One of the big changes for this brew was our first use of a yeast starter. After reading all about yeast and pitch counts recently, it seemed like the obvious next step for our brewing. I used the Brewer's Friend Yeast Pitch Rate and Yeast Starter Calculator to determine the starting viability of the yeast based on its age, the desired number of cells based on batch size and gravity, and the size starter we would need to reach the right pitch count.
The big lesson learned coming from the starter was that we absolutely need Fermcap-S to inhibit the foaming while boiling the starter. As soon as the wort would start boiling in the Erlenmeyer flask, it would foam up like crazy, get foam up into the foam stopper, and have wort seeping over the sides and onto the stove.
Other than the foaming issue, everything else with the starter seemed to go well. We had it on a StirStarter stir plate for 48 hours in our temp-controlled freezer at 72 degrees, then refrigerated for 12 hours to drop the yeast to the bottom.
On the morning of brew day, we went to Ceremony Coffee Roasters in Annapolis to pick up fresh local coffee beans for our brew. We also picked up all the ingredients from Annapolis Home Brew that morning. We started the mash as soon as we got home, but it made for a bit of a hectic brew day because we were trying to do all of our recipe adjustments and measurements at the same time as the brewing itself.
When the boil was finished and the wort was cool, we ran into a minor issue moving the beer to the fermentor. There was so much ground coffee in the wort that it was clogging up the siphon and messing up the seal. Luckily it was only with a few cups left to be transferred, so we managed to force the siphon the rest of the way to get the desired batch size into the primary fermentor.
In addition to the our first time using a yeast starter, it was also our first time using our new clear Big Mouth Bubbler for primary fermentation, as well as our first time using the temperature controlled freezer for primary fermentation. Through some combination of the starter and the warmer temp in the freezer, it seemed like there was very little lag for this brew. By 11pm the night of brew day it was already foamy and bubbling away in the airlock.
We're planning to go two weeks in the primary fermentor, then rack to a secondary and put more coffee into the beer. That'll go for two more weeks before bottling, and around May 1st we should be tasting. If the smells from brew day were any indicator, this is going to be one fantastic beer!
---> [ Early Starter Tasting ]
