Yeats, Sanitation, and Such

[thirstycajun56]

Hey everybody, I've made about 5 batches of brew so far ranging from a kit to a botched whole grain attempt. I'm limited to basic equipment right now so whole grain and lagering are not options for me. Question #1- How clean is clean? Meaning how to start my siphon without my mouth contaminating it and also putting my hands all over everything? I use Star-san and try to keep my hands clean but how realistically clean can I keep my stuff. Question #2- Do I really need a blow off tube for the first few days of fermentation? And lastly #3- I'm a country boy from the south and I like Coors Light. I want to make a one upper clone of it but every recipe I'm finding calls for lager yeast. Would ale yeast change the taste too much or would I be better off using lager yeast at ale fermentation temps? Thanks for the help.

 

[billl]

1) You want sanitized, not clean. Don't put your mouth on a siphon - get an autosiphon you can prime by pumping. They only cost a couple bucks. Keep a spray bottle of starsan around for quick touchups.

2) Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't. There is no downside to a blowoff tube. There is a volcanic downside to needing one but not having one.

3) Coors is a lager, so if you want something that crisp and clean, that is a lager. There is a lager yeast that works well at ale temps. Its used to make california common. Whitelabs version is WLP810. You can try a neutral american ale yeast like the dry S-05 that every brewshop carries. It isn't quite the same, but it's pretty clean tasting. Both the big liquid companies also sell yeast blends that are mixed of lager and california yeast that are pretty lager-like.

Since your a louisiana country boy, you might want to look up "swamp cooler" on here. It's a cheapo way to control temps that any country boy would be proud of.

 

[nicklawmusic]

Auto syphons are definitely the way forward, however, you need to ensure the inside and outside are sanitised before putting it in your fermenting bucket.

Another word of caution: they can be a pain in the arse to get going. Make sure that the rubber ring INSIDE the syphon is creating a vacuum properly before you start, as the more you take the inner cane out and clean it, the flatter the ring will get (you just nee to pull it out... you'll see what I mean). If you don't, you'll just end up pumping air into your beer when you try to syphon.

Also, make sure that the bottle filling end is open as you'll create too much pressure in the tube and the bottle end up explode on you as it did with me.

They ought to come with better instructions really!

 

[Wolfbrau]

Yo dawg:

1> Use a wine thief. It's for beer, too, despite my protest regarding the name.

2> Blow it all over the place as far and as often as you can. Rubber airlocks are for *******.

3> Blonde ale. Succumb. 100% two row, single hop at 60 minutes, ale yeast. I still brew it every three times to this day. Well, plus or minus a few.