Brewer's Cache » yeast

How to create a yeast starter.

brewbaron — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 05:20:00 +0000

Creating a yeast starter is a simple thing you can do to improve the quality of your homebrew. If you use dry yeast, creating a starter is important. If you use liquid yeast, creating a starter is critical. Creating a starter will increase your cell count and help keep from stressing your yeast when you pitch.

To create a starter, boil one pint of water with 1/2 light dry malt extract for 10 minutes. You can add a very small quantity of hops if you like. All the while, sanitize a jar or other vessel and the yeast vile. Cool the wort to pitching temperature, about 75 degrees. When cool, add the wort to the sanitized vessel and then add your yeast. If the vessel is of the appropriate size, affix an airlock. If not, take some sanitized aluminum foil and cover the vessel’s opening. Hold the starter at the same temperature that your recipe requires for the primary fermentation.

The starter is ready for use when the yeast is at is peak activity, when you see a high kraeusen.

How do you know if your dry yeast is bad?

brewbaron — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 20:00:06 +0000

A good yeast culture is critical for proper fermentation of wort into beer. The question of whether or not your yeast is up for the task of brewing beer is answered by observing the yeast in action. Before being pitched into your wort, you need to “bloom ” your yeast by creating a starter.

Creating a yeast starter the day before brewday is always a good brewing practice. To create a yeast starter, you are pitching your brewing yeast into a very small batch of wort; just use some DME. The starter allows your dry yeast to rehydrate and hopefully begin to reproduce. If your dry yeast is dead on arrival, you will not see any activity in your starter. If all else goes well, you can pitch your starter into your a full-size batch of wort. Just remember to use the same sanitation measures that you would normally use for your full-size batch!

Rehydrate your yeast

brewbaron — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 20:11:24 +0000

For those of you that use dry yeast, you must rehydrate your yeast before pitching. When dehydrated, the yeast’s cell membrane is highly permeable; it allows just about anything to pass through. If you just toss your dry yeast into the wort, you will get all sorts of simple sugars inside the yeast. This will effectively kill off a large number of your hapless yeast.

Rehydrating yeast in boiled water that has been allowed to cool to about 70-80 degrees will allow the cell membranes to “puff out” and regain their ability to act as a chemical filter. Taking some extra time will increase your pitch rate and give your beer a head start.

Happy Brewing!

Which yeast should I use for my Ale?

brewbaron — Thu, 12 Oct 2006 15:31:52 +0000

Good question. White labs has some suggestions. I haven’t tried using anything but dry American yeast so far, but I hear these strains come up now and then. This is a good reference.