Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

The kit arrived yesterday.  Set to brew on Sunday.  My thoughts range after reading everything from "How hard can this be" to "What is pitch the yeast again...ARGHHHHH".  I am worried about the yeast.  Brewing Gods, don't fail me now.

The equipment is here and anticipation is growing.  So are the nerves.

Dan and I are planning on brewing the Kolsch this weekend, but we're confused on how to pitch the yeast in the glass carboy.  One set of instructions suggests sprinkling the dry yeast powder on the wort.  But how do you get the yeast in the carboy evenly?

Another set of instructions adding the dry yeast into warm water, letting it settle and then stir into what sounds like a gooey mixture to add to the wort.  But again, how does one properly add this to the wort?

Advice is needed...
Thanks
Will

What kind of yeast did you get?  If you got a kit, there's a pretty good chance that you got liquid yeast rather than dry yeast. 

Is it a test tube? - If so, keep it in the fridge, and then take it out leave in out while you are boiling the wort, to bring it up to room temperature, and then pitch it straight into the carboy.

Is it a juicebox looking smack pack? - If so, smack it today and leave it at room temp so that it will be ready to go on Sunday. 

Is it a tiny little flat packet about half the size of a playing card? - Then you've got dry yeast.  Nothing wrong with that.  Sometimes they take off even faster than liquid cultures. 

Rehydrating the yeast or just sprinkling it around in the carboy?  I've done both.  And I think sprinkling it on the wort is easier and fundamentally does the same thing.  Get your hands, and a pair of scissors, really clean (you can dip and scrub them in your sanitizing solution), open the package and try to evenly spread the yeast around the top of the wort.  It is a little tricky because the carboy has a small opening and you want to spread it around so it doesn't clump.  Maybe you can get the other person to gently tilt the carboy in different directions to get it to spread out without clumping.  But do it kinda quietly since you want the yeast to float on the top of the wort for a few minutes.  All and all, don't worry.  Just do it and have a beer.

Let that stuff float on the top of the wort for ~10 minutes and it will rehydrate the yeast like the gooey mixture method above (hopefully you’ve cool your wort down to the 70° range, which is perfect for this). (with the airlock on).  After that, start shaking the carboy up.  This is done by rocking it back and forth for a few minutes (with the airlock still on) and getting it all frothy. 

Then you are in business.  Call me if you’ve got a question or if a glossed over something.

 

Yeah, that's about it...most of all, keep your fingers out of your nose (just don't touch your face, for that matter), clean your scissors and pitch the yeast.

When you shake the carboy, BE CAREFUL!!! they can get very slippery and they are heavy when filled. Don't ever lift a full carboy by the neck, they can crack and then you have 8 fingers, which can really suck.

After you shake your carboy, you may have noticed that come wort got into your airlock, just pour it out and refill it. Here's a tip: get yourself a small bottle of the CHEAPEST vodka you can find and use that for your airlock. Bacteria and other nasties don't like the alcohol as much as water and if any of the rot-gut vodka gets into your beer, it won't hurt anything.  I bought a bottle at the grocery store years ago for $3.75 and I'm still using it.

It is a smack pack.  Will smack it when I get home. 

A question about the water.  The instructions say to work with 1 1/2 to 2 gallons for the creation of the wort, and that 3 gallons of cold water go into the fermentor and you add the wort to it.  Should you boil the 3 gallons of water that will go into the fermentor?  What I have read does not indicate that, but it seems after all the emphasis on being clean that putting regular water in opens up a new can of bacteria.

Cool.  If you got a kit from NB, I figured it would be a Wyeast smack pack.  Smack it tonight, and you should be money for Sunday.

Water.....that is where we get into a grey area.  And I can tell you works for me, but others may disagree. 

Lots of people spend time worrying about their water.  And you should if you are all grain or have some nasty swill coming out of your tap at home.  I've done great batches with water right out of the faucet, but the smart thing to do is to boil the water you are going to add later, for ~15 minutes, the day before so it has time to cool.

That is what I DON'T do.  I go and buy water.  (I don't really do this anymore, because I usually do full batch boils of ~5.5 to 6 gallons)  You can go the grocery store and buy gallons of SPRING water.  It doesn't have germs in it, it is all portioned out, and you can put them in the fridge/freezer to help get the temp of the wort down faster.

That's what I do.  It costs money, though.

I like the spring water idea.  I thought about boiling, but this sounds easier as it is already measured out.  Thanks!

The brewing is complete.  Will and I slaved over a hot stove and through three or four beers (Dogfish Head 90 minute is as good as advertised).  In the end we think it smelled and looked like it should.  Currently resting in a carboy in the basement at 56 degrees (right at the low end according to the box).  Now praying fermentation happens.  Only one phone call for assistance, when pouring the Pilsen Malt Syrup, the wort stopped boiling for a few minutes.  Adjusted the boil time to make sure we had full boil. 

Now waiting is the hardest part...

Just another thought on water...
I've been brewing since '94 and have never boiled my water. I've used Cincinnati city, Cuyahoga county, Cleveland municipal and most recently Charlottesville county water and have never (knock on wood) encountered an issue. I do filter my water...my rule is if the water tastes good on its own, brew with it; if not, filter it. I have an inline charcoal filter that I use when filling my brew kettle.


Just my two cents.

Congratulations, guys, on completing your first brew day!  Waiting is the hardest part, but you can drink some commercial beer to settle your nerves if need be.  Let us know how it turns out.

I agree with Christopher.  I don't pre-boil my water and I have always used the rule if it tastes good, go with it.  When I lived in Charlottesville, I would use a charcoal filter on the water as it smelled of chlorine (we did that for any water we drank), but now that I live in Greene County, I don't get that smell so we just use it out of the tap.

But let's make sure that we are highlighting the differences between pre-boil and post-boil water.

Using tap water to fill up the kettle BEFORE the boil is almost always going to be the way to go.  The boil won't make your water better, but it'll remove the impurities.

Adding tap water to the fermenter AFTER the boil to bring the total volume up to 5 gallons is another matter.  You might be OK, but I like to be safe. 

It definately is the safer way to go.  Boiling your post boil make-up water to remove any chance of contamination.  I guess what I was saying is that I never did that.  I would take tap water and pre-chill it in the fridge so that I could add it to the boiled extract water and cool it faster.  I never spent the time to boil first, then chill it.

However, that being said, your ability to consistently make good beer is due, in a large part, to being sanitary.  If you have the time to pre-boil your make-up water, you probably should do it.  This eliminates the chance of getting off-flavors from your beer from bacteria that are in your house's water system.

Do make sure that you aerate very well (shaking and swirling the carboy or bucket) before pitching your yeast, as boiled liquids have almost no oxygen.  Yeast needs oxygen during its first phase of life, when it is multiplying.  After that, oxygen is the enemy of good beer and you will spend some time trying to make sure it does not get in your beer.

We have fermentation, temp has raised to 58 degrees.  Now I feel that no matter what there will be something to sample and build upon.  Thank you for all the advice and support. 

Sweet.  Good job.  The easy part is done.

Now you have to wait.............................

I never boiled my water. (except for what I was brewing) I didn't/don't have the patience to boil water let it cool and then add that to my fermenter. I'm sure the colonists didn't do that either.