Safale 04

[bandit]

Daab where do you get the widget bits from as 9 quid per cap from H&G seems a bit steep

[bandit]

Thanks I will be in tomorrow to get some on my way to Sunderland

[Gurgeh]

I've reduce lag times to a couple of hours or so by makeing a quick starter (it's technicaly not large enough to be a starter), I rehydrate the yeast as normal, once this is under way and the wort has been in the kettle for 10 mins, I draw a little off into a pyrex jug, cover with foil, chill in cold water then transfer to a 500ml pet bottle once its cool enough and then continue to chill it under running water until it's just warm to the touch. Shake like mad, add to the rehydrated yeast, mix, return to the bottle and shake like mad again and squash the bottle and replace the cap. Once the reforms to shape, I loosen the cap to prevent over pressurising and pitch once the wort is ready at around 25 deg c.

Woah!
That sounds like a gem piece of advice - I'll do that!
Thanks very much!

Gurgeh

[Gurgeh]

DaaB - Thanks for your advice about cutting lag time. Did a brew last night and followed your instructions about getting the yeast sorted - checked this morning, 7 hours after pitching and...



Thanks again!
Gurgeh

[Gurgeh]

Nuts.

Worked okay earlier - must have had the image stored in my cache for that session.

Image showed a couple of cm thick cap of yeast with foam breaking through. Checked again 18 hours after pitching and airlock was going mad.

Okay, so it wasn't safale, it was a live yeast culture from a norfolk brewery - but its donor said it would need to be treated very well indeed to make it perform like this!

Sorry for not being able to show you the image.
Gurgeh

[Gurgeh]

Thanks for that,
Here is that 7hr old fermentation:



and here is a little device I used to help aerate the wort and strain out any bits and bobs that the hop filter doesn't. It's a baby food tin drilled all the way around with 1mm holes. there need to be 2 or 3 rows of holes as they do block up...



(fingers crossed on the photobucket images...)
All the best,
Gurgeh

[johnmac]

I use a stainless steel sieve to do the same thing.