The Stress Of Home Brewing

By scot in Home Brewing on Wednesday, January 13th, 2010

I brewed my third beer on Saturday: Ladies Day. An American IPA in which I came up with the recipe using dried malt extract (DME). The brew day went well and for the first time I believed I didn’t make any mistakes that might foul up my beer.

For my first three batches I have used Nottingham yeast as it is neutral, starts quickly, and finishes quickly. Yes, a nightmare for women! 😉 In my two previous beers the yeast started to bubble up shortly after rehydrating and everything was fine. This time around the yeast just fell to the bottom and never started.

I wasn’t too worried until Monday night, 48 hours after the yeast had been pitched. air jordan 4.5 femmes I turned to brewing friends and the internet for help and received many possiblities. I repitched with another packet of Nottingham. It acted the same as the first. I also found out in my research that they recently had a recall on a bad batch of yeast. Could this be happening again?

Last night Chuck, a brewing buddy, was gracious enough to stop over with not one but two bottles of yeast that he either made or took from old batches. We had a few of my Pot Licker Chocolate Stouts while letting the yeast warm. Chuck said he was impressed with Pot Licker and ,now, the only way the evening could get better was for the yeast to start fermenting. We pitched it and, of course, before I went to bed checked it several times without any action.

I awoke this morning with nothing on my but getting down to see if the beer was fermenting: movement, krausen, CO2 bubbles, any sign of life. Oh yeah, there was plenty going on and I am excited.

While taking a gravity reading yesterday, I had a chance to waft the aromas of the hops: damn good. Can’t wait to dry hop and give it a taste. Enjoy!