During April’s meeting Andy broke out his microscope so that FLOPS’ters could view the magic of microbiology; specifically yeast cells.
While yeast is invisible to the naked eye, it is arguably the most important and often overlooked ingredient in any beer. In fact, albeit no fault of the Germans as yeast hadn’t even been discovered yet, the first Reinheitsgebot excluded yeast altogether! Even today some mistakenly pay little attention to yeast, yeast health, and yeast cell counts; and while you can still produce beer, it probably won’t turn out as you hoped (or as well as it could have been) if paying attention to a few key details
- Yeast Variety– There are hundreds of yeast varieties available, each performing similar macro (converting sugars to alcohol and CO2) but dramatically different micro (aromas, tastes, and esters) results. You should choose the variety that suits your style of beer best. There is a reason that yeast strains have been around for thousands of years- some are better suited for particular styles! WYEAST sells over 50 varieties alone!
- Yeast Pitch Rates- it can be as easy as throwing in a packet of dry yeast, or a vile or smack-pack of your favorite liquid yeast, but again you won’t get optimal results every time. Pitch rate is the amount of yeast (usually represented as cells per milliliter) that is added to cooled wort. To achieve the flavor and aroma profile you desire – and to maintain consistency batch after batch, you should follow yest pitch rate calculators- which varies from style of beer, yeast strain, gravity of wort, and fermentation conditions. A general rule is 1 million cells of yeast per ml of wort, per degree plato. For further detail you can reference the WYEAST site, or MrMalty.com has a handy pitch rate calculator.
- Yeast Health / Viability- Keeping your yeast happy and healthy will go a long way in producing your next great tasting brew! Yeast age and temperature are two critical factors, but also providing a fermentation environment that is optimized is important: maintaining temperature, providing adequate O2, etc. There are tons of in-depth and readily available information available on the subject: Let me Google that for You– or BYO has a good article on the subject- Keeping Yeast Healthy.
