OK, so really I am talking about saving your empties - the ones that come corked with the wire cage on them. Actually there are a whole bunch that do - and even domestic breweries like
Ommegang,
Unibroue, and
Victory are bottling in these things. Unfortunately I cannot find ANYONE locally that sells them... so I need to get empties and clean / strip them. Reason being is that I am expecting to get an italian floor corker for christmas, with which I will be able to actually cork and cage my brews if desired. So please - if you have empties lying around, or generate some - Please save these bottles for me! I do plan on writing to Ommegang and Victory to see if they're willing to divulge their source... but I'm not holding my breath on getting a response.
I currently have 9 empty belgians I processed today along with 4 new cases of 12oz bottles. They are all now sitting downstairs comfortably, cleaned, de-labeled, and ready for santizing and filling. It took about 3 hours or so, but hey - its cheaper than paying a ton of money at the LHBS for more cases.
Last but not least, some of you may have read
my recent mild rant over at the
newsgroup about White Labs yeast vitality from
HDYB, however I am here to say that starters saved the day. It took over 48 hours for the yeast to revitalize and for the starter to kick in and show signs of activity, however it ultimately did. I ended up having to postpone my brew day a little, however pitching a more healthy and active culture definitely makes me more confident about this batch. I'm sorry, but you just don't screw around with potentially bad yeast when you're brewing 10 gallon batches. And I must say to all of you out there that DON'T do yeast starters - you are playing with fire. This yeast was supposedly still 2 weeks away from the "Use by" date, and it had a 48 hour lag. Do you really want 48 hours to go by before your yeast can start defending that batch of beer you just made? 48 hours for bacteria or wild yeast to kick off first? Yeah, I thought not.
# posted by GDSever @ 5:19 PM
OK, so really I am talking about saving your empties - the ones that come corked with the wire cage on them. Actually there are a whole bunch that do - and even domestic breweries like Ommegang, Unibroue, and Victory are bottling in these things. Unfortunately I cannot find ANYONE locally that sells them... so I need to get empties and clean / strip them. Reason being is that I am expecting to get an italian floor corker for christmas, with which I will be able to actually cork and cage my brews if desired. So please - if you have empties lying around, or generate some - Please save these bottles for me! I do plan on writing to Ommegang and Victory to see if they're willing to divulge their source... but I'm not holding my breath on getting a response.
I currently have 9 empty belgians I processed today along with 4 new cases of 12oz bottles. They are all now sitting downstairs comfortably, cleaned, de-labeled, and ready for santizing and filling. It took about 3 hours or so, but hey - its cheaper than paying a ton of money at the LHBS for more cases.
Last but not least, some of you may have read my recent mild rant over at the newsgroup about White Labs yeast vitality from HDYB, however I am here to say that starters saved the day. It took over 48 hours for the yeast to revitalize and for the starter to kick in and show signs of activity, however it ultimately did. I ended up having to postpone my brew day a little, however pitching a more healthy and active culture definitely makes me more confident about this batch. I'm sorry, but you just don't screw around with potentially bad yeast when you're brewing 10 gallon batches. And I must say to all of you out there that DON'T do yeast starters - you are playing with fire. This yeast was supposedly still 2 weeks away from the "Use by" date, and it had a 48 hour lag. Do you really want 48 hours to go by before your yeast can start defending that batch of beer you just made? 48 hours for bacteria or wild yeast to kick off first? Yeah, I thought not.
