i was thinking about making a beer with 6.3 lbs of northern brewer maris otter extract and hopping with amarillo and simcoe to about 50-70 ibu. i have some denny’s fav 50 yeast from 03/12 that i need to use. i plan on making a small starter if this particular yeast will work with a beer like that.
alternatively, i have safale us-05 and white labs california ale v from 5/2012.
thoughts?
thanks in advance.
1450 should be good for that.
thank you sir.
/thread
ugggg… can’t find the info on the maris otter extract to put in into beersmith.
northern brewer says 1.036 ppg and 4-5 srm hopr that helps
thanks. let me see if i can work that in somehow!
What form is the yeast from 3/12? Is it an un-smacked smack pack? Or is this a leftover slurry? I would plan on a multi-stage starter in either case. The first stage to check for viability and grow some yeast, the second stage to grow more yeast. Viability will be pretty low after that long, but there should be plenty if it was stored well.
+1. And if it’s slurry and does not smell particularly good, I would toss it and use something else. You’ll know when you take a whiff…
No kidding…I checked on some 3 month old slurry the other day. It smelled like vinegar, so it went down the drain.
So… I have a slurry of California Ale yeast that is about 3 months old. Its been in my refrigerator in an E-Flask covered with Aluminum foil. Came from a local brewery and it produced a vigorous fermentation when last used. There is about 100 cc yeast and it is covered with 400cc beer that separated out. Would you use it if it smells good (doesn’t smell bad)? Maybe decant it off and throw it in a starter? How long does yeast like this stay good?
You’re on the right track. Decant, add some pre-boiled and cooled water of the same temperature and swirl it up. You should know right away. If undecided, then make a starter. If that smells bad then toss.
I’ve used yeast slurry up to about 6 months old. After that I am usually too scared to ruin a batch and waste 5-6 hours of my time over a $7 purchase. It’s usually around generation 4-5 anyway…
Dave
Yes, decant and make a starter with it. At 3 months old and only 100 mls of cake, I’d at least wake it up a bit before putting it to work. But like others have said, if it smells off, toss it. Better to leave your wort waiting a day or two or five for yeast than to throw in something you know is off.
it was an unsmacked smack pack, but the bag was inflated. i let it warm up and cut the corner, flattened it and smacked it and decanted it into an 800 ml starter. i smelled it first and it smelled fine, but i can’t tell what if any action i’m getting on the stirstarter.
Give it a day or three and check the gravity. Let it settle, decant, and do it again. It should be fine.
+1. You need to give it some time to build back up.
i built up the starter a couple times. recipe looked like this, 100% maris otter extract, local honey, amarillo, simcoe, and centennial. 5.8% 66 ibu
used 5 ounces of hops, most of them 15 minutes and later. i used the honey to get a bit of an abv bump as with just the extract, it was coming in just above 4%.
i’m undecided on dry hops at this time. i’d love to, but i only have a couple ounces each of simcoe and amarillo on hand and i’d like to use them again. i have some citra i could dry hop with or a couple other hops i can’t recall off-hand.
the temps finally dropped down here, so i’m able to hold the room where i ferment beer down to 60 degrees constant, so i have high hopes for this beer.
another observation… i haven’t been able to ferment a beer at ‘recommended temp’ for over three years now (two i took off from brewing) as my fermenting refrigerator got turned into a regular refrigerator. usually, by now, the yeast has pretty much ripped through the fermentables, but this one is still bubbling away with a nice amount of krausen.
this beer is still fermenting like this, right now…
i guess i had forgotten how much proper temp extends fermentation time.
the ambient temp and the temp of the fermenting beer is up to 68 at this point as it has warmed up down here.
my plan was to rack this beer into secondary (this sunday) where i will dry hop it and brew a big dipa to put on the yeast.
i’m still getting a bubble every 8 seconds out of the airlock (i guess because it has warmed up), so i’m a bit befuddled if this beer will ever look done.
i haven’t taken a gravity reading since the activity hasn’t really let up.
i dunno.
