Ale @ 12c

[James L]

i have 2206 in the fridge, but i havent even used the bastard yet...I thought i'd wait till i go AG, but its takeing a little longer than i have expected... would be interested to see how the beers turn out DrS...

while we are on this topic, who has made an ale using lager yeast? ie. gone to the shops and purchased a coopers pale ale, added the necessary malt and hops, and fermented it at 12 with S-23 or 34/70? that could be interesting... or could turn out to be poo in a bottle...

[Timmsy]

I got my wyeast with a recipe from Grumpys but thay dont seem to have the Budvar listed on there site. Im keen at getting a couple packets one for a brew i have planed and another to have in as stock. Where else would i be able to purchase it from?

[drsmurto]

AFAIK Grumpys dont have the budvar yeast. I picked mine up from another brewer. I believe you may be able to get them from the Monk.

[Longwood-65]

Well after a 4 day lag it's started a slow bubble from the airlock, I feel happier now
Cheers.

An off topic subject,

The difference between trub and yeast cake,

And people pitching on the yeast cake, does that mean the fermenter is not being cleaned between brews??

[Trough Lolly]

Well after a 4 day lag it's started a slow bubble from the airlock, I feel happier now
Cheers.

An off topic subject,

The difference between trub and yeast cake,

And people pitching on the yeast cake, does that mean the fermenter is not being cleaned between brews??

Trub, pronounced troob, is the flocculated yeast, break material and hop particulate matter that gathers at the bottom of the fermenter. Some brewers also refer to the trub as having the appearance of a flat cake, hence the term yeast cake. The terms are often interchangeable. Slurry is a term used to describe the liquidified yeast cake - you can make the yeast cake slurry by either adding some pre-boiled and chilled water or leaving some of the previous beer in the fermenter, swirl to re-suspend the cake into a thick slurry and then decant that into bottles for yeast harvesting purposes. You can bottle and refrigerate fresh slurry for short term storage - eg, keep a slurry from last weekend's brew to use this weekend. For longer term storage, you're better off washing the yeast or plating the yeast or making slants...

Yes, the fermenter is not cleaned if you repitch. You can remove the cake, clean and then return the slurry to the fermenter if you want to, but the general consensus is to avoid risk of contamination when you remove the slurry and simply re-pitch fresh wort onto the yeast cake which re-suspends the yeast in the cake and ferments the fresh wort, often with a very short lag time. I've racked the beer into a keg or beer brightening tank, then repitched fresh wort straight into the fermenter and had a bubbling airlock within 20 minutes of racking the fresh wort into the fermenter! Remember though, it's possible for the fresh wort to "inherit" some of the hop aroma and flavour profile from the previous batch, especially if you use a lot of hops. In a similar way, the fresh wort's colour may slightly change if you have a large slurry and, for example, repitch a pale ale onto a thick cake that just brewed a stout or dark ale. So, I plan my brews and do the lighter batch (eg, Dortmunder) first and then repitch the darker wort (eg, Oktoberfest) second.

If your original beer wasn't infected and/or the yeast hasn't mutated then the fresh wort will be fine unless the fresh wort has bacteria in it which renders cleaning the fermenter irrelevant anyway.

Cheers,
TL

[drsmurto]

As usual, TL has posted an excellent response.

I go both ways on this, sometimes just dump fresh wort into the old fermenter but more often these days i collect the trub and wash it once then let the heavier break material etc settle before pouring off the yeast and then using only half of it and save the rest. It all depends on how much effort i make removing the cold break and any hop material before pitching the yeast in the first place. Had a few discussions with people on massively overpitching so am trying to use closer to the appropriate amount of yeast per batch.

Am currently reusing a CPA yeast that is chewing on a dark ale wort and will be re-pitched into either a stout or a porter this weekend. I used 1/3 of the original yeast cake and kept the rest so from 1 CPA starter i can in theory get 9 beers. Not bad for the small cost of some malt extract to make the original starter and the chore of having to drink 3 stubbies of CPA!

[James L]

When i was trying to collect the yeast to make a starter from the Cooper PA bottles, the temp was quite hot, so i put it in the fermenting fridge which stays at 10. Although it was a little slower than expected, the yeast grew up no worries at all.

I'm going to hopefully bottle tonight, and i have a coopers PA tin lying around, so i'm going to make a CPA at 10C. see what happens.

My saison yeast that i got from a bottle of Sasion Regal, grew up no worries at 10C aswell... to tell you the truth, the yeast that i have managed to propagate at the lower temps looks healthier than the yeast I have grown up at higher temps (20-24C). (I did use yeast nutrients for both starters).

Healthier meaning there is alot of fresh white yeast growth layers in the bottle compared to a much darker yeast colour that i have observed at the higher temps.

[drsmurto]

My CSA clone dropped to 14C during primary and the yeast kept burping and farting away, interesting to hear it goes even lower. Am using this yeast in a variety of english styled beers for the next few months so will play around with ferment temps to get a handle of what esters it can produce and when.