Home Brew Forum

Hello,

I went to the London Amateurs brewing meeting last Monday and yeast pitching rates were discussed. What was being put forward by the chair was that rates of thick yeast in suspension for pitching based on brewery information were suggested as ale up to 1.060 to be 1% of brewlength. So for my 23L I'd require 230mls of good thick yeast suspension. With this in mind and brewing the below I rehydrated 2 sachets of S04 in 200mls of preboiled and cooled liquor.

My brew is 1.050 and 23L and so far after 48hrs it's done this:



I usually get a drop of 10-14 on day 2, and I was so pleased 22 gravity points got consumed on the second day I thought I'd post about it

Ingredients
23L @ 66% efficiency, 90min mash @ 65°C, 90min boil, liquor = bitter
Amount Item Type % or IBU
5.00 kg Maris Otter (5.9 EBC) Grain 90.91 %
0.50 kg Caramel/Crystal Malt - 55L (120.0 EBC) Grain 9.09 %
35.00 gm Challenger [6.13 %] (90 min) Hops 25.4 IBU
15.00 gm Challenger [6.13 %] (15 min) Hops 5.0 IBU
10.00 gm Challenger [6.13 %] (10 min) Hops 2.5 IBU
5.00 gm Challenger [6.13 %] (5 min) Hops 0.6 IBU
10.00 gm Challenger [6.13 %] (0 min) Hops -
2 Pkgs SafAle English Ale (DCL Yeast #S-04) Yeast-Ale

Beer Profile
Measured Original Gravity: 1.050 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.014 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 4.49 %
Bitterness: 33.5 IBU
Est Color: 20.1 EBC

That is going to be tasty MmmmmChallenger

1.015 after 72hrs 70% attenuation so far. Yeast foam went after 48hrs or so. Looking forward to kegging this brew with a easy yeast ferment prolly on Thursday after 7 days. Feel much happier increasing the yeast pitch rate from one pack to 2.

Looks like the 2 packs did a quick and correct job for me on the BBIII, subsequently I doubled up on Notts yeast in Merry Xmas 2009 Tastes good too, what performance I seem to be getting by doubling the yeast. Previously I'd have expected the ferment curve to be shallower. The attenuation on MX2009 is unusually high because I mashed for 4 hrs from 68°C to 62°C Am expecting a lighter bodied beer with more alcohol because of this.

What are the down sides of such a quick fermentations? Or to put it another way what are supposed down sides?

Temperature control is important. As heat is produced during fermentation and presumably more heat in more vigorous ferment the risk of too higher temp and off flavours is greater. I'm lucky in that I've made a fermenting chamber to control the wort temp to within 1degC.
If you're looking for yeast character, esters I think, then a little more stress on the yeast would create more of these. Some are desirable in some styles, less so in other styles.
Given my style of brews (eng ales) I think getting the recipe right and getting a correct ferment is far more important than making wee tweaks to affect the yeast also given my less than commercial level of repeatability.