Yeast for the ag brew

[thegoatboy]

Hello

I thought I'd bought all the ingredients to try the famous ag brew, but now the stuff has arrive I've made a blunder


I ordered some 1056 American ale yeast, but it's some kind of mega liquid super pack, where it activates itself.
I thought it was a bit expensive

Seems like a waste to use it all up for only 10L.

What yeast would you recommend for the famous ag brew?

I have amarillo hops.

 

[Slid]

Hello

I thought I'd bought all the ingredients to try the famous ag brew, but now the stuff has arrive I've made a blunder


I ordered some 1056 American ale yeast, but it's some kind of mega liquid super pack, where it activates itself.
I thought it was a bit expensive

Seems like a waste to use it all up for only 10L.

What yeast would you recommend for the famous ag brew?

I have amarillo hops.

You can re-use any brewing yeast, most simply by bottling some of the slurry . There are detailed guides in the "how-to" section.

 

[thegoatboy]

Ooo I'll have a gander.

Could I just use a portion of this posh stuff and save it then? Before it even goes near the brew?

 

[Slid]

Here is a link

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=65230&highlight=reusing+yeast

There will be others.

 

[thegoatboy]

It's still 5 gallons of yeast in a posh packet.

I don't want to be hoofing that in 10L worth of. Brew do I?

 

[strange-steve]

Do you have a link or picture of the yeast you got?

 

[thegoatboy]

http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Wyeast_Activator_1056_American_Ale_Yeast.html

Think it's that.

Instructions say give the packet a slap, then a shake then let it swell for 3 hours then pour into 5 gallons of wort.

I'd prefer to keep this for a larger batch for obvs reasons.

I thought it was expensive at the time, but being a bit drunk and lots of clueless I ordered that.

 

[IainM]

You could make a starter with the pack, use half of it in your brew and split the other half in two and keep them in the fridge. I did something similar with the American Ale II Wyeast smack pack and I'm going to put the third brew on with it soon, plus I have a load of trub in the fridge from a previous batch to make more starters from when I need them. At this rate, it will end up cheaper than dry yeast.

 

[strange-steve]

Ok that is a standard Wyeast pack and although it says it's enough for 5 gallons if I were you I'd use the lot. Regarding pitch rates it's better to be over than under, and unless your yeast is less than a couple of weeks old it won't be much over at all. I know it seems a little expensive but if you follow the advice in Slid's link then you can get multiple uses out of it, and 1056 is a very versatile yeast.

 

[thegoatboy]

Cool 😎 thanks for the info

 

[DoctorMick]

Have a look at this: http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/

You should be able to overbuild your starter and save it like @IainM mentioned, the BrewUnited calculator (http://www.brewunited.com/yeast_calculator.php) will tell you how big your starter needs to be.