Jim's Beer Kit

https://www.whitelabs.com/news/purepitch-shelf-life I have a five month old White Labs Pure Pitch which I will be using in a Saison shortly. I've looked at various calculators which give me viability of 0 (Malt Miller), 1% (Brewer's Friend) and 50% (Beer Smith). I've then found the above link from W...

Melt Miller is excellent but I’ve used Brew UK for my last order because they do free delivery over £65. Delivery was next working day, albeit they don’t promise that like MM. I added up the order an it was the same on either site so I decided to save £8.

Yes, but in almost all circumstances you are taking a risk if you smack them and use them direct. My smack pack had an estimated 50 billion cells, which means it’s underpitching any reasonable brew by a fair bit. Having said that, when I first used a liquid yeast and had no idea what I was doing, I ...

Thanks for all of that. It does beg the question of what the point of a smack pack is. Unless you get a brand new pack and you’re brewing a short and/or weak brew you’re going to have to use a starter in any case. The smack pack is why I normally use White Labs.

OK, sounds like I got it the wrong way round, the yeast is in the main pack, the nutrient is in the inner sachet. That's very helpful, thanks.

I normally use White Labs yeast but for this brew, I’ve had to get the Wyeast equivalent. Should I activate the smack pack and pitch the lot into my starter medium or take out the yeast sachet and just pitch that?

Thanks. I will be repitching (in fact this will be a repitch from a Trippel) so I'll give it a go.

I've always just given it a shake very hour or so (not at night) then left it to flocculate, cool it, decant it and then pitch the yeast plus obviously a drop of medium. So far, that's worked fine for me, which is why I haven't made a stir plate so far. I might well give it a go at some point. I'm p...

I've always read that yeast nutrient is unnecessary except in Chris White's book, and he sells the stuff. However, I've got a recipe for an Abbey Quad which includes using servomyces and I see the Maltmiller sells it, which I take as some kind of endorsement. Is it worth using?

i've just had a go at this with some very old yeast and, like others, have been amazed at how quickly and vigorously fermentation took off. I wonder how much is down to the fact I shook it to foam (as opposed to a good swirl around every hour or so which is what I'd normally do) and how much is due ...

wolfenrook wrote: ↑

Sat May 26, 2018 11:32 pm

Check the addons, nearly all UK malts can be added through them, same with most hops.

Ah... that sounds better. Thanks.

orlando wrote: ↑

Sat May 26, 2018 10:39 pm

It's American. You have the option to add any ingredient so I suggest you do that.

But then wouldn’t I need to research and add in the stats like diastatic power that make the whole thing work?

After trying Brewer’s Friend, I decided to give Beersmith a go but it seems to be short on ingredients. I couldn’t find Worcester Golding hops or 150L crystal malt, neither of which seem too unusual.

This is a wind up surely? Orange juice, sugar, a tea bag, rennies and bread yeast?

Yes, I’ve just seen a good article from Brad on Beersmith, basically saying he has stopped using unmalted wheat as flaked and even torrified give the same results without the need for a cereal rest. If the mice hadn’t got at my torrefied I could have used that! A farmer mate of mine always comments ...