what woud you brew first?

[pmoneyismyfriend]

I have two beers that I am going to brew a robust porter and an ipa, both have very similar grain bills, with the exception of the porter having black and chocolate malts, additional. Both call for wyeast 1056.

I plan to do one, let it ferment then rack, and brew the other and pitch on the yeast cake. Which one would you do first? The main concern is if doing the ipa first, how much will the hoppiness of the brew affect the porter?

I would like to do this first, because I want to make the porter with a cocoa addition at the end of the boil, which will leave a layer of chocolate sludge at the bottom of the fermenter, which I obviously don't want to be a part of my ipa. I don't have to do the cocoa thing, but I want to. And obviously I could just get more yeast....

 

[peterj]

I definitely wouldn't pitch on an entire yeast cake ever. That's almost always a massive overpitch which can be detrimental to the beer. Just remove about 3/4 of the yeast cake and pitch on the remaining 1/4, or better yet scoop out some slurry (calculate how much with this calculator: http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html) and pitch that.

That being said I would do the IPA first. You likely won't notice the small amount of hoppiness that might carry over behind a lot of dark roasted grains. But you would be more likely to notice roasted grains and chocolate in an IPA.

 

[Chuckd76]

+1 for the IPA

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

Thanks, I have pitched on yeast cakes in the past without ill effects and recently asked Jamil regarding a similar event and his advice was to brew the lower gravity beer first and then pitch the higher gravity brew on the cake. He didn't say anything about removing any yeast cake, but his answers are very short anyway, he basically answers your question and offers little else, which I guess is understandable considering the volume of questions he must get. My main concern was hop flavor/aroma carry over if doing the ipa first. Thanks much

 

[peterj]

Thanks, I have pitched on yeast cakes in the past without ill effects and recently asked Jamil regarding a similar event and his advice was to brew the lower gravity beer first and then pitch the higher gravity brew on the cake. He didn't say anything about removing any yeast cake, but his answers are very short anyway, he basically answers your question and offers little else, which I guess is understandable considering the volume of questions he must get. My main concern was hop flavor/aroma carry over if doing the ipa first. Thanks much

Yeah, I think I've heard him give similar advice before. And in the situation where you're pitching a very large beer onto a yeast cake from a small beer I think it would be a good idea.

Forgot to mention color as another reason in my first response too. You might end up making the IPA darker than you want if you brewed it second. Good luck!

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

Well it's a moot point now, my wort chiller broke and filled my brew pot with water

 

[Hello]

Well it's a moot point now, my wort chiller broke and filled my brew pot with water

It broke while chilling the wort?

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

yep

 

[peterj]

Well it's a moot point now, my wort chiller broke and filled my brew pot with water

Aw man, that sucks! My condolences.

 

[cluckk]

Well it's a moot point now, my wort chiller broke and filled my brew pot with water

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Today, a terrible event has occurred. A wort chiller broke and filled a fresh batch of wort, once so full of promise and potential, with a deadly overdose of water. Therefore, all brewers should fly flags at half mast, wrap black tape around their mash tuns and mourn the passing. Now join us for a moment of silence."

 

[BigJack]

That sucks!

 

[pmoneyismyfriend]

They say, when life hands you lemons....make an Ipa.
I decided not to admit defeat and do what I could to salvage this beer. So i restarted the boil, added a freezer bag full of nugget cones, that my friend grew, I figured now is as good a time as any to use them, why not eh! Once I got into the boil, I had to stop, because, my family had a kind of surprise birthday trip to Milwaukee planned for me. So there she sits, cold and alone in my garage for two days. I come home and restart the boil, add a pound of dme and boiled her down to about 5 gallons, let it sit in my garage overnight to chill, covered with a sanitized lid, of course. Now because my decanted yeast starter was on the counter warming to room temp during the initial brew process, it of course had to go back in the fridge, and when I went to use it, it had a sour smell, so I shizit canned that and added a pack of super yeast I had lying around. I hit my o.g. btw, but I was off on my f.g., high by .003, no big deal, who cares at this point anyway. Racked to carboy and added 2 ounces of Amarillo hops and kegged a week later. I tested it yesterday, and though it is not fully carbed, it didn't taste terrible, and I don't see me having to throw this away, though it is obviously more bitter than intended. I call this beer Lazarus.

 

[Epimetheus]

I decided not to admit defeat and do what I could to salvage this beer. ... I call this beer Lazarus.

Great recovery and an appropriate name! Skål!