Saturday,
February 18, 2012
We have decided
to try a yeast slant for the first time with this beer. We have decided on the Brewlab East
Midlands 1 yeast slant. We will
need to start it growing this morning with the aim of brewing tomorrow
afternoon. I started it at about
12 noon.
I decided to use
the powdered malt extract for this.
I opened the liquid malt extract to use that, and then realized that the
sticky thick mess would probably not work out too well. I took 3 tablespoons of the Brewcraft
Briess Dry Malt we have and put it into the sanitized flask (in the future, I
really need to remember to sanitize a funnel for this purpose). I then put 300 ML of boiled water into
the flask. Then I waited for the
water to cool. I put the flask
into cool water with 2 ice cubes to speed up the cooling. I measured the temperature at 80.1
degrees F so it was definitely below 95 degrees F.
I poured a bit
of the malt solution into the yeast slant tube, replaced the cap, and shook it
around a bit to dislodge the yeast.
I then poured this back into the malt solution. However, I also accidentally poured the
yeast slant into the malt solution.
After doing a bit of Internet research, I came back with nothing
conclusive in terms of this being a problem. I have decided that I am going to just leave the slant in
the solution as this will probably be safer than risking contamination by
trying to fish it out. I have
emailed Brewlab with my issue. We
will see if I get an answer during a time that is still significant. If not, then at least I will know for
future experiments with the yeast slants.
We then wrapped
a heater coil around it. We have
set the heat to come on when the temperature drops to 75 degrees F and turn off
when it goes up to 77 degrees F.
Below are
instructions from the website regarding how to use the yeast slants.
How To Use Brew Lab Slants
Yeast Cultures
- INSTRUCTIONS FOR USE
STORAGE
Yeast cultures supplied by Brewlab are held on agar slopes to preserve their viability and consistency. They are stable for up to 6 months if kept in a refrigerator below 4 C. They will be harmed by freezing and will deteriorate within one month if kept at room temperature.
STARTER CULTURES
To grow the yeast from the slope prepare a nutrient solution of malt broth by dissolving three table spoons of malt extract in 300 cm³ of boiled water in a clean sterilised flask or bottle of at least 500 cm³ size
When cool (below 35 C) pour some of the solution onto the yeast culture and shake to suspend the yeast cells. Alternatively a flamed wire loop may be used to loosen the cells. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DISSOLVE THE SLOPE. THE CELLS ONLY GROW ON THE SURFACE OF THE AGAR AND SHOULD BE DISLODGED BY SHAKING.
Transfer the yeast suspension into the rest of the nutrient solution and allow to grow for 24 to 48 hours in a warm environment (20-30 C – 68-86 F) as a starter culture in your brew. Cover the bottle opening with aluminium foil or plug with cotton wool. DO NOT INCUBATE A STARTER CULTURE IN A TIGHTLY SEALED BOTTLE AS PRESSURE MAY CAUSE IT TO EXPLODE.
Ensure that the yeast is working well before pitching. It should show a frothy surface as gas is released and have a good sediment of yeast cells at the bottom. Ensure that all of these are pitched into your wort to achieve maximum speed of fermentation.
Take care when handling the culture and starter bottles to avoid contamination particularly from fingers.
FERMENTATION
Maintaining an active yeast is essential in obtaining a good fermentation and requires a good temperature control and some degree of rousing when yeast is pitched. Temperature during fermentation should be between 15 and 23 C and not vary excessively. Too low temperature and the yeast will produce undesirable flavours. Insulate fermentation vessels where possible and plot temperatures to check progress.
Rousing of pitching yeast ensures that sufficient oxygen is present for the yeast to grow. This is particularly important for high gravity worts. Rousing after pitching should not be conducted as stale and undesirable flavours may develop.
STORAGE
Yeast cultures supplied by Brewlab are held on agar slopes to preserve their viability and consistency. They are stable for up to 6 months if kept in a refrigerator below 4 C. They will be harmed by freezing and will deteriorate within one month if kept at room temperature.
STARTER CULTURES
To grow the yeast from the slope prepare a nutrient solution of malt broth by dissolving three table spoons of malt extract in 300 cm³ of boiled water in a clean sterilised flask or bottle of at least 500 cm³ size
When cool (below 35 C) pour some of the solution onto the yeast culture and shake to suspend the yeast cells. Alternatively a flamed wire loop may be used to loosen the cells. DO NOT ATTEMPT TO DISSOLVE THE SLOPE. THE CELLS ONLY GROW ON THE SURFACE OF THE AGAR AND SHOULD BE DISLODGED BY SHAKING.
Transfer the yeast suspension into the rest of the nutrient solution and allow to grow for 24 to 48 hours in a warm environment (20-30 C – 68-86 F) as a starter culture in your brew. Cover the bottle opening with aluminium foil or plug with cotton wool. DO NOT INCUBATE A STARTER CULTURE IN A TIGHTLY SEALED BOTTLE AS PRESSURE MAY CAUSE IT TO EXPLODE.
Ensure that the yeast is working well before pitching. It should show a frothy surface as gas is released and have a good sediment of yeast cells at the bottom. Ensure that all of these are pitched into your wort to achieve maximum speed of fermentation.
Take care when handling the culture and starter bottles to avoid contamination particularly from fingers.
FERMENTATION
Maintaining an active yeast is essential in obtaining a good fermentation and requires a good temperature control and some degree of rousing when yeast is pitched. Temperature during fermentation should be between 15 and 23 C and not vary excessively. Too low temperature and the yeast will produce undesirable flavours. Insulate fermentation vessels where possible and plot temperatures to check progress.
Rousing of pitching yeast ensures that sufficient oxygen is present for the yeast to grow. This is particularly important for high gravity worts. Rousing after pitching should not be conducted as stale and undesirable flavours may develop.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
Brewing day!
Upon inspecting the yeast, I wasn’t sure what to
expect. There was somewhat of a
film on the top, but not really a head.
There did appear to be quite a bit of build up on the bottom of the
container. I did a bit of browsing
around on Youtube and found a few examples of yeast in a starter solution that
was ready to go, and it looks like we probably have it right. I have given the yeast a shake up a
couple of times today as apparently I should’ve done this before. I have decided to go forward with
brewing, although we decided to wait until after 5 PM to try to give the yeast
as much time as possible.
brewing, although we decided to wait until after 5 PM to try to give the yeast
as much time as possible.
We heated 5 gallons of purified water. I put the can of extract into hot water
for about 15 minutes to soften it up.
I also poured out 500 grams of liquid Dark Malt Extract (Brewcraft) and liquid
Light Malt Extract (Brewcraft) to be added. The recipe calls for 1 kilogram of sugar, but says malt
extract can be substituted. I also
came across a website that discussed this particular brew kit and mentioned
using ½ Light and ½ Dark, so I decided to give that a try.
Once the water came to a boil, we shut off the
fire and we added the can of malt extract, 500 grams of 
Light Malt Extract and
500 grams of Dark Malt Extract. We
then brought the water back to a boil and boiled for about 10 minutes in order
to sanitize the wort.
Light Malt Extract and
500 grams of Dark Malt Extract. We
then brought the water back to a boil and boiled for about 10 minutes in order
to sanitize the wort.
After boiling
for a few minutes, we added 4 ounces of malto-dextrin. This can be added to extract brews to
give the beer a fuller mouthfeel.
Then we added a
water treatment (Burton salts) and yeast nutrient and turned off the fire. We added about 1-2 teaspoons.
We then
connected the wort chiller and put it into the boiler to bring the temperature
of the wort down below 80 degrees F.
We then emptied the boiler into the fermenter, making sure to allow for
plenty of aeration via pouring and via swirling with a slotted spoon.
Initial gravity:
1.034
We then swirled
the yeast around to get all of the yeast cells into suspension and pitched the
yeast into the wort. We had to use
a fork to prevent the yeast slant from going into the fermenter. I then dumped out the yeast slant into
the sink and then shook out all of the foam I could into the fermenter to try
to get every last yeast cell. We
then used the slotted spoon to give the wort one final rousing, then secured
the lid, put a bit of vodka in the airlock and secured the airlock onto the
lid. Now we wait.
Saturday,
February 25, 2012
Gravity reading:
1.024. We decided to sanitize a
spoon and give it a bit of a rousing and then let it keep fermenting. I think these kits are bizarre as these
beers take far longer than 4-7 days to complete fermentation. I have made a note to do another
gravity reading on Wednesday.
Tuesday,
February 28, 2012
The gravity
reading came in at 1.020 and the beer did still appear to be working
vigorously.
Sunday, March
4, 2012
The gravity
reading is coming in at 1.012. It
was supposed to get down to 1.006, but since it has been working for 14 days,
we have decided to bottle it while leaving a somewhat generous amount of room
in the bottles to avoid potential explosions. It appears to taste alright, although I feel there is a
slight cidery smell to the beer that I am unsure of. Tony believes that smell should probably drop out in
secondary fermentation.
We bottled 33
22-ounce bottles and put them in the cabinet upstairs for a fermentation in the
late-60s to early-70s degrees F for the first week of fermentation. Should probably move them down into the
basement in about 1 to 1 ½ weeks.
1.034 – 1.012 =
0.022 x 131 = 2.9%
Sunday, June
10, 2012
We have been
slowly drinking our way through the bottles of this beer, although admittedly I
have left most of this job to Tony.
This beer did not turn out terribly good. There doesn’t appear to be anything technically wrong with
it. It is just a fairly boring
beer. It has a pretty thin body to
it with a fairly simple flavor profile. When I first tasted it, I felt that the beer was still
green. However, after many weeks
and more tastes, I have concluded that this beer will apparently always taste “green”.
It was a disappointing first experiment with the yeast slant, although I
do not believe the yeast slant is to blame.
Also, this is the only beer we have brewed in which we have used liquid malt extract. I have read that
liquid malt extract is better to use than dry malt extract, but only when the liquid extract
is fresh. I am not sure of the age
of the liquid malt extract we used, so old liquid malt extract is potentially part of the
problem.
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