Here are some tips about getting the most out of your ale yeast. After boiling, once your wort is cooled down to about 70 degrees it's time to take the batch to a cool location and pitch the yeast. In most cases, it's a good idea to make a yeast start ahead of time (1-2 days earlier) to help ensure there are plenty of yeast that are ready to go to work immediately. (See Making a Yeast Starter.) Having lots of "awake" yeast can help prevent infection from getting into your beer.
If you are using a yeast starter, gently swirl the starter to get the yeast separated a bit then pour it into your cooled wort. If you are using a pouch or vial, ensure it's been warmed to pitching temperature first and is activated before pitching. I'm a big believer in giving my beer a healthy dose of as much yeast as possible to ensure a strong and quicker start to fermentation.
Aeration: One of the most important steps to ensure a good fermentation is providing for an adequate aeration (oxygenating your wort). You can do this in many ways. One simple way is to shake up your wort for several minutes to aerate the wort. Boiling takes out most of the oxygen in your wort and yeast need a lot of oxygen to survive. If you happen to have an oxygen tank and a bubbler (for an aquarium) you can put a sanitized air hose into the wort and bubble it full of oxygen for about 30 minutes.
Once aeration is complete, then add an airlock and/or sanitized blow-off tube to your fermenter. In this example below, I used a food-grade plastic container and a 3-piece airlock. Be sure to sanitize every piece of equipment you use ahead of time to help prevent unwanted bacteria from getting into your beer.
After a half a day after pitching your yeast, your airlock or blow-off tube should be going nuts with activity. If so, your brew is fermenting strong! If you don't see much activity after a day or so you may have under-pitched your yeast or perhaps had your wort at a too high or low temperature.
Ale yeasts tend to do well between 65 to 74 degrees. Any higher and your yeast may produce esters that can give off flavors or aromas. Any lower and fermentation may go very slowly or perhaps make the yeast dormant. Lagers work at colder temperatures around 45 to 50 degrees and take much longer to ferment. Refer to your homebrewing guides for details on lagers as we are dealing primarily with ales in this example.
In my most recent batch example, the fermentation was strong within 10 hours after pitching and went nuts for about 3 days after that. It then seemed to be complete by the end of the 4th day. Note, however, that just because you don't see much activity in your airlock or blow off tube doesn't mean it's done fermenting. Sometimes it's good to gently agitate the fermenter periodically to get some of the yeast off the bottom and into the middle. Your ales will probably be fermenting for at least 10 days. When in doubt, take periodic gravity readings and after a day or two the readings stay the same then you can assume the fermentation is complete.
Typically, you should let your brew sit in the primary fermenter for at least 1 to 2 weeks and then optionally rack it into a secondary fermenter for settling a few days and then I'll get ready for bottling / kegging day. Don't worry, letting your beer sit on the yeast cake for several weeks shouldn't affect your beer. Racking to a secondary does risk putting oxygen into your finished beer and that can lead to off flavors. Remember, you only want to aerate / oxygenate unfermented wort, and not after it has finished fermenting.
Here's a video of a yeast pitching session. You might wish to aerate a lot longer than I did in this example. The more oxygen mixed in up front the better.
It's OK to aerate either before or right after pitching your yeast. The yeasties don't mind getting shook up provided the wort is at a good temperature. My yeast survived just fine being pitched before aerating.
Be sure to read all of the comments below from other homebrewers. They have a lot of good tips to add. Feel free to add your own comments on this subject.
Continue reading: Homebrew batch transferred to secondary.
Related articles:
- Creating a yeast starter for homebrewing.
- Making an extract homebrew - 1st of the year.
- Testing a Blichmann Boilermaker brew kettle.
- The trials and tribulations of bottling beer.
This article came from FermentedlyChallenged.com
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Friday, January 16, 2009
Pitching yeast into your homebrew
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10 comments:
No, but I probably should have!
Ah secondary how very 90s, unless you are doing a Pilsner or a few other styles it's actually fallen out of fashion. Because you lose the CO2 headspace and you may get oxygen in when transfer, it may cause oxidized flavors. You open yourself to potential to infection by adding another container. So for some styles there is certainly a validity but don't be overly committed to it.
I hope the yeast is active in the photo it kind of looks like it's already passed out of growth phase but tough to tell with certainty from here.
A-Rand - next batch give a yeast starter a try. This is my 1st time with a starter and so far I think it paid off.
Thomas - I'm still very 90s as that is the decade I learned to homebrew in. I do fear oxidation and a secondary was suggested to me by the author of my recipe. I don't have a CO2 system, otherwise I'd fill the 5-gallon Better Bottle with CO2 first before racking to it.
The yeast in the photo was just a couple of days old and had stopped fermenting. I kept swirling it a couple of times a day to get the yeast off the bottom and ferment what was left in the flask.
It did it's job though as my fermentation went nuts for 3 solid days and then calmed down. Time to get the beer off of the yeast.
Yea 3 days out is a bit much for starter, it probably passed out of growth phase. With that fresh tube added to what had from the starter had plenty from the way you described the fermentation so no worries on that. Next time I'd do the starter only a day in advance, 3 is a bit too much for a beer that small, if you kept building it into a 1-2 gallon starter for 10 gallon batch 3 days would be fine.
Just my .02 -
I don't think Secondary is as far out of style as you think. Even though you do risk oxidation, there's more of a chance of yeast autolysis in bigger beers when leaving them "bulk age" on a huge yeast cake. While this is a small worry in the grand scheme of things, it's more of a worry than any ill effects from oxidation, especially in homebrew. Most homebrewed beers don't last long enough to show the ill-effects of oxidation.
I agree that three days out is a bit too long for a starter, and that 18 to 36 hours, depending on the yeast strain, is better for a quick start-up to fermentation. I disagree, though, with the need for the "fresh yeast" vial. First, it's a waste of yeast. You spent so much time and energy (not to mention money) increasing the number of viable yeast by making a starter, that, even if you didn't pitch at krauesen, you still have the numbers, so the extra really wasn't needed. Secondly, there's such a thing as overpitching. This can lead to some off flavors as well. Google "yeast pitcing rates" and you'll get some good info.
At any rate, I wouldn't worry about any of it. As long as you sanitize everyting properly, you're going to have fresh, drinkable, beer that's probably pretty damn good.
Cheers on the first batch, Dave, and welcome back into the fold. Such a great hobby/obsession!
I could have sworn I read that 3 days ahead was OK but I had little choice in the matter as my days between brewday were too busy to make a starter anyway. I'll find out soon enough how it all turns out as I'll bust open the fermenter today or tomorrow and rack it into a secondary. I spoke with a local brewer about secondaries and he highly recommends it. I need the experience of racking a brew anyway. Will try to keep the splashing and oxygen to a minimum and use up all of the head space in the 5 gallon Better Bottle.
I haven't used a starter yet. I mostly aerate the wort like crazy before and after pitching (dry, vial, or smack pack). I'm thinking about using a starter now though, since my last few batches have been slow to ferment.
Dave,
RDWHAHB. Like I said, you're batch will be fine.
And you're right, three days ahead IS fine to make a starter, especially if it's a scheduling issue. I've used week-old starters and have had good beers. The fact that you made a starter is why you'll have good beer. The fact you have the right amount of healthy yeast, even though their not at peak activity is infinitely better than the WRONG amount of yeast AT the peak of their activity.
Don't sweat the small stuff.
Cheers,
Dave
I think the 'yeast autolysis' issue is overrated and the oxidation is a bigger concern. But for this beer I wouldn't worry about it.
On carbonation in the right place in one house I had solid carbonation in 4 days, but at 65-70 a week should be fine.
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