FORUM ON BEER, HOMEBREWING, AND RELATED ISSUES
Digest Janitor: pbabcock at hbd.org
***************************************************************
TODAY'S HOME BREW DIGEST BROUGHT TO YOU BY:
Logic, Inc. - Makers of Straight A Cleanser
www.ecologiccleansers.com
Support those who support you! Visit our sponsor's site!
********** Also visit http://hbd.org/hbdsponsors.html *********
DONATE to the Home Brew Digest. Home Brew Digest, Inc. is a
501(c)3 not-for-profit organization under IRS rules (see the
FAQ at http://hbd.org for details of this status). Donations
can be made by check to Home Brew Digest mailed to:
HBD Server Fund
PO Box 871309
Canton Township, MI 48187-6309
or by paypal to address serverfund@hbd.org. DONATIONS of $250
or more will be provided with receipts. SPONSORSHIPS of any
amount are considered paid advertisement, and may be deductible
under IRS rules as a business expense. Please consult with your
tax professional, then see http://hbd.org for available
sponsorship opportunities.
***************************************************************
Contents:
Arkansas State Fair Competition ("Ken Haycook")
RE: Reusing yeast (Calvin Perilloux)
RE: Reusing yeast (Gabe Toth)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* Beer is our obsession and we're late for therapy! *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
NOTE: With the economy as it is, the HBD is struggling to
meet its meager operating expenses of approximately $3500
per year. If less than half of those currently directly
subscribed to the HBD sent in a mere $5.00, the HBD would
be able to easily meet its annual expenses, with room to
spare for next year. Please consider it.
Financial Projection As of 10 Mar 2011
*** Condition: Green & Healthy ***
Projected 2011 Budget $3271.04
Expended against projection $ 950.64
Projected Excess/(Shortfall) $1870.50
As always, donors and donations are publicly acknowledged
and accounted for on the HBD web page. Thank you
Send articles for __publication_only__ to post@hbd.org
If your e-mail account is being deleted, please unsubscribe first!!
To SUBSCRIBE or UNSUBSCRIBE send an e-mail message with the word
"subscribe" or "unsubscribe" to request@hbd.org FROM THE E-MAIL
ACCOUNT YOU WISH TO HAVE SUBSCRIBED OR UNSUBSCRIBED!!!**
IF YOU HAVE SPAM-PROOFED your e-mail address, you cannot subscribe to
the digest as we cannot reach you. We will not correct your address
for the automation - that's your job.
HAVING TROUBLE posting, subscribing or unsusubscribing? See the HBD FAQ at
http://hbd.org.
LOOKING TO BUY OR SELL USED EQUIPMENT? Please do not post about it here. Go
instead to http://homebrewfleamarket.com and post a free ad there.
The HBD is a copyrighted document. The compilation is copyright
HBD.ORG. Individual postings are copyright by their authors. ASK
before reproducing and you'll rarely have trouble. Digest content
cannot be reproduced by any means for sale or profit.
More information is available by sending the word "info" to
req@hbd.org or read the HBD FAQ at http://hbd.org.
JANITORs on duty: Pat Babcock (pbabcock at hbd dot org), Jason Henning,
Spencer Thomas, and Bill Pierce
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 09:49:00 -0500
From: "Ken Haycook" <k.haycook at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Arkansas State Fair Competition
This year's ASF HB Competition will follow this schedule:
September 9th: Begin receiving entries at Arkansas State Fair Grounds
September 23rd: Last date to receive entries at Arkansas State Fair Grounds
October 21th: 1st round Judging 5:00pm 10:00pm, Arkansas State Fair Grounds
October 22nd: 2nd Round Judging 5:00pm 10:00pm, Arkansas State Fairgrounds
October 23rd: Best of Show Judging 1:00pm 10:00pm, Arkansas State
Fairgrounds
BOS Winners can earn up to $100. See our website at
www.centralarkansasfermenters.com for more details.
BTW, this competition is still restricted to Arkansas Residents only.
Ken Haycook
501-223-0030
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 11:51:41 -0700 (PDT)
From: Calvin Perilloux <calvinperilloux at yahoo.com>
Subject: RE: Reusing yeast
Glyn,
I do a lot of yeast repitching. It saves money, of course,
but as other posters like Dave Houseman and Bill Pierce
pointed out, the main benefit is that repitching can give
you a very healthy fermentation for higher OG beers.
That's a real benefit when brewing a Doppelbock, for
example. You get a cleaner fermentation and better
attenuation with more yeast at the beginning, and the
most practical way for homebrewers to do that is to start
with a "small" beer and use the yeast for the "big" beer.
As for the mechanics of it...
Sometime I do an immediate repitch; other times a repitch
days later with saved yeast.
If the initial beer is a "clean" one with a clean yeast cake
and not much trub, AND it also exhibits very clean fermentation,
I will pitch a new batch of wort straight on top of the yeast
cake in the same fermenter. When I do this, I drain the first
beer off of the yeast only very shortly before the next wort
hits it.
If that initial beer is loaded with hops and trub,
then I pull as much of yeast out as I can using yeast
rinsing techniques, similar to the process that Mike Dixon
shows in his article that lives on in the bowels of HBD:
Check his article: http://hbd.org/carboy/yeast_washing.htm
If I'm not brewing the same day I rack, I store the yeast
in an Erlenmeyer flask (or brewpub's White Labs yeast bottle)
very cold until I can brew. I'm reluctant to rack beer off
of yeast and then leave that yeast in the fermenter without
"food" and exposed to oxygen at room temperature for
a day or more while it awaits my next brew.
If you want to simply repitch from a batch of current yeast,
I wouldn't hold the yeast more than a couple of weeks.
Various yeast strains hold up better than others, and
if the yeast has been kept for more than a week, I always
decant some liquid off and smell AND taste it before
I consider whether to repitch the yeast as-is or not.
(Ideally, I'd use a hemocytometer and check the viability
counts, too, but I've been too lazy.)
I've found that with proper yeast handling, yeast can
actually be kept at 32F for months. I've even held some
types for about a year in Erlenmeyer flasks. Is it still
pitchable? Not at that point! It usually reeks of autolysis,
and the wort/beer taste is even worse! But you can wash it
and make another starter and get it going again. I've done
this with year-old yeast and had award-winning results in
the subsequent beers.
I initially started reusing, storing, washing/rinsing, and
rejuvenating yeast to save money, but now it's partly just
because it helps me keep a preferred yeast strain that might
only be available seasonally. And sometimes I just can't
help it -- I don't want to toss out a liter of healthy,
active, clean yeast!
That's just the tip of the iceberg. You could write a book
about yeast re-use, storage, and washing. (As some have.)
Just search the HBD archives for more info.
Calvin Perilloux
Middletown, Maryland, USA
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 23 Mar 2011 13:59:34 -0600
From: Gabe Toth <gabetoth at hotmail.com>
Subject: RE: Reusing yeast
David Houseman mentioned reusing the yeast bed from one beer for subsequent
batches, and I'd like to pick his (and anyone else's) brain about this.
Racking one beer and immediately pitching new wort directly onto the
existing bed has been my practice for a few years, but I've always
wondered about it's limitations.
Does anyone else worry or wonder about the effects of the trub that's in
there? And what are the upper limits of reusing yeast with this approach?
With good sanitation practices and yeast nutrient added to every brew,
I've gone well over 20 batches with the same yeast. The larger population
seems less likely to mutate, or at least any mutation gets crowded out.
Eventually, I start feeling like i'm pushing my luck and change to a
new, fresh yeast. I just, last week, phased out two yeasts, a kolsch
and a belgian, that i started using last summer and were still going
strong. But it seems to me that, as long as the system stays sanitary
and the yeast receives proper nutrition, the process could go on
ad infinitum.
Any thoughts?
Thanks.
Gabe Toth
P.S. I want to add, on my sixth attempt at sending this, that it was an
incredibly frustrating, hourlong process of sending, getting bounced, and
re-editing to get my text just right so that it wouldn't get rejected.
Whoever edits this edition of the digest can remove this from the actual email
that'll get sent out; I just wanted to say that this is an aggravating
and obtuse system, and I'll think very hard about whether future
submissions are worth the frustration.
------------------------------
End of HOMEBREW Digest #5813, 03/23/11
*************************************
-------
