Monday, January 24, 2011

Yeast Starters

A great brewing tip is to always brew when you are completely smashed. It is a ritual that you must learn to follow, or fail all your beers miserably.


If you stray from this ritual, you will begin sweating uncontrollably and growing hop vines from your eyeballs. This is the God of Brewing's way of making you suffer for not fulfilling the ritual. 


Definitely a bad way to go, so just be sure to do that okay? Thanks.


Oh and also, you have to scream at your yeast before pitching it (adding it to the beer). Ya... do that too. Because it needs to be really mad to eat all those sugars up.


Here is another tip, and one that really does improve your beer. 


You may have yeast that comes with an activator pack (that you smack and let grow before pitching) or you may have just a simple packet of dry or liquid yeast. Either way this next step can help you make a nice healthy beer especially if you only have the yeast.


Brewing a yeast starter is a great way to cut back on spending. To brew a five gallon batch, you need at least a couple vials/packets of yeast (or a couple hundred billion yeast cells). The starter basically creates more yeast for you with only one packet.


Start by boiling four ounces of malt (the type needed for your beer) into a quart of water.


After this dissolves and cools, add the mixture to a food grade plastic container or beaker that has been sanitized.


Add the yeast and let sit for at least a day, then you have enough yeast cells to brew a great batch of beer.


TIP: If the yeast is growing up the sides of the container and you see bubbles of fermentation you've got a healthy starter, but don't always expect carbonation bubbles.

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