yes. I lost at least a quarter of the yeast. I'll be following YooperBrew's process next time.

Rick

 

[Palmetto33]

Well, I opened it over the fermenter so I didn't lose much of it, but it did get all over my (semi sanitized) hands before falling into the wort so hopefully it's not infected. Either way, using the primary as a starter vessel seemed to work fine; it's been bubbling this morning. Will be brewing my red ale tonight.

Thanks, Yooper, for info on the recipe, I'll be doing that one next week, or at least a variation. Bader beer and wine supply have got a dead guy clone recipe as well and they say it's a German Maibock. Still trying to figure out the IBUs that I should hit using beersmith. How'd the hoppiness of your recipe come out?

 

[Yooper]

Well, Dead Guy isn't really a maibock, but Rogue's website claims it's a "maibock style" ale. German maibock is a lager that is lagered all winter to be consumed in the spring.

As far as hoppiness, it's definitely more malty than hoppy. It's got fairly low IBUs, but still balanced.

 

[Palmetto33]

Yeah, I noticed it was a lager in beersmith.

Did you do a late extract addition cause it increases the IBUs dramatically when I mess around with the late addition numbers into beersmith? I don't want it to taste like an IPA.

Do you, by any chance, have an approximate IBU goal for your Dead Guy? Bader's states 40 for their recipe but I'm knew at the whole IBU thing so I don't know if that's too much or not. I drank IPA all last night and am about to sample some dead guy so should have a better feeling for it in a bit.

 

[steve123]

I've actually used that yeast with no starter, made a great beer fully fermented as far as we can tell. I love the flavor it gives, 1st time I tasted it I just had Guiness and Smithwick's in my mind, the flavor that tied the 2 beers together. Would like to use again on our red, when/if we redo it.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah, I noticed it was a lager in beersmith.

Did you do a late extract addition cause it increases the IBUs dramatically when I mess around with the late addition numbers into beersmith? I don't want it to taste like an IPA.

Do you, by any chance, have an approximate IBU goal for your Dead Guy? Bader's states 40 for their recipe but I'm knew at the whole IBU thing so I don't know if that's too much or not. I drank IPA all last night and am about to sample some dead guy so should have a better feeling for it in a bit.

The IBUs in my Dead Guy recipe are low- 25 to 28 IBUs. When I did a late extract addition, I did it with only the LME and it was definitely more bitter but Beersmith says it's 28 IBUs that way. I haven't made the extract version in at least a year and a half though, so maybe my memory is fading a bit, too, though!