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Two-Stage Starter Calculations

There are many situations in which a homebrewer might need to propagate yeast using more than one step-up – for example, building up from a bottle of commercial beer, or reviving a smack pack that’s several months old. And while I love Mr. Malty’s Pitching Rate Calculator™, doing two-stage starters with it can be frustrating.

One [...]

Yeast Starters Three-dux

I’ve finished the last starter needed to round out my aeration experiments. Once again, the main post has been updated with the full data set and some additional thoughts.

Yeast Experiment Update

I was able to brew the test beers for the Yeast Pitching Rate Experiment today. Some notes on the brew session can be found on the main experimental page.

85% efficiency on a 1.059 beer, though… I do love my Barley Crusher.

Yeast Pitching Rate Experiment

Most homebrewers, once they get seriously involved in the hobby, will make starters for their beers. While the commercial yeast products are advertised as being “pitchable”, their cells counts don’t allow brewers to inoculate a 5-gallon batch of ale at the industry standard rate of about 0.75 billion/L-°P. And the true cell counts may be [...]

Yeast Starters Redux

As a quick follow-up to my starter aeration experiments, I made up a DME starter for comparison purposes. As would be expected, it produced substantially more yeast than the sugar starters. So if nothing else, don’t take the cell counts estimated in the original tests to be accurate for beer – something I probably should [...]

Andrea Doria Porter

Monday was a pretty great brew day. I worked the kinks out of the pump setup and ended up with a 4 hour 40 minute process, from lighting the burner to putting away the equipment. Having an assistant brewer for the first time in months probably didn’t hurt either. I’m also still playing with malt [...]

I Have Made Bread

This is the third time I’ve made spent grain bread using this recipe, which is loosely based on Alewife’s. I used the Unholy Trinity grist for the spent grains, as well as the beer itself. It’s definitely a better fit for a bread recipe than the others. There’s something really satisfying and elemental about making [...]

F is for FACEPALM

Sean Terrill
You know what never gets old?
Making fun of people on the internet.
Ben Mazur
ha
Sean Terrill
water
Ben Mazur
what a fag
Sean Terrill
I know, like, where to start?
Ben Mazur
F key?
Sean Terrill
F is for FACEPALM

 

Aeration and Yeast Starters

Background

The pitching rate of yeast is generally accepted to be one of the most important factors in fermentation performance and the resultant beer character. The often quoted “optimal” pitching rate is 0.75 billion cells per liter of wort, per degree Plato for ale, and 1.5 billion/L-°P for lager. However, at the homebrew level, commercial yeast [...]

Brews in Toyland

Yes, my garage is a mess.

You guys, I’m seriously. Best Xmas ever. I brewed a batch of APA yesterday and got to try out my new Barley Crusher and March pump for the first time. So not only do I not have to lift 6 gallons of boiling wort to chest height any more, [...]