Bad advice, yes? No?

[Thefatdoghead]

My brother has recently got into brewing, so, he has basically gone straight to all grain. I've been helping him along the way.
He wanted to brew a lager straight up. He has all the equipment so I gave him a good recipe. One that I've brewed many times before.
He went to buy some yeast and was told that 1 pack of wyeast was plenty in a 42 liter batch of 1.048 SG wort at 12 degrees. No starter, just straight in there.
I know how much yeast you need for a double batch lager. We've all seen the yeast calculators and read the books on yeast numbers. I mean, I wouldn't even pitch 1 wyeast pack of ale yeast at 18 degrees in a double batch, even if it was 1.040 wort.
Sure it would ferment but your waiting ages with a sluggish ferment while the yeast struggles to make it through to final gravity.
So could all the info out there be wrong on yeast numbers or is this retailer just giving plain old bad advice? What am I missing here?
What I am quiet bewildered with is, wouldn't they want to sell more yeast anyway?
Interested on everyone's thoughts here.

 

[tavas]

There's at least one longish thread on bad advice coming from some home brew stores. So it is not beyond the realms of reality to think the advice about 1 packet of yeast being wrong.

Yes you will still make beer with it, and maybe in the advice giver's experience his beers are acceptable, so he thinks that you only need 1 packet.

When I first started brewing I thought beer should be fermented at +24*c with 7g of kit yeast, from a packet sitting on the shelf. I thought my beers were fine. It was not until I found this site that I realised that there are better ways to do things.

Brewing is over 8000 years old and many of those centuries were without knowledge of yeast and no temp control, not to mention open fermentation and poor sanitation.

You can beer under many conditions that we consider not ideal, but it is still beer.

 

[benno1973]

Surely the retailer knows what he's talking about? Surely!

I went into a HBS the other day and heard the guy doling out the same advice to an unsuspecting customer.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

It's a touchy subject when your talking about business. So I'm not going to be name dropping or any of that BS. I'm just really surprised that someone so knowledgable is telling my bro to pitch 1 pack of wyeast into 12 degree wort at 1.048 sg.
It's not the only, for lack of a better word, strange advice he's had there either.

 

[tavas]

Happens more than you think. We care about our beer so we spend time and energy researching to make the best product, but some people are simply into making money so don't care for that. Or they simply may not know any better.

My dad used to say "he who knows it the least, knows it the longest and the loudest."

 

[Cocko]

So could all the info out there be wrong on yeast numbers...?

In answer to your topic title, yes.

In answer to the quoted text of your own above, no.

If you get 75 points of reference saying one thing and 1 saying another... what would you do?


Seriously, you need to ask about this Gav? Tell your bro how it is and to sort it out.

2c.

 

[Thefatdoghead]

In answer to your topic title, yes.

In answer to the quoted text of your own above, no.

If you get 75 points of reference saying one thing and 1 saying another... what would you do?


Seriously, you need to ask about this Gav? Tell your bro how it is and to sort it out.

2c.

I have sorted it with my brother.
His beer will be all good.
The first time he went in there, he took in the recipe I gave him to get the ingredients. He was scoffed at and told, whoever made this recipe doesn't know what they are doing.
It was Charlie Papazians recipe out of The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. You know, the award winning recipe.

 

[manticle]

Yes. Bad.

 

[manticle]

Badvice

 

[boonchu]

Got to ask the question, how many people who work in home brew shops actually brew or used to brew

 

[Camo6]

I went to get the grainbill for Manticles american brown from a lhbs and when I asked for dingemanns biscuit he screwed up his face and said 'where are you getting these recipes?!'

 

[niftinev]

I doubt the LHBS near me would be any better.

Went there 3 times and could never get what I want (like US-05) would have in about 4-6 weeks time

Been riding a motor bike for 2 years and has no idea what brand it is (no brand name visible)

yeast kept on shelves

What chances do you have of getting good advice

never been back since

that's why I go to CraftBrewer a 260km round trip for me, but worth the effort

 

[Thefatdoghead]

All I can say is that the person in question does brew all grain and is very knowledgable and should really know better.
My brother had to actually argue with this guy to get the extra yeast packets. I mean, come on.

 

[bum]

You should get a letterbox, niftinev.

Got to ask the question, how many people who work in home brew shops actually brew or used to brew

The LHBS that used to be near me had a fermenter running in the north-facing shop window. He brews - his advice must be good!

[EDIT: cross-post]

 

[Adr_0]

There's at least one longish thread on bad advice coming from some home brew stores. So it is not beyond the realms of reality to think the advice about 1 packet of yeast being wrong.

Yes you will still make beer with it, and maybe in the advice giver's experience his beers are acceptable, so he thinks that you only need 1 packet.

When I first started brewing I thought beer should be fermented at +24*c with 7g of kit yeast, from a packet sitting on the shelf. I thought my beers were fine. It was not until I found this site that I realised that there are better ways to do things.

Brewing is over 8000 years old and many of those centuries were without knowledge of yeast and no temp control, not to mention open fermentation and poor sanitation.

You can beer under many conditions that we consider not ideal, but it is still beer.

That's probably the most diplomatic post I've ever read in my life...

 

[booargy]

If you went into a shop and they said "pitch 4 packets @ 12c" they would just look like they want to sell extra yeast.

 

[manticle]

I went to get the grainbill for Manticles american brown from a lhbs and when I asked for dingemanns biscuit he screwed up his face and said 'where are you getting these recipes?!'

He was probably amazed that someone would think of putting a nutty, toasty malt into a brown ale to give it a nutty, toasty character. Bit like Matt Preston screwing up his face when he eats something he really, really likes.

 

[treefiddy]

He was probably amazed that someone would think of putting a nutty, toasty malt into a brown ale to give it a nutty, toasty character.

To be fair, the obvious solution would be to use peanut butter toast.

 

[manticle]

Would I need to do a cereal mash with the toast? Could the butter be confused with diacetyl?

So many questions (well two).

 

[treefiddy]

Would I need to do a cereal mash with the toast? Could the butter be confused with diacetyl?

So many questions (well two).

Toast is typically mashed during the mastication process, so probably.

The butter may or may not be perceived as diactyl, but would certainly be exacerbated by the addition of scotch (preferably single malt).