And so it begins.... (time to make the schwarzbier)

I've never actually bothered to Blog about things befroe, but given the hard work that went into the design of this new web site, I 

feel obligated to give it a try. 

Last evening, I began what I refer to as my lager ritual, that is, the start of my yeast starter for a lager.  Those of you familier with my brewing philosophy know

that I firmly subscribe to the notion of pitching large quantities of yeast, particularly in my lagers.  This approach was given a challenge this year as I finally upgraded my boil kettle to

15 gallons and as I result, I typically yield about 11 gal of wort now after the boil.  Naturally, this requires more yeast!  I've settled into a reasonable process with my "normal strength" lagers  

(anything around 1.050 OG) where I start with a 1 liter started on a magnetic stir plate and then pitch it into an additional 3 liter's of wort after 24 hours.  After an additional 24 hours, you've

got a pretty good slug of yeast.  I then crash the yeast at around 38 °F for 24-48 hours.  Some time during that period, I prepare another liter of wort and chill it down to the same

temperature as the starter.  The  night before brewing, I decant off the liquid in the starter, leaving the yeast cake at the bottom.  I then resuspend the yeast in the 1 liter of fresh wort, and

I rase the temperatuer of the fridge to 48 °F (my typical pitching temperature for lagers).  I feel this gives the yeast a chance to get used to growing at a coooler temperature before

introducing them to the wort.  Bottom line, this yeast preparation method has given me consistantly good results.  I typically with drop a 1.050 beer down to 1.016-1.018 (where I typically

start my diacetyl rest) in 7 days. 

        So there you have it.  I'll update the Blog on brew day.