What are you doing with homebrew today?

west1m said:
I'm making this starter. About 6 ounces DME and about a quart and a half water. Started about 1.042 with a refract-o- thing last night. This morning about 1.035 or so. The stir thing was going all night. I turned it off and it appears to be quite active. My question is, what good does the stirrer do? I had read it was to add oxygen to the wort. But that ain't going to happen if it is producing CO2 in a closed up Erlenmeyer Flask.
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I just cap mine with a crimp of sanitized foil. Any CO2 escapes.
 
BarbarianBrewer said:
A stir plate keeps the yeast in suspension so all the yeast has access to oxygen and sugars in the wort. I spin it on the slow side and just fit some tin foil loosely over the top of the flask so some additional oxygen can enter. That is unless there are fruit flies about. In that case, I wrap it tight and the yeast just has to use the oxygen is started with. There is some debate on whether the stir bar harms the yeast due to sheer-stress. I think that really only applies to yeast manufactures. The amount of yeast we are propagating at the home brew level is pretty small. But just to be safe I usually take my starter off the stir plate when I wake up on brew day and swirl it every time I walk past it. So it spends about 8-10 hours on the stir plate and another 6 hours being shaken & swirled.
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I've never had 'damaged yeast' using a stir plate. I have had poor fermentations with a 'shaken not stirred' starter though.
 
Well this starter is getting a real workout. We have to go across town to a Doc this afternoon so I won't be brewing today. I just put the starter back in the fridge to wait for (tomorrow?) another day.
Hmmm.... the Doc place is about 25 miles closer to the only brew store around here.
 
Mont Y. Märzen said:
I've never had 'damaged yeast' using a stir plate. I have had poor fermentations with a 'shaken not stirred' starter though.
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I've never had damaged yeast from a stir plate either...at least not that I know of. I expect you'd need lab equipment and more knowledge than I have to determine that. And while I've never had poor fermentation from shaken-not-stirred method, I have noticed less growth. I attribute that to no agitation overnight. So my method is basically a compromise between the two methods. I use a stir plate overnight and then in the morning, when yeast density is higher, I take is off the stir plate and switch to a frequent swirl/shake. I call my process Stir First Swirl Later (SFSL).
 
Mine has turned out to be swirl and stash.
 
west1m said:
Well this starter is getting a real workout. We have to go across town to a Doc this afternoon so I won't be brewing today. I just put the starter back in the fridge to wait for (tomorrow?) another day.
Hmmm.... the Doc place is about 25 miles closer to the only brew store around here.
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Once the yeast has grown -doubled? - a trip into the fridge (cold crash?) helps separate the yeast from the spent wort (supernatant). Pour it off and pitch just the slurry.
 
It's looking good for that.
 

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Well my Brother Smithwicks made it to the fermenter. I was able to hit the brewstore yesterday and picked up the Goldings hops so no subbing there. No A10 Darkness though.
I did buy some Wyeast1084 just in case my starter fails.
 
west1m said:
Well my Brother Smithwicks made it to the fermenter. I was able to hit the brewstore yesterday and picked up the Goldings hops so no subbing there. No A10 Darkness though.
I did buy some Wyeast1084 just in case my starter fails.
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My starter seems to have worked properly. The fermenter has been going to town the last couple days. My Tilt shows it down 25 points already . Seems great for used yeast that has been in the fridge for about four months.
 
Getting stuff ready to brew this year’s iteration of Joshtoberfest for the fall. I’ve been lazy so will be busy while I brew tomorrow
 
I brewed a Vienna Lager this morning. Here's a first. During the mash out phase, i got distracted and let the temp get up to 200F before I was able to cut the flame and get the grains out. I hope this doesn't trash the brew. I tasted it before transferring to the fermenter. It was good. So............????
 
Over The Cliff Brewing said:
I brewed a Vienna Lager this morning. Here's a first. During the mash out phase, i got distracted and let the temp get up to 200F before I was able to cut the flame and get the grains out. I hope this doesn't trash the brew. I tasted it before transferring to the fermenter. It was good. So............????
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Nice little decoction. It will be awesome.

Yes I know that is not a decoction. But there are similarities
 
About halfway through mash step 1. Brewing this years iteration of Joshtoberfest. Normally I brew a Marzen and a Festbier. Not doing that this year since @Donoroto provided a Hefeweizen that is perfect for an Oktoberfest gathering. So I’m making the Festbier maltier than my typical. 10 pounds of Weyerman Vienna
1.5 pounds of Barke Pilsner
 
Ward Chillington said:
Nice rig...looks familiar....do you use a pump toy your kettle?
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Yeah, I'm sure I've posted it before. I use a pump from the kettle, but only for transferring heated water to either the hot liquor tank or the mash tun. The copper tubing goose neck has a swivel so I can raise, lower and turn it.
 
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