My Weekend Adventure in Brewing

[1234maverick]

Friday I went to my LHBS and got the stuff to brew my Irish Red. Didn't have any real idea when I would do it but at least I would have the ingredients should the opportunity arise. I didn't buy any yeast cause I planned to harvest the yeast from my Blonde that is in the fermenter.

Friday night I bottled the Blonde and removed the trub into a sanitized container. The trub would never settle and was very green guess it was all hops. By Saturday still wasn't settled and there was no visible sign of any yeast.

Saturday afternoon I spent the day with the wife and in-laws so for my good deed the wife gave me the authority to do what I wanted on Sunday! Whoo hoo brew day! Crap no yeast and the LHBS was closed. So I got to thinking where did my yeast go from the Blonde and I got to thinking that when I racked it into my bottling bucket I racked it pretty close the bottom of the carboy and probably sucked it all up into the bottling bucket and bottled it. So Saturday night I checked some of my bottles and sure enough there was a nice white creamy layer of yeast in all my bottles. So I took the last three pints I bottled and gently poured them into a sanitized container and added a table spoon of corn sugar and water that had been boiled and cooled and attached the air lock. I decided that if there were any signs of life the next day then I would brew the Irish Red.

Sunday Am theres life! There was about a 1/8 inch of yeast in the bottom of the container and activity in the air lock. So I get started on the Irish Red which would be my second AG, It ended up having a OG of 1.055 didn't hit the target but close enough. I went ahead and pitched the whole container of starter that I had to be sure there would be enough yeast, I was afraid there wouldn't be and I would have to go buy some today and pitch it again.

This morning I check the fermenter and it worked! got about two inches of foam on top and the air lock is bubbling away! I cant belive it!

Just had to share which someone who understands.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

That's the ol' college try!

 

[Kaiser]

I'm glad it worked out for you

The yeast should still have been in the primary. Ale yeast usually stays in suspension longer than the trub and you should be able to "wash" it that way. Maybe you should look into techniques that will give you less trub/hops in the primary. This should ease the harvesting of yeast and/or reusing the yeast cake.

BTW, don't make a starter with anything buy malt based extract, yeast may get used to the convenience of metabolizing glucose and looses it's ability to metabolize maltose.

Kai

 

[1234maverick]

Iam not really sure it can be classified as a starter. It was really some bottles I bottled the day before.

The Red Ale I used Irish Moss and whirl pooled the wort after cooling then let it sit for 15 mins before racking into my carboy. The hops settled in the kettle a lot better.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

The whirlpooling is what really settled your hops (you're using pellets?). The Irish moss coagulates with proteins from the break and settles those out. Be careful siphoning or draining into the primary and you can avoid a lot of the break material and hops in the kettle.