personal fermentation record

[anderj]

I have been meaning to post this for a couple of days now but I felt like sharing.
I brewed an english style stout on friday OG 1.072, pitched my Wyeast London Ale starter and pow,
Sunday evening it was at 1.020, .062 in two days. That makes up for my holiday saison that took about a month to get from 1.078 to 1.010.

I am now a convert to the "huge amount of yeast" camp

-ander

 

[thedude123]

and "huge beard" camp

 

[anderj]

I have been part of that camp for a while now

 

[Bob]

Huge amount of yeast? Relative to what?

And I must point out that overpitching is just as bad a practice as underpitching.

Good job on the attenuation! Just keep in mind that all yeasts are not the same. Some yeasts will go through most of a ferment in 24 hours. Others will take a month. Belgian Wit yeasts, for example, take a while to completely attenuate no matter how much you pitch. Not knowing that, you could overpitch - because you think it's going to speed the process - and totally botch the batch, because one of the effects of overpitching is loss of esters. So you spend $6 on a vial of liquid yeast, grow a whacking great starter, and end up with flavors you could have gotten from a $1.50 packet of Muntons dry yeast - because you overpitched, or knocked out onto a yeast cake.

Sorry for the lecture. I'm on a bit of a crusade at the moment, fighting for proper yeast management.

Cheers,

Bob

 

[springer]

its is nice to have an active fermentation but I let the beer sit on the cake at least 14 days anyways so it can clean itself up and then its cold crashed a few more days and then racked to kegs to sit a few more weeks. The beer I tap is a minimum of 4 weeks old and some 8 months old.

 

[Evan!]

Huge amount of yeast? Relative to what?

And I must point out that overpitching is just as bad a practice as underpitching.

Good job on the attenuation! Just keep in mind that all yeasts are not the same. Some yeasts will go through most of a ferment in 24 hours. Others will take a month. Belgian Wit yeasts, for example, take a while to completely attenuate no matter how much you pitch. Not knowing that, you could overpitch - because you think it's going to speed the process - and totally botch the batch, because one of the effects of overpitching is loss of esters. So you spend $6 on a vial of liquid yeast, grow a whacking great starter, and end up with flavors you could have gotten from a $1.50 packet of Muntons dry yeast - because you overpitched, or knocked out onto a yeast cake.

Sorry for the lecture. I'm on a bit of a crusade at the moment, fighting for proper yeast management.

Cheers,

Bob

It's harder to overpitch than most people think.

I was doing interviewing the brewmaster at Blue Mountain yesterday, and he was telling me about this place that had designed a fermentation system (ostensibly for massive industrial brewing ops) where they would spread large amounts of yeast on continuous plates in a channel, and the pump the wort over the plates, and by the time it reached the end of the system shortly thereafter, it would be fermented from having so many yeast cells in constant contact with so much sugar. No idea how the final product turned out, but suffice to say it wasn't that terrible if this was for commercial production.

Personally, I've pitched on cakes many times and even had a <24hr fermentation once or twice, and they turned out great, esters and all.

 

[Bob]

Evan! -

Your experience differs from mine. All the beers I've massively overpitched - like knocking out onto a cake, or pitching twice as much slurry as needed - have lacked esters of any kind.

Personally, I prefer permitting the yeast to enjoy a full metabolic experience. YMMV!

Bob

 

[Chriso]

I have been part of that camp for a while now

Me too. SWMBO likes to look @ photo albums and evaluate my beard's metamorphosis over time. (My Jesus hair, too.)

Have you seen the beard link in my sig?

sorry.



Yeast are badasses. If I'm intent on something involving the yeast cake, usually I'll just sanitize a spoon and a Pyrex measuring cup. I'll measure out about a Pint of thick yeast slurry from the bottom, and call it a thick starter. I don't usually dump directly on the yeast cake, just due to my Bubble Gum experience from my OktoberFAST with Kolsch yeast (at 80&#730;F). Yech.

 

[mandoman]

from another beardyman and large pitch lover - how large is your pitch. I know that sounds nasty, but really? I just posted the 2.5 gallon starter for a ten gallon batch post and am interested in this whole yeast thing.