Yeasts

Grains, malts, hops, yeast, water and other ingredients used to brew. Recipe reviews and suggestions.

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Liquid Blur
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Yeasts

Post by Liquid Blur »

Hey Guys,
I was just wondering about which brand/type of yeasts are best for people just beggining. Obviously the strain you pick will have to do with the type of beer but I'm interested in knowing which brands have the highest about of pitchable yeast cells. Also which is usually better for a beginner, liquid or dry? Thanks for the info guys.
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abbiesdad
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Liquid

Post by abbiesdad »

I use liquid yeast most of the time. My local homebrew shop has Wyeast so I usually use this. I have used White yeast in the past, but I have to special order this. I like them both and haven't had any problems with either. From what I have read, White Labs yeast has a higher number of cells for pitching.

I have been using yeast starters for my last 4-5 batches. I would recommend doing this also.

Ralph
jayhawk
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Dried ok too for beginning

Post by jayhawk »

Dried yeast works well too if you have a good brand. I have used Danstar Nottingham, a neutral ale yeast, with good results. Only 1 pack of the 50+ I have used was spoiled, this due to a broken seal. I always prepare a starter with 2c of water boiled with 4 tsp of corn sugar. I cool this and then add 2 5g packs of the yeast and let sit for 1.5 hours while I brew. There is always a good head of yeast ready for pitching. However, I will be experimenting more in the future with different liquid culture strains to see how I can create better brew.
andytv
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Dried is less $$

Post by andytv »

I started brewing using only liquid Wyeast, and have had fine results but; It is very expensive. I homebrew to provide house beer (not just a hobby) so economics are a factor. This being said, I have experimented w/ Danstar Nottingham yeast for my APA, IPA, American Brown Ale, and even a Belgian Pale Ale. All were just fine. You may be able to hone in on your style a little better w/ Wyeast/White Labs, but for making good beer, I think dry is fine (and cheap). Please note; Always make a starter the night before you brew. I make a 1 qt starter for a ten gallon batch w/ DME and yeast nutrient. Since i started doing this, I have never had a bad beer attributable to poor yeast viability/quanitity.

Prosit

Andy
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cutting the cost of your liquid yeast by a third.

Post by Azorean Brewer »

Andy and all, if you really want to decrease the cost of your liquid yeast by at least a half try this, it works like a champ and you actually get better fermentation.

Plan out your next two / three batches in advance. If they are the same recipe it will not matter which one you start, if one is darker or heavier than the other, start with the lighter one. Brew as normal, liquid yeast starter and all, on the day of racking your first into your secondary, brew your second batch. Just before chilling, carefully rack your first out of the primary and pour your chilled second batch right into the primary on top of your first yeast cake, aerate and within 2 hours you will have full fermentation.

I would not recommend doing this more than twice as your yeast strain will begin to "mutate". However the yeast gathered in the secondary from the first batch will be a "Cleaner" version than the primary and this will make for a good third batch, hope this helps in your (and mine) quest for saving those valuable $$$.

Cheers, Paul the "Azorean brewer".
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Mesa Maltworks
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Even Better Method of "Serial Repitching"....

Post by Mesa Maltworks »

Paul's post regarding serial re-pitching by placing new wort on top of trub from the last batch's primary fermetation will work but carries some inherant risk. The trub sitting at the bottom of the fermenter is mostly composed of proteins and vegetative matter from hops. The risk is posed by the proteins. The reason is that when most of the sugars are depeleted in wort, yeast stop metabolizing and settle out in the trub. Bacteria, however, have the ability to metabolize protein when this occurs and stay very active. So, most of the bacterial load in the wort remains behind in this trub ! Pitching on top of it, therefore, is best avoided.

Instead, plan your brew schedule so that you can pitch the yeast from the secondary. There are a number of technical reasons for this, the most important ones are that there will be little to no protein residuals and natural selection has taken place ensuring that the most viable yeast are being transferred. This natural selection has occured because the yeast that remain in the wort after transfer from the primary are the most active and healthy among their population, otherwise, they would have settled into the trub.

Yeast managed in this way can be re-pitched up to 6 times before noticable mutation. When your fermetations become too rapid (I once fermented 10 bbl. of Brown Ale in 2 days at 63 degrees!), this is a sign that you should start over. Excessively rapid fermentations produce flavor imbalances and off flavors, particulary diacetyl because they ferment and flocculate so fast, they skip diacetyl re-absorption.

Eric
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