Talking with Mike this weekend, we agree yeast management is becoming the most important aspect of our brewing practice.  If we were to go back in time and tell new homebrewers what to work on to improve their beer,  we would suggest practicing making mighty yeast starters for their brews.

For this lager series, I want to replicate the amount and the vitality of yeast that one would have after they brewed a few 5 gallon batches with the same strain.

Noted homebrewer Jamil Zainasheff talks about making yeast starters for all his brews, and big ones especially for lagers or beers with high starting gravities.

My yeast starter is going to be mighty for the Bohemian Pilsner.  The recipe already calls for the equivalent of 4 liquid yeast vials or packets.   Now with the one vial I bought, I need to create a 9 liter starter to get the yeast cell count to match that of 4 vials.

My plan is to do that – create enough wort to make a 9 liter starter and add the yeast vial to it.  Once the fermentation is done for the starter, I will drain the “beer” off of the yeast cake in the fermenter (I will need to use a carboy to create a yeast starter this big).  Then, pour another starter wort on top of the yeast cake – this time it will be 4 gallons strong.

Once fermentation is over for round two of the starter,  I can have my Bohemian Pilsner brew day.  I think think procedure will give me the number of yeast cells I need and in the healthy state they need to be in to make an excellent beer.

I had planned to brew a batch of Oatmeal Stout two weeks ago. I crushed my grain and I made my starter (WLP005). I started a new job the first week, then the second week we had an early winter storm that knocked out power for a few days. The recovery effort and getting back on track with my new job has delayed brewing a little bit. So now I am thinking about Reviving a Yeast Starter!

On the one hand I put the 2L starter in the fridge when it was done. I let it go 3 days on the stir plate with the intention of chilling to settle the yeast, then pitch the slurry on brew day. But now its been 14+ days. I could probably still just pitch it and call it fairly fresh. However, I am really looking to nail my fermentation for this batch of O.Stout.

I think I might decant the spent wort, then resuspend the yeast in a one gallon growler with some fresh 1.040 starter wort. I’ll let it ferment out, crash chill, decant and pitch. That will increase the cell count a bit, but I am thinking it will put some fresh life back into the yeast.

Any thoughts or experience from our dedicated readers?

BREW ON!

Through internet research and informal polling, I have come up with the list for the best yeast to make hard cider.

I am not sure if it is THE list, but it’s the best from what I gathered.

In the past, I have used a Champagne yeast strain and it made a very dry cider.  I was looking for a better alternative.

Here is my list for the best cider yeasts:

• Lallemand Nottingham Ale
• Safale S-04
• White Labs WLP775 English Cider Yeast

Again, this list is based on asking people online about what they use and reading forums, blog posts, brewing websites, etc.

I haven’t used any of these personally but before the end of October, I will.

Mike is heading to a Local Home Brew Shop in Cambridge, MA tomorrow and I gave him this list as a guide.  I don’t have a preference outside of using something that isn’t champagne yeast.

It was interesting that Wyeast and Mead yeast did not make the list.  Hmmmm.

Any other thoughts?

I have to admit, I tend to be a White Labs guy. For the Belgian Witbier that I brewed up, I ordered the Wyeast 3944 yeast strain because I didn’t think the yeast was going to survive the trip from Minnesota to my house via ground transport.

Wyeast’s pouch allows me to see how viable the yeast is before I pitch it.  I was making a starter anyway, but I also wanted the piece of mind that I had healthy yeast to start with.

I smacked the pack and it wasn’t that inflated after three hours.  I didn’t panic but I was beginning to put together a back up plan.

I made a 2 liter starter and pitched the pouch into it.  After 24 hours, there wasn’t a lot of visible activity.  I began to carve out some time to visit my Local Home Brew Shop.

After 36 hours, I saw krausen forming and by the time it was ready to pitch into my wort, it was really active.

A few things about this strain that I experience and read things online that backed up what I witnessed:

• Slow starting.  I was glad I made a starter 3 days before I brewed.
• A real top cropper.  Once fermentation started, it really started to foam up the top of my carboy.  My airlock was filled with yeasty sludge.
• I thought it had a mellow phenolic scent while it was working.  Some people thought it really stunk bad.  I’ve had lager yeast smell a whole lot worse.  This strain smelled pleasant as compared to the sulfur bad egg smell I have encountered before

I was doing some research about the Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager Yeast I pitched into my Oktoberfest.  On the Mr.Malty website I was looking at the yeast comparison table and discovered that WY2206 is the thought to be the same strain as WLP820 Oktoberfest/Marzen strain.  (Both thought to originate from the famed Weihenstephan brewery.)  My point is that I pitched WY2206 and John pitched WLP820.  For comparisons sake it appears we are using the same yeast in our Oktoberfest Duel.

The first step to get ready for the brewing duel is to create a huge starter.  I did this for the Rauchbier I made last year and it came out great.

When you making starters this big, you’re basically making brewing up a separate albeit simple beer just to get the yeast primed for the actual beer that you are brewing.

For a 4 liter stater, I will combine 400 grams of dry malt extract with 4 liters of water along with a pinch of yeast nutrient and bring it to boil for 15 minutes.

Then, I’ll let it cool to room temperature and aerate it.  I have aeration stone with an aquarium pump so I can let it do the work rather than shake the carboy. 

Last year, I let the starter ferment at cool room temperatures.  I think it was around 65° F.  I’ll probably let it sit around for a day and then slide it into the fridge until the brew day.  

On the brew day, I will let it warm up to fermentation temps ~ 50° F. 

When the Oktoberfest wort is ready, I will siphon off the starter beer and rack the O-fest wort right on top of the yeast cake. 

Sweet, sweet yeast cake. 

If you are making a mead, a key to success is having healthy yeast.  Here’s how to make a yeast starter for your mead.

I got and modified this information from The Compleat Meadmaker book. 

Ingredients:

6.5 cups of water
0.25 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
0.25 teaspon of yeast energizer
1 tablespoon of Light Dry Malt Extract
0.5 cups of honey

Equipment:

1 gallon glass jug (sanitized)
1 funnel (sanitized)
Small pot

Directions:

Add water, yeast nutrient, energizer, and malt extract together in the small pot and bring to a boil for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add honey, cover and let sit until it reaches room temperature. Pour mixture into glass jug using the funnel. Add yeast and cover top with some aluminum foil. Shake vigorously to oxgeniate. Let it sit somewhere at room temperature away from light for a day or two. Siphon most of the liquid off of the yeast at the bottom of the jug, but leave enough to mix up the bulk of the yeast into a slurry. Pitch the entire slurry into your fermenter.