Friday, September 18, 2015

House Yeast

Well, since I ended up blending the American Ale and California Ale yeasts in the Keep Ryedyn On, I decided to harvest it as my house brew.

After racking it all into two kegs, 1 half gallon growler, and 1 liter bottle, I added 4 pints of prepared water (see previous post). The water is swirled around a bit to bring the settled yeast back into suspension. Then I was able to pour it off into 6 pint jars.

Such a beautiful sight! I'm not sure how much yeast I will end up with from this. It depends on how thick the slurry was and how much trub was in it. From the look of it, I don't think there was much trub in there. So I'm hoping to keep using this yeast for a long time. Well that is provided the beer it made for me is good, which I have every confidence it will be.

Sláinte!

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Preparing jars for yeast harvesting

Last night I made preparations to harvest some of the yeast that's working for me in Keep Ryedyn On beer. I thought others might like to see this process. I may make a DIY video of this in the future, but didn't think about it last night.

Typically when I make a batch of Ryedyn, I make a batch of Pumpkin Porter one to two weeks later and dump the porter on the yeast cake of the Ryedyn. Since this has worked well for me I don't really want to mess with that procedure. However since I have a mixed yeast strain this year (see Inadvertent Experiment post) I'd like to harvest some of it before I get to the Pumpkin Porter. So I may not dump directly on. Or I may scoop some of the trub and yeast from the bottom of my fermentor before putting the porter on top of it.

Either way I need some prepared jars for my yeast friends. I got out my canning pot, which was my very first brewing pot, back when I did it all on the stove in 5 gallon batches, and prepared 6 pint sized mason jars and 3 small jelly jars, which I think are 8 oz. jars. It looks like a lot of steps, but it really doesn't take too long to do.

Preparation steps:

  1. Clean jars and lids and rinse well.
  2. Fill each jar with water nearly to the top and put the lid on snug, but not tight.
  3. Put the jars in the canning pot and fill it with water to just below the lids of the jars.
    1. Regular pot can be used too, but the canning pot has a rack that makes removing the jars so much easier.
  4. Boil the whole thing for 5 minutes.
    1. This took for ever to reach a boil on the electric stove. I'll be breaking out the propane burner next time.
  5. Remove the jars from the water. Carefully!
    1. If you have a canning pot just lift the rack and hook it to the edge of the pot.
  6. Tighten the lids while they are still hot. Carefully!
    1. I used a couple of silicone pot holders to do this.
  7. Allow the jars to cool a bit before putting them in the fridge for future use.
    1. They will vacuum seal due to the contraction of the steam created in each jar during the boil.

Now after you rack off the beer, you are ready to harvest. I have a Yeast Harvesting Video which shows one method of harvesting yeast. This method is often called 'washing' the yeast.

Sláinte!

Thursday, September 10, 2015

Inadvertent Experiment

When moving my fermentor, with the wort from my recent batch of "Keep On Ryedyn", to my new fermentation chamber, I make a mistake. Not the 'whoops, i put this in the wrong spot' kind of mistake, but the 'Oh, No! I pitched my yeast starter too early kind of mistake.

The yeast starter was on a stir plate in the fermentation chamber. So to get the wort in, I had to move the starter out. I also had to clean up the mess from the stater. So when I took the starter out I poured it right into the wort. Totally forgetting that the wort had only cooled to 90F. I put the fermentor in the chamber, closed it up and started the temperature controller to my desired temp 18.7C. I bought a Celsius only temperature controller for reasons that are not entirely clear to me.

Two days later there was still no sign of activity in the fermentor. So last night I turned off the temp controller and let it all sit. I figured since I had effectively killed all my little yeast friends, I would let the whole thing sit for a day. I went to the homebrew store and picked up a smack pack of yeast. At lunch time I smacked it to activate the yeast and by the time I got home, it was good to pitch.

When I opened the fermentation chamber, I noticed there was finally activity. So what did I do? I poured in the new yeast anyway.

Thus it's now a little experiment because I started with California Ale yeast 001 from white labs and added American Ale yeast 1056 from WYeast. I'm thinking I'll need to harvest this yeast and keep my new hybrid strain around for future brewing.

Sláinte!

Tuesday, September 8, 2015

Nugget Hops Dried

The Nugget hops are in the oast and are drying nicely. I checked them yesterday and they should be ready to package today. I haven't weighed in to see how much I harvested, but it can't be more than a couple ounces. Didn't get such a good crop since I moved the plants this spring. Fingers crossed for next year!

Sláinte!

I ended up with 1.25 oz of nugget hops. Not even enough for one full batch. Oh well, better luck next year.

Saturday, September 5, 2015

Hops Drying Oast

Again we have reached the time of the year when the hops are ready to harvest. Truth be told, that time of year has passed for the Magnum hops that I am growing. Those have all dried to brown on the bine and are no longer of use for brewing. The Nugget hops, however, do have some good hop flowers on them.

In the spring I moved both hops, which in hind sight may not have been the best of plans. I had the hops planted on either side of an arbor in the yard. The Magnums did great there, and the Nuggets, which were first year then, did pretty well too. The main problem with the arbor what that there wasn't enough height and I keep having to trim the bines back to keep the two varieties distinct from one another. Having moved both, they are like first year hops again, so I will leave them for another year and see what comes of their new positions in the yard.

Hop Oast
Last year I had a good Magnum harvest, and a few Nugget hops as well. Drying them was an issue, so this year I have made an 'oast' for drying. Well, since it's not really a kiln, being made of wood, I suppose it's not technically an oast, but for the sake of having a name shorter than, 'the fan powered hop drying contraption', I will call it an oast. Besides it's a fun word to say.

I only made two levels this time as I only have a few hops to harvest. The beauty of this is that each level is it's own compartment, so I can expand it easy enough.

Each level is made of 4, 20" long boards that are 1" wide. I used a long 1x8 and ripped it lenghtwise to get two narrower boards, which is why I made two levels to start with.












The screen is vinyl window screening purchased as any hardware store. I made the screen a little larger than the frame and stapled it to the outside edges of the box. The outside parts are folded down to give it more strength.

On the very bottom I made a half height frame and put 3 quarter inch holes in each side so the air can get through. I'll be harvesting my Nugget hops tomorrow and the oast out for the first time.

Cheers!