I Obviously Havent Learnt A Dam Thing Here

[fergi]

MACR the brown sugar is available just from the supermarket,dont know what it does though i should imagine it would add a subtle flavor
cheers
fergi

 

[kitkat]

I know it's going to sound silly, but why not just pour the yeasty sediment of a few Coopers stubbies straight into the wort? It'll probably take a week to see some krausen, but would there be any valid reason not to do it?

 

[warrenlw63]

Kit Kat,

Yer a brave laddie if you try that! :blink: 1 week waiting for yeast to take off is nothing short of Russian Roulette.

You're giving the organisms that surround us every chance of getting a good foothold into your wort. Planning a few days in advance and making the dregs into a starter is no big deal to do. A lot safer too.

Warren -

 

[pint of lager]

Kitkat, this has been covered very thoroughly in an earlier thread. Do not tip the dregs from a few longnecks in and expect your wort to fire up. Just because there are a teaspoonful of yeast sediment in each, does not mean all these yeast are alive. They are probably 99% dead.

Mutant yeasts and bacteria are much faster at multiplying and will quickly take over in numbers from your wanted yeast. Your beer will be infected.

Big rule of brewing, pitch enough happy active yeast into your beer to get the beer fermenting.

Make a starter, and only brew with it when you are happy about its activity. Keep a pack or two of dry just in case.

 

[kitkat]

I wasn't going to do it Just curious, thanks for the answers (I hadn't caught the previous thread that covered that).

 

[kitkat]

Mutant yeasts and bacteria are much faster at multiplying and will quickly take over in numbers from your wanted yeast. Your beer will be infected.

just to comment on that: why is a starter any different? After all I'd be using the same wort in the starter, just in smaller quantity. So if you say the yeast would be infected in the large wort, it would be infected in the small wort as well.

Am I missing something here? I get the argument about leaving the wort for a week without much activity, but I don't quite get this one.

 

[pint of lager]

Kit kat, did you hunt up the earlier thread? That had a very comprehensive reply in it from myself and others.