BiteSize Brews

Pint Size Thoughts

  • About
  • Blog
  • Services
  • Subscribe
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Recipes
  • Breweries
  • Photos
  • Subscribe for Updates
You are here: Home / Equipment / How to Kill Yeast (and solve the problem)

How to Kill Yeast (and solve the problem)

Posted on January 18, 2012 · 16 Comments

My Bentley/PDX friend, Garrett, made the a New Year’s Resolution to 1) learn how to brew beer and 2) brew beer in 2012. I offered to let him borrow my homebrew set up since I haven’t been doing that much brewing these days. We met up last Sunday to watch the Patriots (WIN!) and brew some beer. The recipe he selected comes from Homebrew Exchange, called: Kevin’s Amber Ale.

The recipe is as follows:

  • 6.0 lb Light Liquid Malt Extract
  • 1.0 lb Crystal 80 Malt
  • @60 mins 1.0 oz Centennial hops
  • @ 5 mins 1.0 oz Centennial
  • @ 5 mins 1.0 oz Mt Hood hops
  • (dry hop 7 days) 1.0 oz Mt Hood hops
  • @15 mins 1/4 tsp Irish Moss

In about 2 quarts of water, steep crystal malt at 155F for 30 minutes. Remove grains and rinse with 2 qt hot (~170F) water. Discard grains. Bring total volume in pot to 3 gallons. Bring to a boil. Turn off heat and add half of malt extract. Stir until dissolved. Turn heat back on and bring to boil. Boil for 60 minutes. Adding hops and Irish moss according to schedule. At 15 minutes before end of boil, add the rest of liquid malt extract (turning off heat to avoid scorching). Cool wort to about 75F, add to fermenter. Add clean H2O for total volume of 5 gal. Pitch yeast around 70F.

That last part is key.  Pitch yeast around 70F. For those of you who don’t know, yeast is a living organism.  If it gets too cold, it dies.  If it gets too hot, it dies.  Since I don’t own a wort chiller I drop the temperature in my carboys by filling it up with a bag of ice before adding my hot wort.  Since I was brewing at a friend’s house I completely forgot to add ice and thus pitched the yeast when the wort was ~100F!

What a great teacher I am!

Needless to say, we had some dead yeast in our beer.  Lucky enough, wort doesn’t go bad with 100 billion dead yeast cells in it.  (I know, gross, just don’t think about it.)  Garrett ran to the store, bought another Yeast Pack and saved the day.  We are now a couple of days into fermentation and the beer is happily bubbling away.

What is your worst home brewing mistake?

Filed Under: Equipment, Recipes

About BiteSize

Hi! I’m Jenna, but I got the nickname BiteSize in high school. I love homebrewing beer, thus BiteSize Brews. A blog focused on homebrewing, local brewery reviews and recipes. I’m lucky enough to live in the microbrewery capital of the world. I’m also a big fan of social media (chances are I’ll sprinkle a bit of it into this blog).

Comments

  1. Tienken says

    January 18, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    Brewing with old hops. That has been my worst mistake so far.

    Also instead of using a wort chiller I use a cold water bath with a tub or large sink. Takes about 30 minutes and my wort is down to about 70degrees. I’ve found I can pitch my yeast at about 80 degrees and it works just fine. As long as the water is less than 85 you should be fine

    Reply
    • BiteSize says

      January 18, 2012 at 4:16 pm

      How old is old in your opinion? I’ve got some hops from last winter I was thinking of using.

      Cold water baths also work, but not when you are at a friends house. Also, having one of those fish tank temperature stickers are super helpful rather than just guessing.

      Reply
      • Gianni says

        March 8, 2012 at 9:58 am

        Two problems with this:Firstly, with the lid off your becukt, and you standing over it, you risk dust falling in and infecting. But I’m sure you know that.Secondly, the proteins that create a stable head only work once. All that frothing denatures those proteins and leads to poor retention in the final product. Buy a O2 tank ($5) and a diffusion stone ($10) and you’ll save a lot of time and see improvements in your beer.Keep brewing!

        Reply
        • BiteSize says

          March 17, 2012 at 10:28 am

          I’m okay with a little dust, lots of old-school breweries use open fermentation. I’m definitely planning on kegging once I get into my new place.

          Reply
  2. Dan Adams says

    January 18, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    I found your site through Homebrew Exchange!

    I can totally relate.

    A couple months back I was teaching a friend how to brew. I’ve been kegging for a while now and when we got around to bottling his Scotch ale, I totally forgot to add the priming sugar. Oops. . .

    http://www.vanportcitybrewing.com/2011/11/all-you-need-to-bottle-condition-is.html

    Reply
    • BiteSize says

      January 18, 2012 at 9:02 pm

      Another Portland brewer! Awesome. So glad you found my blog and thanks for sharing yours!

      Oh sugar…oh delicious (and precious!)

      Reply
      • Ritchie says

        March 10, 2012 at 11:08 pm

        Oh, that sounds ghmity tasty.I love your blog; your reviews are written in a great style that satisfies fellow avid beer lovers and invites new-comers at the same time (I think). Also, your tasting reports are among the best I have ever read. I am away in Canada for school, and while I wouldn’t go so far as to say your descriptions (and lovely photos) of great local brews can take the place of me drinking them myself, they sure do help with the homesickness!Keep up the great work!

        Reply
        • BiteSize says

          March 17, 2012 at 10:14 am

          Thanks Ritchie! Hope school goes well.

          Reply
  3. Jeffrey says

    January 19, 2012 at 10:55 am

    Yikes! I don’t have a wort chiller either so I usually just let it cool inside the brewing pot/kettle and then just add the extra water and yeast.

    I added a whole bunch of LME to a batch once, but forgot to stir it up. The LME settled at the bottom and got totally burnt. I bottled it and tried it anyway, and the beer had a distinct burnt flavor. It also tasted really acidic (maybe because the malt burnt) so I dumped 45 bottles out!

    Reply
    • BiteSize says

      January 19, 2012 at 11:21 am

      Oh! I hate when that happens! I always turn off my burner when I add LME to avoid that happening.

      Reply
  4. Sarah says

    March 8, 2012 at 5:18 pm

    HOOH -> 2 H2O + O2 True, But is that left over oxygen desiolvsd in solution so that the yeast can utilize it? A quick google search for THE EFFECT OF HYDROGEN PEROXIDE ON YEAST GROWTH AND FERMENTATION gives a simple answer NO . It’s properties of being a disinfectant, antiseptic, and oxidizer most likely outweigh any beneficial properties of adding oxygen to the solution I’ve heard of people trying this before, and in my opinion it’s an old wives tale, like a Yeti, fiction

    Reply
    • BiteSize says

      March 17, 2012 at 10:21 am

      Thanks for the suggestion, Sarah!

      Reply
    • Sabri says

      June 13, 2012 at 10:55 am

      That is genius. One of the best thngis I have noticed in the 4 years I’ve been brewing is all of the innovative thngis other homebrewers have done to either make the brewing process easier or more effective. And some shit makes me laugh. For instance there is a video on here of a guy aerating his wort with an airstone from a fishtank.

      Reply
  5. tabatas says

    May 1, 2012 at 4:36 am

    I like your fantastic web site, I was searching for this all over.
    best regards,
    Ron

    Reply
    • BiteSize says

      May 2, 2012 at 2:07 pm

      Glad you liked it Ron!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. My Homepage says:
    August 1, 2012 at 10:00 am

    … [Trackback]…

    […] Read More: bitesizebrews.com/2012/01/18/how-to-kill-yeast-and-solve-the-problem/ […]…

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Jennas Pretty Face

My name is Jenna.

I'm small.

I like beer.

Join the Travel Hacking Cartel

Join the Travel Hacking Cartel

Recent Comments

  • Hazy Grapefruit Mosaic IPA - Public Coast - BiteSize Brews on Public Coast Brewing Co. Develops New Beers
  • Hops Brewery - Phnom Penh, Cambodia - BiteSize Brews on Fruit Beer Festival 2013
  • Public Coast Brewing Co. Introduces Blueberry Hard Seltzer - BiteSize Brews on Public Coast Brewing Hits the Shelves of Green Zebra
  • Bright Eye Beer Company - Long Beach, NY - BiteSize Brews on Riel Brewing and Distilling – Phnom Penh, Cambodia
  • Ecliptic Brewing Joins Black is Beautiful Campaign - BiteSize Brews on Barrel-Aged Sedna Tiramisu Stout – Ecliptic Brewing

Recent Blog Posts

  • Barnstable Brewing – Hyannis, MA
  • Hazy Grapefruit Mosaic IPA – Public Coast
  • Public Coast Brewing Co. Introduces Blueberry Hard Seltzer
  • Bright Eye Beer Company – Long Beach, NY
  • Ecliptic Brewing Joins Black is Beautiful Campaign

Sustainable Web Hosting by Canvas Host

Sustainable Web Hosting by Canvas Host

Copyright © 2025 · Mocha Child Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in