Newbie homebrew question need help...thx

[shawn]

Hi, I am new in homebrew and have few question wish you guys can do me a favor, thank you very much for any information. My questions are:

1. Is that ok to mill the barley using normal blender instead of using mill?

2. Is that ok to put too much yeast for the fermentation? Will it speed up the total process?

3. Total amount of normal brewing usually around 10 to 20 litre, then the boiling time usually 60 to 90 minutes. If I scale it down to 1 or 2 litre, does it mean the boiling time also can cut down into 10 minutes?

4. How many time the yeast can be recycled to used?

Thank you for all the help...

 

[clibit]

1. It's not ideal to use a blender, but I did it once and it worked. It took ages though, you can only do a little bit at a time.

2. You can put more yeast in but there's really nothing to be gained, as a beginner at least. Follow the guidelines.

3. Boiling time is the same whatever the quantity.

4. Varies. It's all about sanitation really. You can ruin a brew with yeast that has been contaminated with bacteria or wild yeast, so your sanitation has to be very good.

 

[Slid]

All I can add to the above is that if you are washing the yeast from the FV, you can fairly safely re-use once, but split the yeast so as to get you another 4 or 5 brews easily with the same yeast. To me, the risk outweighs the outlay of another £5 on a sealed sachet.


You put it first runnings out of the FV into a 2L PET (lemonade/cider) bottle, together with the sterilised (boiled and cooled) you add to do the "washing". Then leave to settle.

Then dispose of the washing watersand decant the yeasty bit in the middle into a second PET bottle, add sterilised, cold water and split the contents between a number of small (250ml) bottles that once held lemonade.

These can be stored in the fridge for a number of weeks and just left to heat to room temp on brewday.

I've done this with a Belle Saison and a US05 yeast with very good results. I would be nervous of using the method on the second generation brews, because - why risk it for a yeast that only costs you, say a fiver, and you know can make 5 brews with not much effort and not much risk.

You open the PET bottles before you pitch and if it smells iffy, you don't use it.

 

[clibit]

I've read that washing does more harm than good - there are at least two schools of thought on this, but I like the simplicity of the non-washing approach and it seems to make sense. Not washing just means you pitch 'slurry' - trub, live yeast and dead yeast next time. But only maybe 100ml total. The theory is that the yeast wants to live in the environment it is used to living in - beer, trub etc. And less messing means less contamination.

I just literally scoop the yeast out (either from the top during fermentation or the bottom after racking the beer off, leaving a little beer to mix with the yeast) with a sterilised spoon and put it into a sterilised container, making sure there's an inch or so of beer to sit on top of the yeast, and stick it in the fridge.

When pitching I use the Mr Malty pitching calculator, on the "re-pitching from slurry" option, to work out approx how much slurry I need to pitch. I allow the yeast to settle and pour the beer off. It usually need 75-100ml of this thick yeast/trub per 10 litres of beer at typical OGs in the 1040-1060 range. The calculation is approx cos we don't know how much live yeast is in there, but it works ok. The sooner you use it the better, and the more live yeast there is in it.

To make a closer match in terms of yeast cells pitched to the amount required, you need to use the harvested yeast to make a yeast starter of the required volume - but I don't bother, I'm not perfectionist enough, I'll do a yeast guide when I get some free time and put something in there about it.


http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html

 

[MyQul]

Reading between the lines of your post your looking to brew quickly with a fast turnaround? There are ways and means:

Q2. As Clibit says follow the guidelines, however, If you use S04 yeast, it can ferment out as fast as 3 days

Q3. Again as Clibit has said a boil will always take 60 - 90 mins however there is a way to cut it down to between 15 and 30 mins although this would mean using extract rather than grain. This involves adding your hop additions as all late additions and skipping out the bittering addition. Have a look at this article posted on another thread
http://beerandwinejournal.com/15-minute-pale-ale/ If you do a pale ale you can do the boil in 15 mins. Having had a discusson with Clibit on the feasability of doing other styles in the is way , Clibit is of the opinion you can do other styles with a 30 min boil

FYI the lower the OG the faster a beer ferments, and will condition.

 

[shawn]

Hey guys really appreciate all the details post here, sincerely thank you for all of you and I really learn from you.. thanks...: