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kevin1911

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Hi All, I'm about to dabble in a bit of home brewing for the first time, and have bought the Get 'Er Brewed BIAB kit (http://www.geterbrewed.com/biab-all-grain-starter-kit-includes-a-mash-kit/).

I've done some reading, but have a fundamental questions that I can't find a simple answer to, so was wondering if you kind folks might humour me!

Firstly, the American Pale Ale ingredients that came with the kit say to use a yeast starter. A packet of dry yeast was included with the kit, but how do I turn this into a yeast starter? I've looked on Google but some of the instructions seem to be more for extract kits.

Secondly, when it comes to bottling and kegging - do I just add granulated sugar to the bottles and kegs, or do I need to liquefy this too? Is there a rule about how much sugar to use per bottle?

I'm sure there's loads more stupid questions that I've not thought of yet... :-)

Thanks in advance!

Kevin
 
If you have an 11/12g pack of dried yeast you don't need a yeast starter unless it's a very strong beer, and an extra packet of yeast would be easier than a starter if that was the case.

You can add sugar granules to bottles or keg. I use 5g per litre for most beers. 2.5g per 500ml bottle. Half a teaspoon. Although I prime all the beer before I put it into bottles, by siphoning it into a separate FV with a solution made from all the priming sugar and a little boiling water. Just a different method.
 
1) hydrating the dried yeast in a cup of boiled and cooled water (to sanitise) when its cooled to 24c, adding a teaspoon of white table sugar or 2 will create a quick pseudo starter after its been left a hour or 2..
a yeast starter for an ag brew is generally created with a dme(dried malt extract) solution,

2) priming the end vessels with sugar will provide the food which when contained will let the residual yeast create the condition or fizz to the brew, 80-160g for a Pressure barrel, and circa 5g per bottle (pint/500ml) depending on the style of beer. read up on batch priming ;) tho i tend to dose each bottle with a teaspoon of sucrose (table sugar) thru a funnel when bottling,

hope thats useful..
 
OK, I presume adding the liquefied sugar to the FV at bottling time is a bad idea because it will require stirring, which will disturb all the sediment?

I presume sucrose/table sugar can be bought from supermarkets?

What is the sugar for in the yeast starter? To help the yeast multiply?:oops:

Edit: Oh hang on, granulated sugar, table sugar and sucrose are all the same thing aren't they!
 
If you are dosing the whole batch with priming sugar before bottling you normally rack it off the sediment into a separate (sanitised) vessel so you can mix it (though don't splash around with a paddle...you don't want oxygen in it at this stage). Having said that, I think MyQul said in a post the other day he primes the primary FV and stirs in very gently so as not to disturb the sediment. Key thing is to have it evenly spread otherwise you will get bottles with bottles with low carbonation, and others that might explode.
You can use normal table sugar from the supermarket (per your edit).
You don't necessarily need to make a starter...alternative is to rehydrate the yeast the way Fil mentioned but don't worry about adding sugar...just do the rehydration half an hour before pitching. Up to you….I’ve done both but tend to just rehydrate in water these days. If you add sugar they will start to grow and multiply.
 
yeast - if your packet of dried yeast is 11g or therebouts: most people on here will advise that you rehydrate the yeast by sprinkling it onto previously boiled water that has cooled to about 20c. leave it for half an hour or so then give it a stir - it should then look quite creamy and possibly starting to foam. Tip it in your beer and you will get a fast start to your fermentation.
However, the lazy bu**ers on here (myself included) often just sprinkle the dried yeast straight onto the beer wort. It still works but is slower to get started as something like 40% of the yeast cells get killed off doing this.
If the yeast is only 5 or 6g in the packet then rehydrating is essential as there isn't enough dried yeast to just sprinkle on. The result would be the distinct possibility of a stuck fermentation.

Bottling - I always just add a half teaspoonful of table sugar to each bottle. Others swear by batch priming but to me it always seems more trouble than it's worth.
 
I used to re-hydrate dried yeast but have found with 11-12g sachets in a 20-23litre brew I don't need to bother - I figure giving the wort in the FV a good thrashing with a sterilised stirrer to aerate well (before sprinkling the dried yeast in before sealing the FV) is more important to ensure the yeast gets off to a good start. Also maintaining temp at 18°C-20°C, this time of year particularly, is also key to avoiding a stuck fermentation.

Anyway, this is just my opinion (from recent experience) and am sure others will advocate re-hydrating the yeast - most brew books do as well !

Good luck with your brew, sure your first BIAB brew will be spectacular - bought beer usually disappoints me now compared with my home brew.
 
I am not here to bore you with more advice or tips just too many can overwhelm, just to remind you that there are no such thing as stupid question if you don't know for sure what to do.
This is exactly the same process that most of us followed, reading a bit and then seeking reassurance from fellow brewers and learning from it.
Before long you will be giving people the benefit of your experience so keep on asking and reporting back, that's what keeps the forum going!
 
Thanks all for the replies! The advice came in very useful for the brew yesterday. Not entirely sure how it will turn out, but it's currently bubbling away like an asthmatic scuba diver in the FV, so either it's coming on nicely or is rapidly decaying :-)
 

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