My first Beer. Yeast, Water & sanitizer questions.

[-Fusion]

So I picked an American Hefeweizen to brew for our first brew. The LHBS gave us the following recipe.

1/2lb Munich
1/4lb Crystal 40L
1lb flaked Wheat
7lb liquid Wheat Malt Extract
2oz Tettnanger
.5oz Cascade Hops
White Labs American Hefeweizen WLP 320

I have a few questions that if someone can point us in the right direction that would be great. First off do I need to make a starter? I have never used liquid yeast and only used dry in my ciders. Second, can I use filtered tap water from my fridge? Does it need boiled first or treated in any way? Lastly, do I need to use one step first then starsan? Or will a starsan dip be enough?

Thanks for the help!

 

[Kent88]

You probably don't need to make a starter, but if you have some extra DME around and a container (like a growler or an e. flask) you can keep it in, than a starter can be helpful, IMHO. I like to make a starter to make sure my yeast is viable before I dough in.

Your filtered tap water has been treated, you've removed the clorine, or at least a good portion of it. I wouldn't worry about messing with the water any more than that. You wont need to boil the water until after you've mashed/steeped and removed the munich, crystal, and wheat.

Make sure that one step is a sanitizer and, if so, you should be able to just use that. I haven't used it before but the impression I get is that you only need to apply one no-rinse sanitizer.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Its been years since i did an extract brew but I'll chime in. How many gallons are you brewing? I would always recommend a starter because why take all that time to brew and not make sure you've done all you could to make sure it ferments as quickly as possible and finishes as it should. If you prepare correctly, there's very little work to do one. That being said, if you're doing a small batch and the yeast is fresh, you will likely be just fine if you went that route. If your stuff is clean, a star san dip is all you need.

What I do to make doing starters very easy is as follows. I brew 12 gallon batches so when I'm doing my recipe, I adjust it to make sure I have an extra half gallon of wort to it. I take two (1) quart mason jars and sanitize them. When my wort boils for a few minutes and before the first hop addition I fill both mason jars with wort and put the caps on them and let them cool and stick them in refrigerator for my next brew. When it comes time for my next brew day, I take them out of the fridge to warm to pitching temperature, sanitize two 2000 ml flasks, dump the wort into the flask, add boiled (and cooled) or distilled water to the wort to get an O.G. of about .1030 -.1040 and stick them on my stir plate overnight. By the time they are ready to pitch they are going like crazy and you'll see signs of fermentation in a few hours.

 

[IslandLizard]

That flaked wheat will only give you a load of starch in your wort/beer, not much else. Unmalted adjuncts like that should be mashed, not steeped.

If you're after the traditional hazy look, add some (2-3 Tbsp) wheat flour (first made into a slurry) at the end of the boil.

 

[-Fusion]

5gal brew
I will make a starter. Hopefully I can find a good step by step in here. I have a growler (large mason jar) I can use for the starter. The yeast has a best by date of 5/11/15 not sure how "old" that makes it. I will have to pick up some DME

My water from my fridge is tap water thats been filtered by charcoal, I have a PH meter but no way to tell chlorine.

Sorry for short answes im at work on a tiny phone.

 

[guitarguy6]

You don't need to make a starter but if you can I'd go for it. You can't sanitize dirt so as long as your equipment is clean a dip in star san is all you need. Your filtered tap water is fine as long as it tastes good. If your filter doesn't remove chlorine and chloramine I'd use campden tablets in the water. Good luck with your first brew!

 

[IslandLizard]

5gal brew
I will make a starter. Hopefully I can find a good step by step in here. I have a growler (large mason jar) I can use for the starter. The yeast has a best by date of 5/11/15 not sure how "old" that makes it. I will have to pick up some DME

My water from my fridge is tap water thats been filtered by charcoal, I have a PH meter but no way to tell chlorine.

Sorry for short answes im at work on a tiny phone.

WLP's yeast manufacturing date is 6 months before best by date, so it's 4 months old. Definitely need a starter. Use Brewer's Friend or MrMalty to calculate yeast cells and starter size needed.

Charcoal filters don't remove chlorine very quickly (needs a very, very slow pour, around 1 gallon per hour) and cloramines not at all.

May as well use plain tap water and get some Campden tablets. Use 1/4 of a tablet (crushed) per 5 gallons of water to remove chlorine and/or chloramines. Stir vigorously and well after adding.

 

[solbes]

Agree on making a starter. Sure its more work to do a few days prior to your brew date. But pitching the appropriate quantity of healthy yeast is very important. So too is controlling the fementation temps.

Too bad they didn't throw in a pound of 2 row, pilsner, or pale malt in there. Essentially you would be mashing for 30 minutes instead of steeping, thereby getting more out of your flaked wheat. The munich can convert itself, but not much beyond that.

 

[IslandLizard]

While you're at the brew store, and if you still intend on using the wheat flakes, get a pound of finely-crushed 2-row to mash that. Running your flaked grains also through the mill helps to get the mash to perform better. Otherwise you got to break them up or cook them a bit first, easy to do.

You can mash in a gallon pot, and strain through a large sieve or colander. It's similar to steeping grain with a few notes.

Do you have a large grain bag (~1 gallon)? You can put all your mashing (and steeping) grains in that.

Brewing with flaked grains:
As with malted grains, extract brewers must perform a partial mash if they wish to use flaked grains. When mashing these flaked grains, the brewer must also add barley malt to supply enzymes. A 1:1 mixture of flaked grains and six-row barley malt is usually sufficient. Crush the barley malt and place it in a grain bag with the flaked grain. The flaked grain does not need to be crushed but it helps to break it up. Once the grains are mixed, steep the grain in 150° to 158° F water for 30 minutes, rinse the grains and proceed.​

 

[-Fusion]

Lots of information!

I'm going to use bottled water to eliminate the possibility of chlorine. It sounds like the flaked wheat isn't going to do much for me on this brew. And will someone explain "mash"

 

[fimpster]

I recommend How to Brew by John Palmer. The old version is even available online. Here he explains the mash. http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-1.html

It sounds like you already have everything for your first brew. I wouldn't worry to much about mashing for now and just brew what you have. Buy that book, or read online, and on your next batch you can start thinking about mashing.

 

[-Fusion]

I recommend How to Brew by John Palmer. The old version is even available online. Here he explains the mash. http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter14-1.html

It sounds like you already have everything for your first brew. I wouldn't worry to much about mashing for now and just brew what you have. Buy that book, or read online, and on your next batch you can start thinking about mashing.

Glad you suggested that book, I bought it yesterday on Amazon and it will be here tomorrow. Along with The Complete Jot of Homebrewing:rockin:

 

[Kent88]

Using bottled water is fine. perferrably not water treated by reverse osmosis, though.

Mashing is when the brewer adds grain to water (at about a 1lb grain -to- 1.5ish quart water ratio) and maintains the temperature (usually around 154F, but it varys depending on the beer you make) for about an hour (again, varies) and the ghosts of our ancestors bless the mixure and transform the starches in the grist (malt and grain that was mashed) into sugars that yeasts can ferment (or maybe the malt releases enzymes, that work best around 154F, which do the conversions, I've heard both). After the mash is done the liquid is collected, the grist is usually rinsed (sparged/lautered) and that liquid is all boiled together while hops are added to make unfermented beer (wort).

Here is a video about making a yeast starter: Sure they're trying to sell you their equipment, but there is some good info in there. By the way, I only tried to link to that, not add the whole video, forum veterans, how do I not do that in the future?

 

[1977Brewer]

Using bottled water is fine. perferrably not water treated by reverse osmosis, though.

Mashing is when the brewer adds grain to water (at about a 1lb grain -to- 1.5ish quart water ratio) and maintains the temperature (usually around 154F, but it varys depending on the beer you make) for about an hour (again, varies) and the ghosts of our ancestors bless the mixure and transform the starches in the grist (malt and grain that was mashed) into sugars that yeasts can ferment (or maybe the malt releases enzymes, that work best around 154F, which do the conversions, I've heard both). After the mash is done the liquid is collected, the grist is usually rinsed (sparged/lautered) and that liquid is all boiled together while hops are added to make unfermented beer (wort).

Here is a video about making a yeast starter: words go here Sure they're trying to sell you their equipment, but there is some good info in there. By the way, I only tried to link to that, not add the whole video, forum veterans, how do I not do that in the future?

Dunno, I've only tried to post videos, and gotten links, doesn't matter. Good video.

 

[IslandLizard]

Lots of information!

I'm going to use bottled water to eliminate the possibility of chlorine. It sounds like the flaked wheat isn't going to do much for me on this brew. And will someone explain "mash"

Bottled water like what? That sounds very generic, and they are not all alike. You should definitely smell and taste it:

Someone here on HBT found the distilled water he was using (from Walmart, IIRC) was heavily chlorinated. He ruined many batches because of that. If he had only tasted it before use...
​

If you can drink your tap water, it is usually fine for extract brewing. You can get Campden tablets in some Walmarts too. Or your brewstore.

Yeah, lots of information. How to Brew will get you well informed, as does reading HBT on all the processes involved. Once it clicks it becomes 2nd nature.

Do your Google searches like this:

site:homebrewtalk.com <whatever you want to search for>
Omit the brackets <> of course ​

 

[Fionnbharr]

People have been making beer for thousands of years.

None of our ancestors had access to fancy things like 'sanitation' or 'clean water' or even had any idea what this "yeast" stuff is.

You'll be fine. Your beer will be fine, too.

Wash your equipment. Use star-san or other sanitizer while the equipment is still wet. You'll make beer that's 99.44% more pure than all the beer that's ever been made.

Pitch the vial of liquid yeast directly. Starters simply ensure a faster, more thourough, or more efficient fermentation. Beer used to happen because natural yeast drifted in and landed on the surface of the wort in microscopic amounts -- nobody dumped-in liquid yeast in astronomical amounts.

Use tap water, bottled water, or pond water, if you like. Boiling kills most pathogens and drives off a lot of other dissolved stuff. It's conjectured that beer was 'discovered' in a vat of rainwater-soaked grains. Too many chlorine compounds in the tap water? If you drink it or cook with it, you'll make great beer with it.

Have faith in the natural fermentation process -- it works despite our best efforts to confound it. Have confidence in yourself -- even when you don't know what you're doing this first time.

 

[solbes]

Sure you can make beer without paying special attention to sanitation, yeast viability/quantity, and water quality. But why would you want to? Those are 3 of my top 5 most important things to focus on in brewing. Palmer covers them in detail in the book you just bought.

Anyone can make beer. But not every time will you make good beer (and not saying I haven't made bad beer, b/c I certainly have). Commercially produced good craft beers of today are way different than the beers made hundreds of years ago with no sanitation and limited understanding of the fermentation process. Heck they didn't even know about yeast early on, but it happened to be on their mash paddles and in their fermentation vessels. Imagine what else lived on those things.

 

[ibrewmyown]

Take as many shortcuts and ignore as many steps as you like. That's how you learn to do it right the expensive way. Sanitation is easy to do. You don't need to wear a bio-suit just use common sense. Remember, Star-San is not a cleaner, its a sanitizer. As far as water goes, I've never had an issue with tap water. I think if you're on a well you would have the most concern. City water in most cases should be just fine. Certain beers you have to pay more attention to PH but again, I've never had an issue using my city tap water. Regarding starters, If the yeast is fresh and you're brewing small batches they are most likely not needed but once you learn the short cuts and tricks, it takes very little time to do. Remember, Yeast loses about 20% (compounded) per month (1 month old 80%, 2 months, 64%, 3 months 51% and so on) so if you have yeast that is 3 months old, you have have a packet of yeast in reality. Dry yeast diminishes as well but at a slower rate. More like about 20% a year. A starter not only gets your fermentation going faster, limiting the change of an infection, it ensures your beer finishes. You spend too much money and time making a beer to risk having to dump it.