shakespeare stout

[disaffected]

Did you also use the Pacman yeast?

 

[uglygoat]

no, but the grains are almost dead on... used english hops/yeast.

 

[miafunk2003]

woohoo plans got changed so ill be brewing the skakespeare stout this sat...

 

[disaffected]

You smacked your Activator pack yet? I took mine out of the fridge about two hours ago and smacked it. I'm making my starter wort on the stove now. I'll be pitching into the starter when the yeast pack swells and the starter is room temp.

 

[miafunk2003]

yeah i popped the smack pak...not making a starter though ive always used them w/o starters and fermentation always starts in about 8 hours....ill start brewing in an hour or so

 

[miafunk2003]

well......i finished brewing already everything went as planned....lets see how long it takes for this pacman yeast to start up,,,finished off with a 1.060 OG just like the recipe calls for.

 

[greg75]

I just ordered an Austin Homebrew Dead Guy Ale clone today. I also opted for the Wyeast Pacman Smack Pak. I sort of messed up, however...I didn't order the 1% alcohol boost like I promised. I just blanked it out until I came here to let you guys know. I guarantee I'll get it next time, however. I plan on brewing next Friday evening or the following Monday. I'll let you know how everything goes.

In addition to the Dead Guy Ale kit, I also ordered a yeast starter kit ($14.99). It comes with a laboratory flask, rubber stopper, and a three piece airlock, as well as some DME. I also ordered some extra DME($2.50 or so) for future starters. My last two batches took about 24 hours for vigorous fermentation to get going, so I thought I'd help expedite the process a bit. Although, I must confess, the wort being below 65F probably had more to do with that than lack of a starter. Nevertheless, I can't imagine any downside in having a good starter going when pitching.

Another project I'm contemplating adding to this brew session is cleaning and harvesting the yeast. I think the Pacman strain is on a limited release, so culturing some of it for future brews seems like a wise thing to do. Now I just have to educate myself on that whole process (I've heard it's prety easy, but then again, anything's easy once you know how to do it. )

 

[disaffected]

I started my AG version of Shakespeare Stout clone about 05:00 PM yesterday afternoon, later than I intended. I pitched my yeast starter right at midnight. Sadly, my OG was only 1.051, so I missed the 1.060 mark by a bit. Maybe it's because I'm batch sparging. I probably should have added a pound or two of pale malt to compensate. I wonder what effect the OG difference will have? I suspect the stout will be good anyway.

I bought a two liter erlenmeyer and some DME from More Beer and it came in about a week ago, so I used it to make a 1.6 liter starter from the Pacman smack pack. I had a minor boilover, maybe a tablespoon of foam when I was boiling it, even though I was watching very closely. I definitely wouldn't try to make more that 1.5 liters of wort for a starter in a 2 liter erlenmeyer. I might get a 3 liter flask down the road.

I like making the starter. Seven hours after pitching my starter, there was 3/4 inch of kraeusen on top (there's about 1.25 inches now) and the airlock was bubbling away. I don't really know when the airlock activity started, as I was asleep. Seven or fewer hours to start, though, ain't bad.

 

[miafunk2003]

udont worry about the OG im sure it wont change the flavor much...Glad to hear u have alot of activity going on mine is bubbling pretty vigourously too....im going to look into that yeast starter kit too.

 

[miafunk2003]

well guys i already kegged the shakespeare stout and it tastes amazing...could use more time in the keg if it can last that long cuz my friends are already wanting more.

 

[disaffected]

Wow, that's pretty fast!

I'm just fixing to transfer mine to secondary for two weeks of conditioning before bottling it. Then I'll wait at least three weeks before tasting it.

 

[Fire_travels]

so how did the extract SHAKE stout go! I will be doing onthis week! Any tips for better brew?