@RoadRoach A typical Tilt appearance after a fermentation. It read a solid 1.016, but my hydrometer showed 1.021. Note the krausen coating, and sorry for the inverted image.
Harvesting yeast - where's the yeast?
- Thread starter Tal Orbach
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The model numbers are different country by country, but what you describe would have been the equivalent of the BX series here. Not much bigger than a riding mower, but built a lot heavier. They even build that little fella with a backhoe and loader. Then comes the B series, which was a little confusing. That frame size crosses into the 30+ horsepower range. A B2680 is HUGE compared to a B2601. The one I have is the LX series, sort of the 'mini-me' for the L series. However, this version, the SU, is slightly larger than the smallest L, and has the same horse power, better maneuverability, and a lot of improvements over the older L series. The SU is the "Standard Utility" model, sort of a stripped down version without some of the bells and whistles like tilt steering wheel, deluxe seat with arm rests, mid-mount PTO. Knocks about $4K off the price, but it's actually set up better if I want to add a backhoe to it down the road. This is actually still considered a compact tractor because of the HP rating and track width (42.5 inches). The BX and lower end B's are sub-compacts.
As for my experiment with making a starter, we have success. Airlock is bubbling this morning. It wasn't an explosive start, but I've noticed that none of my liquid yeast batches have been. The dry yeast packs always take off like a bat outta hell with it's wings on fire, most of the time pushing the krausen up to the lid. Liquid stuff seems to be a bit calmer (unless some idiot puts too much liquid in the bucket). I normally see action in the fermenter within about 12 hours. This one pushed out a little closer to 20 or so.
If I'm going to do this thing with repitching the yeast, I can see a huge advantage in getting a conical fermenter. Pulling the gooey stuff out from the bottom seems like the logical thing to do, or at least there should be less waste from using a flat bottom vessel. I can see where it would be heaps easier to pull a good bath of repitch slurry and even separate some of the worst trub before collecting the culture. The conicals don't stack/store very well when not in use, though, not to mention, they ain't cheap either. Looked at one of those when I first started this hobby, and it looked way too advanced for a beginning brewer. Well, I ain't no beginner any more.
How can anything that tastes so good have stuff that nasty looking in it, right?
I'm guessing the weight of the krausen was enough to knock off 5 points? Wow, that thing is sensitive. BUT, it floats near the surface, whereas you're pulling your sample for the Hydrometer from down in the batch. The LAST thing you want to do is stir at the point before you rack it into your keg or bottling bucket. Taking the reading from a bottling bucket is probably not the smartest thing to do either if you bottle and use priming sugar. I put my priming in the bottom of the bottling bucket, then rack the fermenter into that with the end of the tubing already submerged. That prevents any aeration before sealing for carbonation. Alcohol would tend to rise to the surface and sugars settle, which might be part of the slightly higher readings from deeper in the batch. A freshly fermented batch of beer is far from homogenous. Yeast is still settling and will for days. Do you pull a sample from the keg after racking to check SG? Just curious if you would get the same numbers before and after racking, or yet a 3rd different reading.
Bottom line, though, it still beats the heck outta pulling the lid off the fermenter and pulling a sample to see if fermentation is done. All ya gotta do is wait for it to go flatline.
P.S. Upside down photos don't bother me. I read governmentese pretty good, so upsidedownese is no problem.
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No, I've never even thought to do that. I'm fairly sure whatever was in the fermentor got itself into the keg unchanged.
I was more thinking about the homogeneity of the beer. Sure, it all makes it into the keg or bottling bucket, with a lot of care not to disturb the trub or aerate the beer. But, even without aeration, there is liquid movement, ergo, mixing to make it more homogenous. That's why I was suggesting taking the FG reading from the keg to compare with the Tilt. Just a curiosity thing, really.
Well, I gotta admit, I've never seen this kind of activity in one of my fermenters. There is a steady blow of CO2 coming out of the air lock. It ain't bubbling, it's steadily rumbling. I can hear it across the room. Had a very minor burp into the air lock (which trapped some very happy yeast). Unfortunately for the yeast that made it to the air-lock, the Star-San solution was not kind to it. I use a very strong StarSan solution in my air lock. Just that tiny bit of added insurance against infection. If the CO2 flow from this batch is any indication of how good it's gonna be, it'll be the best wit I've made yet, with the possible exception of the one I enhanced with a little fresh lemon peel. It'll be interesting to see what this does for clarity, too. So, looks like starters to kick the yeast count up is gonna have a place in my regimen from now on, as well as capturing slurries, especially with the liquid yeasts. As soon as I have a fermenter available, I'm putting the porter on using the slurry from the Hobgoblin that I bottled last weekend. That'll put four different beers on the shelf after I get it bottled. Might have to go grab another oatmeal stout to try this process with, too. And I have another Rapier Wit to do as soon as the latest brew comes outta the fermenter. That should build my stock back up pretty quick.
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Ok..I just read this again, it sounds like this vitality starter is feeding the yeast an hors'devorse before the main course...do I have that right Mark?
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That's what vitality starter means to me.
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I'm gonna try "feeding" one of the slurry jars that have been in the fridge for a few months with some dme and see how that works. Based on Brulosophy's podcast, this should allow me some more time between batches with this Wyeast 1315
