Hammer of Thor starting SG of 1060 starting

(i started writing this yesterday but didnt finish it)

so after much delay i got my hammer of thor on the go!

i have never pitched my yeast but thought hey-ho-lets-give-it-ago and put some warmish water into a pyrex bowl and then mixed in some brewing sugar once i was happy with that i then cooled it down with some cold water and after putting my hand in to check the temp ( if you can feel the temp diffrence ie its warmer then its too high a temp , you want to be able to put your hand in and not actually feel a diffrence meaning that its body temp , ideal pitching for most yeasts )

In then went the yeast and stirred it in aswell, then some clingfilm over the top and gave it a good shake up. leave this for atleast 20+ mins and watch your beasties froth up + turn the solution milky . this gives them a better chance + actually tells you if your wasting your time with a dead batch of yeast.

next i decided to put the bag of liquid wort in a a deep pan and let its warm up to a near boil for a while as noticied some of the wort was abit solidified in the edges of the container.

while that was happening i decided to remove the sanitiser that had been in my primary fermenter, waste not want not - i attempted, with little success to fill 4 demijohns with the sanatiser solution as figured just over 25 litres i should be able to, alas, i barely filled 2 as realised being cack handed it just wasnt going to happen.

after throughly cleaning the inside of the primary fermenter with water to remove all sanitiser i emptied the contents on the wort plastic bag ( which i tried a drop of the wort - interesting to say the least) into my primary fermenter from a good height to get some air in it, on went the kettle and on went the deep pan with water to fill the fermenter. i then put some water into the wort bag and proceeded to shake the living day lights out of it so the rest of the wort was came out all bubbly!

most filled up my FV with warm water and then over time over 0.5KG of brewing sugar while it was still hot so it would be absorbed easily, only problem is i kept having to stir this thing and run a hose pipe on the outside of the FV to help bring the temp down ( it was warmer then hand temp - best way to guauge as i wasnt too sure the lcd strip was 100%)

Anywho came back to it many times stirring the heck out of it and adding bits of sugar as i did and then added my activated yeast solution - which by now had really come to life and looked and smelled amazing

i took a sample literally just after i added the yeast as had forgotten in the madness and it ended up coming out at 1060 - even with what must be bout 0.5kg of brewing sugar

put me 's' style bubbler on it and left it be, will update when theres movement + to confirm how much liquid there was in the end

sorry for the essay this is my first review of a brew day :thumb:

I think you should invest in a thermometer, you really don't want to be shoving your bacteria covered hand into your yeast. Also the temperature of the rehydration water is quite important, not something you should be guessing.
Another thing, when rehydrating yeast use water only, don't add sugar to it because that can be detrimental to the health of the yeast.

strange-steve said:

I think you should invest in a thermometer, you really don't want to be shoving your bacteria covered hand into your yeast. Also the temperature of the rehydration water is quite important, not something you should be guessing.
Another thing, when rehydrating yeast use water only, don't add sugar to it because that can be detrimental to the health of the yeast.

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i was doing it mostly outside and would run my hands under the hose pipe just before putting my hand in. as i said i have a heat strip on the fermenter but it didnt seem to give a clear indication - time to get another me thinks

+ is there anything i can do about what iv done to the yeast or will i just have to wait and see if this will still take off

its bubbling along nicely and its between 23-25 litres - can see exactly because of the gunk that went to the top

Tbh those lcd strips are pretty useless, a decent thermometer should be considered essential equipment for brewing.
When rehydrating yeast check the manufacturers instructions for the correct temperature, it varies depending on the strain. US-05 for example is 27°, Nottingham is 32° and as I mentioned these temperatures are quite important.

strange-steve said:

Tbh those lcd strips are pretty useless, a decent thermometer should be considered essential equipment for brewing.

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Seconded, the stick on strips can be wildly inaccurate. A thermopen is a good investment and is great for more than just home brew.

I've added sugar solution to hydrated yeast for all 3 of my brews to see if the yeast were still alive....it caused no problems, this was as per john palmers's recommendations....ive also read it may be better to use DME rather than sugar though...the only improvement I'd suggest to the OP would be too actually boil the sugar in some water, let cool to room temp. Also boil and cool to below 30 the water used to hydrate the yeast. Add the sugar solution 15mins after adding the yeast to the water.

chuffer said:

I've added sugar solution to hydrated yeast for all 3 of my brews to see if the yeast were still alive....it caused no problems, this was as per john palmers's recommendations....ive also read it may be better to use DME rather than sugar though...the only improvement I'd suggest to the OP would be too actually boil the sugar in some water, let cool to room temp. Also boil and cool to below 30 the water used to hydrate the yeast. Add the sugar solution 15mins after adding the yeast to the water.

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The reason for rehydrating yeast in water rather than in a sugar solution is the same reason you shouldn't sprinkle the dry yeast straight into your brew. When the dry yeast is added to a solution it's membrane is not selective and will allow everything across including sugars which can cause problems as the yeast wakes up, including osmotic stress. This can actually kill the yeast or at least leave it in poor health. If the temperature isn't correct it will exacerbate the problem, hence the need for a thermometer.

Also using non-malt based sugars such as cane sugar can cause the yeast to lose the ability to ferment maltose.

Really if you're adding sugar to your rehydrating yeast you'd be better off just pouring the dry yeast straight into the fv, but it's such a simple thing to rehydrate properly I don't understand why anyone would choose not to.

Imo the most important thing in making great beer is making sure the yeast is healthy and happy.

strange-steve said:

The reason for rehydrating yeast in water rather than in a sugar solution is the same reason you shouldn't sprinkle the dry yeast straight into your brew. When the dry yeast is added to a solution it's membrane is not selective and will allow everything across including sugars which can cause problems as the yeast wakes up, including osmotic stress. This can actually kill the yeast or at least leave it in poor health.

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The yeast would be rehydrated in water, it's just that the sugar solution is added to it once it's hydrated to see if it's still alive.

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yeast/preparing-yeast-and-yeast-starters


Do you just add water then add to the brew taking the risk that it might be a dud pack?

Chuffer that online version of How to Brew should not be taken as gospel. It's out of date and lots of info in it has been changed in the newer versions. I believe Palmer removed the bit about proofing dry yeast in the later versions, but even in the online version he says: "Lallemand/Danstar does not recommend proofing after rehydration of their yeast because they have optimized their yeast's nutrional reserves for quick starting in the main wort. Proofing expends some of those reserves."

This is from White and Zainasheff, the guys who literally wrote the book on yeast:

Every yeast strain has its own optimum rehydration process, but the basic procedure is as follows:
1. Warm the dry yeast to room temperature.
2. In a sanitized container, prepare an amount of sterile tap water at 105*F (41*C) equal to 10 times the weight of the yeast (10 ml/g of yeast).
3. Sprinkle the dry yeast on top of the water, trying to avoid setting up large, dry clumps. Let it sit for 15 minutes, then gently stir.
4. Once the yeast has reconstituted, gentle stir once again to form a cream, and let sit for another 5 minutes.
5. Carefully and slowly, adjust the temperature of the yeast to within 15*F (8*C) of the wort temperature.
6. Pitch the resultant cream into the fermentation vessel, ideally as soon as possible.

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No mention of proofing, so to answer your question, yes I do because that's exactly the method outlined above.

strange-steve said:

Chuffer that online version of How to Brew should not be taken as gospel. It's out of date and lots of info in it has been changed in the newer versions. I believe Palmer removed the bit about proofing dry yeast in the later versions, but even in the online version he says: "Lallemand/Danstar does not recommend proofing after rehydration of their yeast because they have optimized their yeast's nutrional reserves for quick starting in the main wort. Proofing expends some of those reserves."

This is from White and Zainasheff, the guys who literally wrote the book on yeast:

No mention of proofing, so to answer your question, yes I do because that's exactly the method outlined above.

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The latest version of the Palmer book definitely says to ignore the previous versions and not proof the yeast with sugar. The online version is good but it's definitely worth spending the money for the latest version I reckon.

ok - thanks for the advice guys!

strange-steve said:

The reason for rehydrating yeast in water rather than in a sugar solution is the same reason you shouldn't sprinkle the dry yeast straight into your brew. When the dry yeast is added to a solution it's membrane is not selective and will allow everything across including sugars which can cause problems as the yeast wakes up, including osmotic stress. This can actually kill the yeast or at least leave it in poor health. If the temperature isn't correct it will exacerbate the problem, hence the need for a thermometer.

Also using non-malt based sugars such as cane sugar can cause the yeast to lose the ability to ferment maltose.

Really if you're adding sugar to your rehydrating yeast you'd be better off just pouring the dry yeast straight into the fv, but it's such a simple thing to rehydrate properly I don't understand why anyone would choose not to.

Imo the most important thing in making great beer is making sure the yeast is healthy and happy.

Click to expand...

i have been using brewing sugar for the last 3 brews and its made slight diffrence, but as with the process of hydrating yeast properly its the first time i have tried it as other packs have said i could just pour over the top but wanted to up my brewing game for this 1 !

UPDATE

this stopped bubbling many days ago but i have been letting it get a bit of sunlight most days by putting it outside of the storage area for a while

at either day 7 of brew (2moz) or the day after i am thinking about putting putting the hop tea bag. has anyone any adivice how to do it eg do i put it in boling water first or just straight into the brew ?

day 8 of the brew - just added the hops to bout a pint of freshly boiled water in a pyrex jug, dipped several times and then stirred in thoroughly and then ended up leaving it as i went to shops + wilko to get a Cerveza Mexican kit which is reduced to 8 squid at the moment
http://www.wilko.com/cider+beer-brewing/wilko-refreshing-cerveza-mexican-style/invt/0318388

when i got back from the shops the hops tea had properly cooled but the tea bag had also split a little so stired in a bit more hot water then poured into the primary fermenter which had a beautiful smell pouring out of it when opened

to get the remnanents of the hops mix out i put some more hot water into the pyrex jug and then gave a swill and just poured into the fermenter.

i didnt bother to stir in as didnt want to leave me brew exposed to wild yeasties OR risk oxidisation !