oglennyboy
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 7/6/13
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Gday all, this is a bit wordy, but I want to be sure I get it all….
I did a 19L dunkel weizen on the weekend with an OG of 1.080 and WY3068, so was aiming for something around 250-odd billion yeasties (about 2.5 fresh packs, or 2L starter based on the various web calculators).
The tricky part was having a smack pack dated May 2013, and according to the calcs had no viability.
Smacked anyway & swelled in a day, then a 1L starter with 100g DME for a day & half, swirling every couple of hours. Huge activity! Split this into 2 more 1L batches as before & repeated. Massive foamy heads and at the end a thick layer on cooling of about 2cm.
A couple days later gave this 500-odd ml of slurry a wake-up with about 300ml of wort from the BIAB at 1.052 which took off like a rocket before pitching into the fermenter. Which then went nuts and spent 3 days spewing out the airlock. I harvested out of the headspace for the first 3 days, see the pics. Each time the ferment kicked off again & filled the barrel, blew the airlock. 4 days later & still crazy.
I know 3068 is a vigorous bugger, an extract I did last year was similarly amusing. Short of counting cells, is the way it behaves while stepping & starting & fermenting an indication of cell count?
Is harvesting during the early stages of fermentation going to have an effect on the FG?
Is the layer in a starter jar any indication of how viable it is?
I got a feeling that the next starter I make with this harvested batch is only going to need a little kick-along before pitching, based on how much activity this batch had.
Thanks for bearing with me!
cheers
I did a 19L dunkel weizen on the weekend with an OG of 1.080 and WY3068, so was aiming for something around 250-odd billion yeasties (about 2.5 fresh packs, or 2L starter based on the various web calculators).
The tricky part was having a smack pack dated May 2013, and according to the calcs had no viability.
Smacked anyway & swelled in a day, then a 1L starter with 100g DME for a day & half, swirling every couple of hours. Huge activity! Split this into 2 more 1L batches as before & repeated. Massive foamy heads and at the end a thick layer on cooling of about 2cm.
A couple days later gave this 500-odd ml of slurry a wake-up with about 300ml of wort from the BIAB at 1.052 which took off like a rocket before pitching into the fermenter. Which then went nuts and spent 3 days spewing out the airlock. I harvested out of the headspace for the first 3 days, see the pics. Each time the ferment kicked off again & filled the barrel, blew the airlock. 4 days later & still crazy.
I know 3068 is a vigorous bugger, an extract I did last year was similarly amusing. Short of counting cells, is the way it behaves while stepping & starting & fermenting an indication of cell count?
Is harvesting during the early stages of fermentation going to have an effect on the FG?
Is the layer in a starter jar any indication of how viable it is?
I got a feeling that the next starter I make with this harvested batch is only going to need a little kick-along before pitching, based on how much activity this batch had.
Thanks for bearing with me!
cheers
