Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 8:53 am
by TheDarkSide
I'm planning on brewing the CYBI 8 Mile Alt recipe this Saturday and have a question about my yeast. I had planned on brewing this a while ago, and had all the ingredients, but things came up and I never got to it. The yeast I have (Wyeast 1007) had a manufacture date of May 2011. I made a 2L starter about 2 weeks ago, fermented it on a stirplate for about 35 hours, then put it in the fridge. It has been there, covered, ever since.
If I made another starter, add it to this slurry, and put it on a stirplate for 18-24 before pitching, do you think there would be enough viable yeast to ferment out the Alt ( og 1.046 )?
Or should I just get a couple packs of new yeast and pitch them? Problem is I don't know if the local shops have this in stock (one I checked so far didn't).
Thanks Army!
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 9:29 am
by mordantly
add some wort to wake the yeast and lightly stir ~6 to 12hrs and when it's pitched... watch for blow off! i recently put Amer barleywine >32brix on a cake that was 11days in primary. in under 6hrs i nearly over flowed the pale.
don't worry so much about dates. a starter will cure low cell counts from year+ old packs. i have 4 well over a year old waiting to be slanted.
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 2:37 pm
by Tygo
Yeah, just add a liter or two of starter wort to the slurry and stirplate it for a day and you'll be good to go.
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 8:09 am
by scotchpine
I really love yeast. I just hope it never decides to take over the world!
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:14 am
by mordantly
i'm sure if it were multi-celled, it would have a few millennia ago.
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2012 11:54 am
by TheDarkSide
Brewed on Jan 1. I made another starter and it went about 33 hours ( was going to brew on 12/31 but it rained all F$$#ing day ). Pulled it out of the fridge on the morning of brewday, and pitched it at fermentation temp (62F). About 12 hours later, a nice krausen had developed and at 24 hours, some was already climbing up the blowoff tube.
So I guess the yeast was ok. We'll see how it comes out.
Thanks!
Re: Yeast Starter or Pitch New Yeast
Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 7:26 pm
by mordantly
yeasties are damn hardy. there was an article about some 50 million year old or some such yeast that was built up and the guy that found it was going to pitch it and see what happened. ill look when on a pc next. Jurrasic Park style brew.