My 1st one

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

So as expected, wife got me some beer stuff.
Included was a extract recipe set.
Included is coopers real ale, dme and priming sugar.
According to beer lab instructions, I should basically aerate after yeast sprinkled on top. However, every single youtube vid shows aeration before yeast. Then yeast is only lightly poked to get wet. Which is the correct method?
Second question: they say sprinkle the yeast. Can i not create starter. 300ml water, 40gr sugar, yeast nutrient, and coopers yeast? I've made a few starters before for my yearly marula brew and it works like a charm every time

[that guy al Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close that guy al]

ultimately it doesn't really matter when you aerate the wort; both before or after yeast pitching will be fine. personally i aerate then pitch but i've done it the other way too.there's no need to make a starter from dry yeast. either pitch directly or hydrate the yeast in some cooled down boiled water for about 30 mins before pitching.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

My 1st instinct wil be to mix it in, so that it covers all the the wort. Is there a reason why some people leave it on top? Even if it is top fermented, they should still have access to the sweet sugary yeast heaven that sits at the bottom and middle.
Or am i thinking about this wrong?

[Andreas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Andreas]

So as expected, wife got me some beer stuff.
Included was a extract recipe set.
Included is coopers real ale, dme and priming sugar.
According to beer lab instructions, I should basically aerate after yeast sprinkled on top. However, every single youtube vid shows aeration before yeast. Then yeast is only lightly poked to get wet. Which is the correct method?
Second question: they say sprinkle the yeast. Can i not create starter. 300ml water, 40gr sugar, yeast nutrient, and coopers yeast? I've made a few starters before for my yearly marula brew and it works like a charm every time

Well either of the options will work. A starter will make your lag time less. But if you want a starter, i'd use DME rather that sugar. Might be worth doing a started for practise if you want to harvest yeast

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

Well either of the options will work. A starter will make your lag time less. But if you want a starter, i'd use DME rather that sugar. Might be worth doing a started for practise if you want to harvest yeast

Will try that next time.
For Marula starters was easy, As you peal the fruit, keep the skins one side. add 10% skin weight in sugar, level with water. Let it stand for 3 days, and pitch in wort minus the skins.

Think I will use the yeast as is now, and experiment on next batch

[DieBaas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DieBaas]

Setsumi made a point last time that if you sprinkle the yeast some of it will stay above the krausen and never actually ferment. So since then I've rehydrated

[Guest Close AtronSeige]

Listen to this http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/post588/

Dry yeast does not need a starter, you just need to rehydrate it in sanitized water. Do not give yeast table sugar before adding it to the wort as they get "lazy" and only eat simple sugars instead of the complex sugars in the wort.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

So its in the fridge with pid set to 22 degrees.
Sensor taped to fermenter.

The 90 minutes later


I will pitch once it hits 22. This is the point where the fridge will switch off again as well.

[JIGSAW Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close JIGSAW]

^ Why so high? I would drop it by ±3șC more (what yeast you using?)

[DieBaas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DieBaas]

Yep 22 is quite high to pitch. If it's an ale I'll take it down to atleast 17 ideally 15-16 then ramp it up a degree and keep it there for primary fermentation depending on yeast strain. If it's a lager I'll take it to 3-5C

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

^ Why so high? I would drop it by ±3șC more (what yeast you using?)

It is the standard yeast that came in the coopers real ale tin. Will upload pic from beer lab in a second from my phone.

Yep 22 is quite high to pitch. If it's an ale I'll take it down to atleast 17 ideally 15-16 then ramp it up a degree and keep it there for primary fermentation depending on yeast strain. If it's a lager I'll take it to 3-5C

A tad too late now. Will remember that for the next one. However, I tried to stick to the instructions as best I could.
It did start to bubble, so I know something worked. Will lower the temp to range from 20C to 22C for the next 2 weeks.


My next modification to the fridge is that I want to completely disable the internal thermometer. So the PID will have full control over the fridge.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

These are the instructions from beerlab in cpt.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

My 1st one

The other thing from those instructions that bother me is the shaking with the yeast yeast inside. Those little buggers are sensative! I know from the fruit fermentations that I have done. If I so much as move the fermenter, the yeast qty drops to about 50% and bubbling slows to nearly a halt for a day or 2.

[CraftyZA Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close CraftyZA]

My 1st one

Never mind... Yeast is happy. Too happy!

Complete blowout.
Cleared everything, sterilized where it messed with some sodium chloride .5% in spray bottle.
Cleaned airlock. Came back and it was foaming out of the airlock hole. Cleaned that, and within 2 minutes had a blowout again.
I think it's because i cannot get the temp below 23. Or it is so active that the fridge cannot keep up. At least it is still within the parameters.

What do I do? Just leave it to do its thing without airlock?
Fridge is sterile. Sprayed it on all the walls and doors with same sodium chloride solution.

I originally cleaned fermenter with iodophor before I started, and rinsed it once with o3 water from the shop.

[DieBaas Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close DieBaas]

Use a blow off tube. Sorry to reiterate but such an active fermentation is a result of a high fermentation temp