Recipe Advice Thread

[denimglen]

Thought it might be handy to have a thread for some of the more advanced brewers to give some advice on recipes.

Let's see how it goes eh...

[Grant R Baker]

I load up on Fuggles at 60mins and again at 15mins... really good brew.. but splitting sound like a good way to try out your options.

[Scarrfie]

I must try one with all fuggles, I use PG for bittering and the combo is nice.

[Grant R Baker]

Yea.. I do an Amber with PG all the way.. just a bit of Fuggles at the end. Nice.

[Grant R Baker]

Bit of advise here if anyone is able...

 

I have three 4 litre test brews going all pitched with 5ml White Labs Oktoberfest WLP830 liquid yeast at 23C at 23:00hrs last night. (no starter, just from the vial)

6pm today... no action.

Wort was well aerated going into the carboys and yeast was out of the fridge to warm up for 3 hours... carboys are holding at 20C.

 

So I am wondering if the yeast was dead... or just really slow.

I have read Whitelabs FAQ sheet on this one at LINK and have read that its a slow started and also it is a quick starter. So any Kiwi experience with this yeast..??

 

I also read one line that mentioned popping open your fermenter and agitation the brew to get the yeast moving.... not so sure I want to do that... but will consider it.

[Kelly Milligan]

What was the best-before date on the vial? 5ml seems like a tiny amount doesn't it? say 70billion cells (70% viability) / 7 (35ml vial) = 10billion cells in each 4L. depending on the gravity, would probably want 30-50billion cells in 4L for a healthy fermentation, or at least a quick start :) maybe see if things pick up by later tonight

[Grant R Baker]

Use by date is May-22-2012  so all good there.

The yeast bottle recommended pitching at 70-74F (or 21-24C).. so not worried about that, but also noted the website states a much lower recommend temp for optimum fermentation (52-58F).

 

Used some basic maths when selecting about 5ml for the pitch.  35ml Vial is for one 5gal (or about 23l) batch.

 

So 23l / 4l = 5.75...  35ml / 5.75 = 6ml...  so selecting 5ml was just a case of basic math/ The 1ml should not matter too much.

When using dry yeast on 4l test brews I often used less than a quarter teaspoon and it starts fine.

 

Maybe I'll take the beers to separate rooms. On I'll threaten, the other I'll ask nicely, the third I'll beg... and see which one starts fermenting first.

[Andrew Dixon]

Keep in mind 5 gallons is actually just under 19L, which changes your calculation to about 7.5mL.

Andy

[Grant R Baker]

wow 4 months before UBD.... 

 

I'll give the carboys a swirl without taking the valves off and see what it looks like tomorrow afternoon... if not then maybe some I'll get gangster and add some more yeast (maybe do a starter).

 

Maybe I'm too use to the fast dry yeasts.

[Adam Sparks]

the dry yeast sachets usually carry enough cells too properly inoculate 20 litres

Despite the fact that whitelabs and Wyeast both suggest one vial/smackpack is enough too inoculate 20 litres I find I get better results using mrmalty and usually end up using the equivalent of two packs (or one with a starter)

[Grant R Baker]

Houston we have achieved bubbling. Some 39 hours after pitching.... still very slow but it means they are alive and working.

 

So its not like my Ale yeasts.. and as a few reviewers of the WLP820 yeast (stated wrong yeast on original post) point out it is fairly slow even when compared to other lager yeast strains.

 

I'll give them a week at the 16-18C temps then drop them to 11-15C for 5 weeks. Then another week dropping closer to zero... these are test brews so not to important this bit (lagering is another good reason to stick to ales).

[Vesku]

I've noticed that, if I don't have a very fast and strong start for my lager fermentation, I always end up with some sort of off taste in the final beer. I've had best results when I recycle some of the slur (about 0.5L) from the previous patch. I've usually made a new patch day after kegging the previous one, but the slur seems to be surviving a few days in the fridge without problems.

4 weeks @ 8C fermentation and 4 -> weeks in the keg seems to work for me. 16-18C seems very high temp to me.

Don't forget to do the diacetyl rest.

Lagering is not a problem, you just need a lot of kegs ;)

[Grant R Baker]

Thanks.

I thought it was high too for a lager but the Whitelabs yeast bottle recommended 70F for initial pitch temp. The web site recommend longer fermentation at 50-56F...  no harm in seeing how it goes.

 

The small batch size and the slow yeast means the bottles are dropping slowly in temp anyway.. now 16C, compared to a 23l dark ale fermenting in the same room which is maintaining 24C after 2 weeks and bubbling less than once an hour.