Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

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Cobnut
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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Cobnut » Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:37 pm

Anecdotally, we home brewers chronically underpitch.

If I'm using wet yeast, I rely on the calculator in brewfather to tell me how big my starter should be (e.g. 1050 OG Dunkelweiss this weekend with a pack of WLP300 is using a 0.9L starter).

If using dry yeast, I don't always follow what Brewfather tells me (e.g. brewed a 1050 OG Helles with MJ Bohemian Lager yeast and pitched 2 packs c.f. the 3 that BF "told" me to use. It fermented just fine thank you very much).

Relying on a 5 month old smack pack to ferment 20L of 1048 ale seems optimistic, though, but I'd reckon that a single pack of S-04 ought to cope OK, albeit the lag time may be 24 hours or so.
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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Bretty Biscuit » Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:47 pm

I like to avoid lag times, stressed yeast & unwanted flavours in my beers.


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guypettigrew
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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by guypettigrew » Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:06 pm

Bretty Biscuit wrote:
Thu Nov 26, 2020 6:47 pm
I like to avoid lag times, stressed yeast & unwanted flavours in my beers.
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How can you avoid a lag time? Surely the yeast, whether wet or dried, whether starter or not, needs to use up the oxygen in the wort before beginning to ferment the sugars?

Guy

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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Bretty Biscuit » Thu Nov 26, 2020 8:27 pm

[quote="guypettigrew"][quote="Bretty Biscuit" post_id=853897 time=1606412857 user_id=31558]
I like to avoid lag times, stressed yeast & unwanted flavours in my beers.
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[/quote]

How can you avoid a lag time? Surely the yeast, whether wet or dried, whether starter or not, needs to use up the oxygen in the wort before beginning to ferment the sugars?

Guy[/quote]
It can be avoided by pitching the correct amount of yeast, within recommended temp & good oxygenation. Lagers can appear to lag as they’re brewed at much lower temps than Ale, lager yeast strains bottom ferment too. Just because the airlock ( if using) doesn’t bubble does not mean there is no activity.


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McMullan

Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by McMullan » Thu Nov 26, 2020 9:41 pm

Yeah, anyway, the so-called lag phase is simply where the yeast cells need time to process the environmental change - sweet wort conditions - and remodel their transcriptome to synthesise the appropriate proteins (enzymes) to do their dirty deed. It takes a few to several hours under optimal conditions, being strain dependent. Any longer, you’ve f*cked up somewhere in the process. The longer your ‘lag phase’ the more you’ve f*cked up. It doesn’t take f*cking days. Fermentation takes days. The biggest f*ck ups are under pitching and low viability, which aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive f*ck ups. The main aim is to pitch sufficient (lots of) healthy yeast cells. There aren’t any magic one-size-fits-all pitching rates* and home brewers are unlikely to be in a position to be ‘over pitching’.

*How the f*ck are you going to know, unless you have at least a microscope and you really know how to use it? :lol:

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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Trefoyl » Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:58 am

McMullan wrote:
Thu Nov 26, 2020 9:41 pm
Yeah, anyway, the so-called lag phase is simply where the yeast cells need time to process the environmental change - sweet wort conditions - and remodel their transcriptome to synthesise the appropriate proteins (enzymes) to do their dirty deed. It takes a few to several hours under optimal conditions, being strain dependent. Any longer, you’ve f*cked up somewhere in the process. The longer your ‘lag phase’ the more you’ve f*cked up. It doesn’t take f*cking days. Fermentation takes days. The biggest f*ck ups are under pitching and low viability, which aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive f*ck ups. The main aim is to pitch sufficient (lots of) healthy yeast cells. There aren’t any magic one-size-fits-all pitching rates* and home brewers are unlikely to be in a position to be ‘over pitching’.

*How the f*ck are you going to know, unless you have at least a microscope and you really know how to use it? :lol:

:lol:
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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Bretty Biscuit » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:12 am

[quote="McMullan"]Yeah, anyway, the so-called [i]lag phase[/i] is simply where the yeast cells need time to process the environmental change - sweet wort conditions - and remodel their transcriptome to synthesise the appropriate proteins (enzymes) to do their dirty deed. It takes a few to several hours under optimal conditions, being strain dependent. Any longer, you’ve f*cked up somewhere in the process. The longer your ‘lag phase’ the more you’ve f*cked up. It doesn’t take f*cking days. [i]Fermentation[/i] takes days. The biggest f*ck ups are under pitching and low viability, which aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive f*ck ups. The main aim is to pitch sufficient (lots of) healthy yeast cells. There aren’t any magic one-size-fits-all pitching rates* and home brewers are unlikely to be in a position to be ‘over pitching’.

*How the f*ck are you going to know, unless you have at least a microscope and you really know how to use it? :lol:[/quote]
[IMG]https://media2.giphy.com/media/10UHehEC098kAE/giphy.gif[/IMG]


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Bretty Biscuit
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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Bretty Biscuit » Fri Nov 27, 2020 4:13 am

[quote="Trefoyl"][quote=McMullan post_id=853901 time=1606423279 user_id=15744]
Yeah, anyway, the so-called [i]lag phase[/i] is simply where the yeast cells need time to process the environmental change - sweet wort conditions - and remodel their transcriptome to synthesise the appropriate proteins (enzymes) to do their dirty deed. It takes a few to several hours under optimal conditions, being strain dependent. Any longer, you’ve f*cked up somewhere in the process. The longer your ‘lag phase’ the more you’ve f*cked up. It doesn’t take f*cking days. [i]Fermentation[/i] takes days. The biggest f*ck ups are under pitching and low viability, which aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive f*ck ups. The main aim is to pitch sufficient (lots of) healthy yeast cells. There aren’t any magic one-size-fits-all pitching rates* and home brewers are unlikely to be in a position to be ‘over pitching’.

*How the f*ck are you going to know, unless you have at least a microscope and you really know how to use it? :lol:
[/quote]

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zneBZl5BLw[/youtube]
:lol:[/quote]
ImageImageImage


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McMullan

Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by McMullan » Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:59 am

Trefoyl wrote:
Fri Nov 27, 2020 2:58 am


:lol:
=D> F*cking brilliant film. Haven’t seen it in ages. I’ll watch it tonight with my kids.

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Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by Jim » Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:20 pm

:lol: :lol: :lol:
NURSE!! He's out of bed again!

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McMullan

Re: Was my yeast bad, should I complain?

Post by McMullan » Fri Nov 27, 2020 7:22 pm

I can just hear it now. My nipper: “OMG! OMFG! That’s just like you, dad. WTF! That’s f*cking funny as f*ck, dad.” My wife: FFS, John! Haven’t I f*cking told you all-f*cking-ready about swearing so f*cking much in front of the kids?” Daughter: “Mum! OMG! Mind your language. Seriously!” Me and nipper: [LOL!] Beer?” A typical night really.

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