Man, the rotten egg stinky smells coming off this rauchbier in the first few days of fermentation are enough to melt your face.  My wife noticed them when the starter was going.  She thought the toilet had backed up.  

Thankfully, the fermenter is in the fridge and the closed door is keeping the smell in.

I used this strain (WLP 830) before for my Maibock and it was a little sulfur-y but not like this…  It’s really strong this time around.

This morning, it seemed to be less pungent as the day before, so I think we’re getting past the real smelly phase.

I was reading up on the temperature for lager yeast starters in Brewing Classic Styles.  I was surprised to read that the recommended temperature range was 65°F to 75°F for both ale and lager yeast starters.

I guess lager yeast reproduces more rapidly at the warmer temperatures.  Something tells me I should be very careful to siphon off as much of the starter beer as possible before I introduce the Rauchbier wort.

I was going to kick off the starter tonight but heavy rains have changed my plans. 

We got a press release sent to us about the latest book from Jamil Zainasheff.  He co-wrote another one and this time it was with Chris White of White Labs.  It’s entitled: Yeast: The Practical Guide to Beer Fermentation.

I have to say that it’s one that I might have to pick up.  I think my beers have gotten a whole lot better since I learned about pitching the right amount of yeast and getting fermentation temperatures under control.

It’s not to say I know everything.  Hopefully the chapters on fermentation don’t just boil down to “get a fridge and a thermostat”…although that’s ultimately what every homebrewer should do eventually.  I guess I am looking for some good in-between steps.

Anyway, I feel I could benefit from learning more about the little critters and this book looks like a great resource.   

On the suggestion of reader JW, I bought a vial of the second version of White Labs’ Belgian Saison yeast strain.  It’s a part of their platinum strain line which means it’s only available during certain months of the year.  Thankfully, August was one of the months.

From the description on their site, this one is a faster fermenter than its version 1.0.  It appears that it can take the heat too, so I plan to get my fermentation temperatures up to 85°F.

I need to figure out how I can slowly raise the temperature from 68°F to 85°F, but I will figure that out.  I think there is probably some investigation of room temperature around my house in my future.

I also have a heating pad ready to help out as well.

So I didn’t get to brew my Brown ale last Friday night. After getting the kids to bed (and waiting to be sure they were in bed), I went to the garage to find some equipment troubles. I had stored my chiller inside my 10 gallon stainless pot. There must have been a little water between the copper chiller and the stainless because I got a little oxidation of the copper. So there was a little green copper on the pot bottom and the chiller. I know that oxidized copper is not something you want getting into the beer. So I needed to look up the proper way to clean oxidized copper. As a result, I didn’t brew.

So now I have a dilemma. I am ready to brew again, but should I use my yeast that I started and chilled. I am looking for ideas. Here is my situation:

I had one WLP001 vial of yeast that was only 14 days past its “best buy” date. I made a starter on a stir plate 2 full days before brewing. I got good growth as estimated by an increase in creamy opaqueness of the start wort post 2 days (looks like most starters I make, so no worries there).

Then I crash cooled it overnight, anticipating I’ll pitch the slurry only the next day into a Brown Ale.

I never got to brew the brown ale - sad to say.

So now I have yeast still in the fridge and settled out. The spent starter wort still above it.

Which route is the best course of action?

• Pitch the slurry as is after bringing it to room temp.
• Decant spent wort and add new start wort day of brew session.
• Ditch the whole thing and start fresh.
• Something I didn’t think of.

I had to post this wonderful piece of information about yeast and yeast starters.  A great great brewer friend of mine, Wade, over at the BKB forums posted a reply to a discussion we were having about yeast starters and cell #s provided in the yeast packages we all typically buy from WhiteLabs and Wyeast.

Wade, a.k.a. 1n1m3g in cyber-land, is currently working on his PhD in the biological sciences arena and works exclusively with yeast for his research.  He and I have talked in the past about yeast; and he really knows his stuff.  When Wade is not working in the lab or being a great father and family man he can be found bumming around with the Boston Wort Processors.  A homebrew club here in the Boston area. (Please consider checking out their upcoming Homebrew Competition)

So please take a minute to read and digest the post I have copied below.  Its a bit long, but it’s amazingly informative.

From Wade:
“OK, OK, i guess I can try to make some sort of contribution to this discussion here.  I think there is a bit of confusion here about the yeast that come in the liquid from the homebrew stores, either smack packs or vials.  There are two key terms everyone should be aware of and the differences between the two.  One is yeast viability and the other is yeast vitality.  Viability is easy to define as it basically describes the overall number of yeast cells that are alive.  If you were able to count the cells under a microscope and then plate out a small, countable number of cells onto an agar plate the viability of the yeast would be the number of cells that actually form a colony as compared to the number of cells you plated.  Vitality, on the other hand, is a more ambiguous term that describes the overall health of those viable cells.  In brewing terms, it could be described as how fast the cells could divide and as well as how efficient they are at fermenting sugars.  Cells will have high vitality if they have sufficient fermentation precursors stored up.  For example, oxygen is required to build up sufficient cell wall components prior to fermentation because during fermentation (in the absence of oxygen) these cell wall components are not synthesized and are depleted upon every cell division until a lower limit threshold is reached and the cells can no longer divide thereby decreasing fermentation efficiencies.  So, even before you pitch your yeast, you can easily have a population of cells with high viability but low vitality if not properly prepared.  For example, the older a vial or smack pack is the lower the viability is as well as the vitality, but I think that vitality drops off much faster than viability over time. 

So back to the question of starters.  Creating a population of cells with high vitality requires that you give the yeast the proper nutrients that prime them for fermentation.  I think this is where Wyeast smack packs are superior to White labs yeast vials.  When you pop the smack pack you release vital nutrients to the yeast so the somewhat dormant yeast greatly increase their vitality.  There is no way to do this for White labs unless you use a starter to wake them up.  A starter is useful for both because depending on the starter technique you use you can greatly increase the total number of viable cells while at the same time increase the overall vitality of the entire population.  The most important component for the starter is oxygen.  Why force the cells to start fermentation in a starter when you are just going to pitch them into an oxygen rich wort, which inhibits fermentation, only to have that oxygen quickly depleted requiring a switch back to fermentation?  If you use a stir plate to add oxygen continuously to the starter you can greatly increase the overall numbers of cells in a smaller volume of starter wort.  These cells will have built a nice ample store of the cell wall components required for proper attenuation of your beer.  If you prefer the more traditional method of a still starter you will be better off if you give the starter a stir twice a day or so to scrub out the built up CO2 and introduce more O2.

I think a better place to add things like yeast nutrient (i.e. Servomyces) would be at pitching or a day or two into the fermentation.  The yeast nutrients add things like metal ions required for enzyme function as well as free nitrogen required to synthesize these enzymes.  Adding this to the fermenting wort of your beer will give the yeast a boost as they use up the limited nutrients that come from the malt.

I use a stir plate for my starters because I don’t use smack packs or vials, but am instead building up my population step by step from literally a single yeast cell.  I need the extra oxygen to get to the proper number of viable cells with the added benefit of also getting high vitality.  Either way, though, if you are using store bought liquid yeast, make sure the package is as close to the manufactured date as possible and if you have the capability, use a starter of any technique (stir plate of otherwise) to increase cell vitality.

Wow, is that enough of an explanation?    Cheers!”

(Standing) BREW ON!

I have been conducting a little research into brewing lagers lately.  It’s a goal of mine to get the first lager out of the way (Have you taken the poll yet?)  before the end of the year and finally fulfill a long standing Brew Year’s Resolution.

I was reading Brewing Classic Styles last night and it stated that for all the lager recipes that the followed the Narziss Fermentation procedure.

From what I read, this method calls for pitching the yeast into wort that is colder than the optimal fermentation temperature (44°F).  Then, you should let the fermentation vessel warm up slowly during the first 36 to 48 hours to the optimal temperature ( 50°F) and hold it there for the rest of fermentation.

The Narziss fermentation procedure is followed to keep fruity esters and diacetyl at bay as these characteristics are not welcome in lager styles.  Following this method, there would be no diacetyl rest

Just wondering what our readers thought about the Narziss Fermentation method/procedure.

A guy named Ludwig wouldn’t steer your wrong…or a guy named Jamil.