Topics

1

Yeast and Fermentation / Can I save this beer?

« on: January 06, 2010, 04:56:44 PM »

Hi all,

I'm a reasonably experienced homebrewer but have never been good at correcting my own mistakes.  I mashed a 10 gallon batch of Denny's Rye IPA at too high a temperature (actually, my sacc rest was too short and I attempted a mashout too soon).  The fermentation has stopped at 1.030.  I tried rousing the yeast and warming it up, but I'm afraid the poor yeast have done all they can do.  Should I dump it?

2

General Homebrew Discussion / The beer gods have smiled!

« on: November 15, 2009, 07:56:02 PM »

I brewed 10 gallons of Bo-Pils about 12 months ago, and just about nailed everything.  The beer turned out beautifully, one of the best I've ever brewed; however, I racked 5 gallons of it to a lagering vessel using an infected siphon (due to this siphon I've probably dumped about 20 gallons so far).   The clean 5 gallons have been lagering ever since, waiting for a special occasion.  The "infected" 5 gallons has been waiting on a counter to be dumped for a few months.
Today I decided to just dump it and be done with it.  I thought, what the heck, I'll taste it again just to be sure.  I did.  No infection??  I was sure it tasted sour several months ago.  But I don't see a pellicle on top of the beer.  So confused.
It appears as if the beer gods have smiled on me!  I guess I'll keg it and hopefully it doesn't taste sour when it's cold!

3

Yeast and Fermentation / Yeast "wake-up" starter

« on: November 15, 2009, 04:33:34 PM »

I've heard it said that, when reusing yeast, one should make a small-ish starter to "wake the yeast up" if it's been more than a few weeks since the yeast colony was last used for fermentation.  What does this mean?  I use JZ's pitching rate calculator for 1st generation starters, but his "repitching from yeast slurry" just gives a quantity of slurry to repitch.
How big are your "wake-up" starters (in relation to the volume of slurry)?

4

Kegging and Bottling / Faucet and line maintenance schedule

« on: November 07, 2009, 07:59:22 PM »

What do you guys do to maintain your draft systems?  BLC after every keg?  How often do you take apart and clean the faucets?  I've had my kegerator for 4 or 5 months now and am wondering how best to take care of it.