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Author Topic: PItch from smack pack or slurry?  (Read 7605 times)

Offline tesla_hv

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PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« on: November 07, 2009, 08:29:48 am »
Soon I will be brewing a Rogue Brutal Bitter clone.  I have a three or four week old jar of yeast that I saved from the yeast cake from a previous brew (pacman).  I also have an un-smacked smack pack of pacman yeast.  Which should I use?
Yeast Starters: none
Primary: Piney the Conifer
Secondary: Pliny the Elder, Scottish Wee Heavy
Bottled: Undead-Guy Ale, Habanero IPA, Belgian Tripel IPA, Blind Pig, "Island Zombie" Ale, Apple/Rasp Hard Cider

Offline The Professor

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #1 on: November 07, 2009, 08:33:13 am »
I'd use the slurry, no question about it.
AL
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Homebrewer since July 1971

Offline tom

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #2 on: November 07, 2009, 09:02:44 am »
The slurry should work well, if your sanitation is good. Or, if you want to be sure, you can order some chlorine dioxide capsules from Northern Brewer to clean the yeast of bacteria (but not wild yeast).
I always do a 5 gallon "starter" to grow yeast for big beers.
Brew on

Offline BarleynYeast

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #3 on: November 08, 2009, 01:35:02 am »
It deepens on the beer the slurry was from. If it was lower gravity beer that was not highly hoped, the yeast is still healthy and you’re confident in your sanitation. The slurry is the way to go.   

Offline majorvices

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2009, 05:37:50 am »
Either way you should use a starter. 5 week old slurry very well could give you problems.

Offline woody

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #5 on: November 09, 2009, 05:47:27 am »
I'd use the slurry and just make a small "wake up" starter
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Offline babalu87

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #6 on: November 09, 2009, 05:48:39 am »
Either way you should use a starter. 5 week old slurry very well could give you problems.

THIS

I've been having better results by at least waking up any yeast slurry older than about 2 weeks.

Jeff

On draught:
IIPA, Stout, Hefeweizen, Hallertau Pale Ale, Bitter

Primary:
Hefeweizen,Berliner Weisse, Mead

Offline darkalex

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Ptiching into Yeast Cake
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2009, 11:13:24 am »
 ??? Showin my noob colors here…I just racked over the beer that I currently had in my primary off it's yeast cake into a secondary. Leaving primary alone with the entire yeast cake/krausen from the previous batch intact, resealed the primary and put it aside... Then boiled the wort for my Christmas ale, cold broke, and then poured the cooled wort directly into the primary with the old yeast cake ready to receive it's new wort. My old batch of beer behaved as a starter for my new batch.  Only thing is the OG of my current beer is 1.054 and the OG of my newbie beer is 1.084...  I've been told to get ready for some massive blow off  :( which I didn't even think of..  I just used a 5 gal bucket with airlock… guess I should have gone with a 6.5 gal glass carboy with blow off tube huh? Is my bucket going to explode? I’m turning my temp down now… rigourous bubbles comming from airlock. What do I do if the airlock gets all clogged up?

Sorry to post in this forum...  I'm new here and didn't know how to generate a new thread..  In spite of Papazian's repeated recommendation, I'm kinda worried here...   :-\

Offline babalu87

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Re: Ptiching into Yeast Cake
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2009, 11:53:56 am »
??? Showin my noob colors here…I just racked over the beer that I currently had in my primary off it's yeast cake into a secondary. Leaving primary alone with the entire yeast cake/krausen from the previous batch intact, resealed the primary and put it aside... Then boiled the wort for my Christmas ale, cold broke, and then poured the cooled wort directly into the primary with the old yeast cake ready to receive it's new wort. My old batch of beer behaved as a starter for my new batch.  Only thing is the OG of my current beer is 1.054 and the OG of my newbie beer is 1.084...  I've been told to get ready for some massive blow off  :( which I didn't even think of..  I just used a 5 gal bucket with airlock… guess I should have gone with a 6.5 gal glass carboy with blow off tube huh? Is my bucket going to explode? I’m turning my temp down now… rigourous bubbles comming from airlock. What do I do if the airlock gets all clogged up?

Sorry to post in this forum...  I'm new here and didn't know how to generate a new thread..  In spite of Papazian's repeated recommendation, I'm kinda worried here...   :-\

Relax

Just put the fermenter somewhere that will make the mess easier to clean up when the havoc ends.
Leave the lid just on the bucket, dont bother snapping it tight, that way you wont have to worry about a clogged airlock.
Jeff

On draught:
IIPA, Stout, Hefeweizen, Hallertau Pale Ale, Bitter

Primary:
Hefeweizen,Berliner Weisse, Mead

Offline darkalex

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Fermentation temps and blow off
« Reply #9 on: November 10, 2009, 07:49:16 am »
My fermenter is in a thermostat controlled freezer... so if there is significant blow off, it will remain confined inside the freezer.  Temp is now 63°F, which is well below the temp range for the yeast I'm using (WLP001 California Ale, optimum 68-73°F)... I guess when you're pitching into an entire yeast cake, even though you're well below the ideal temp,  there is just so much yeast in the container, that fermentation will nontheless continue...  Bubbling has died down, but has not stopped, and the airlock isn't clogging up.  Will too low a temp present any problems though? 

Offline Thirsty_Monk

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Re: PItch from smack pack or slurry?
« Reply #10 on: November 10, 2009, 09:26:11 am »
Either way you should use a starter. 5 week old slurry very well could give you problems.
+1.
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