First State Brewers' Blog

OK.... so this morning I think I dumped a perfectly good yeast cake of WLP001 California Ale that I captured about a month ago. It filled probably the bottom 1/8 of a half gallon growler, and I was worried brewing my Native Rage IPA with it.... so it went down the sink. After I poured off the liquid and smelled the yeast, it smelled... like yeast. Not sour, not bad, nothing - so I probably could have used it just fine. I was more worried about how viable the remaining yeast were after 4 weeks.

So instead, I revised my brewing plan for this weekend and am brewing the Little Brave Pale Ale, a lower gravity, less hoppy version of Native Rage. I'll use it to step the yeast up to a pitchable size for something that should be close to 1.090 OG in the next week or two. Probably a good idea also since all three hops I'm using - Chinook, Warrior, and Tomahawk - have never made an appearance in one of my brews. This way I'll be able to taste a batch (at least from the primary before dry hopping) before going for the big gun.

I have 3 Vent-matic faucets on my kegerator now. It rules - My parents got them for me for my b-day. Now I've got the same faucets that Iron Hill and Stewart's use.

Off to finish my WLP001 starter for tomorrow's 4am brewing session...