Liquid Yeast

[jay672]

OK ive been brewing for awhile but never had this happen. I shook my liquid yeast like your supposed to before putting it in the carboy tonight and when i opened it it went everywhere. I think i saved a good amount but i know i lost some. Anyone else ever had this happen? Think i need to get more yeast?

 

[rcd]

that happened to me the first time i brewed hehehe.

was it whitelabs?

the trick i learned is basically this: shake it crazy like youre supposed to. then, hold it upright and wait a while. watch the bubbles start to chill back out. maybe 20 seconds. then open the cap slowly, just enough to release a little pressure, then quickly reseal... it will chill out more inside the tube. repeat until nothing tries to come out while opening.

i do this every time now and have no probs and great brews.

hope it helps

(suffice it to say, it's normal)

 

[jay672]

Yea it was White Labs never had that happen like that before tho.

 

[azmtnbiker]

I have had that happen a few times. I just open enough to let the pressure out then once it goes away I finish opening th vial and pitch.

 

[user 4295]

I know that White Lab claims that you can just pitch the vial into 5 gallons of wort, but you are really underpitching when you do that. Many people have had good luck doing that, but even more people have discovered that making a yeast starter from a vial, and then pitching that results in a better fermentation.

Do a search for yeast starters, there is much info on the subject around here. If you can't find anything, start a thread and ask about it..

John

 

[thebull]

I have found that a starter and good aeration is the answer with any yeast. With the White Labs tube I am just careful opening the container after the shake and have no problems. I have really oxgenated my last two batches and used a starter and the difference is unbelievable.

 

[homebrewer_99]

That's called Baptism...you're a brewer now! Congrats!!!

 

[McCall St. Brewer]

I've been wondering about those White Labs tubes. I seems like I would really need to do a starter and I don't really want to. I generally use Wyeast smackpacks and have no trouble at all by simply pitching from the smackpack. The White Labs tubes just seem so much smaller.

 

[Steve973]

From the experience of trying things both ways, I agree with those people who say that using a starter is the way to go. It's so easy - I mean, you make wort and ferment your beer, right? Well, your starter is a mini-brew, but it's immesurably easier, quicker, and so much easier. Just let the yeast activate like crazy for about two days and get to high krausen and dump them in to your wort on brew day. Combine that with a couple minutes of pure oxygen and you'll see bubbles in the airlock before you believe it's possible! "They" say that doing this increases your attenuation considerably, and I believe that's true, but I don't have any real experience that helps to suggest or disprove this.

 

[RichBrewer]

I had that happen to me the first time I used White Labs. Those yeasties must make a little CO2 when they wake up. I ended up wearing about 1/4 of the liquid from the vile. I now open them very carefully.

 

[mysterio]

I invert the tube back and forth for a few minutes without shaking and it does the trick.