Trying to decide if I want to brew today or wait until this weekend.
I brew 10 gallon batches. My process usually has me making two 1-1.5L starters on my stir plates (because I have the smaller flasks.). I make the starters up a few days ahead, the cold crash the night before brew day.
This time, my whole schedule has been pushed back. I had some month old wlp500 that I am growing for a Belgian blonde. It took off a little slower than I am used to with my house yeast (002). So the starter delayed my brew day from Monday to today. I put the flasks in a fridge to cold crash yesterday.
This morning, they both have about 1/4 inch of yeast on the flat bottom. But they also obviously still have a lot of suspended yeast in the starter. The top of the starter is pretty clear. But the bulk of the middle section is cloudy.
So I figure I have 3 options:
1. Try to decant. Knowing I'll lose a lot of yeast in the spent wort. Also knowing as fine as the 500 is, I may lose some of the yeast at the bottom as well
2. Brew today and pitch both full starters into the finished beer. My setup consistently produces 10 gal to the fermenter on the nose. With 2.4l of starter going into 37.8L of wort, that puts 6% of my final volume as spent starter. Not ideal. Especially with a lighter profiled beer.
3. Wrap an extra layer of foil over the flasks and brew on Saturday. The new yeast will still be less than a week old and it should be a lot easier to decant after a few more days in the fridge.
I am leaning toward 3. I have time to brew on Saturday
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I brew 10 gallon batches. My process usually has me making two 1-1.5L starters on my stir plates (because I have the smaller flasks.). I make the starters up a few days ahead, the cold crash the night before brew day.
This time, my whole schedule has been pushed back. I had some month old wlp500 that I am growing for a Belgian blonde. It took off a little slower than I am used to with my house yeast (002). So the starter delayed my brew day from Monday to today. I put the flasks in a fridge to cold crash yesterday.
This morning, they both have about 1/4 inch of yeast on the flat bottom. But they also obviously still have a lot of suspended yeast in the starter. The top of the starter is pretty clear. But the bulk of the middle section is cloudy.
So I figure I have 3 options:
1. Try to decant. Knowing I'll lose a lot of yeast in the spent wort. Also knowing as fine as the 500 is, I may lose some of the yeast at the bottom as well
2. Brew today and pitch both full starters into the finished beer. My setup consistently produces 10 gal to the fermenter on the nose. With 2.4l of starter going into 37.8L of wort, that puts 6% of my final volume as spent starter. Not ideal. Especially with a lighter profiled beer.
3. Wrap an extra layer of foil over the flasks and brew on Saturday. The new yeast will still be less than a week old and it should be a lot easier to decant after a few more days in the fridge.
I am leaning toward 3. I have time to brew on Saturday
Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
