The Great American Yeast Starter vs. Smack Pack Experiment – Update on Kegging

I kegged this beer a couple of days ago and thought I should report back on it progress. You may recall the aim of them experiment is to test the assertion that yeast starters are needed for all beers, or whether a single smack pack can be used for “normal” beers with original gravities (OG) of 1.060 without affecting the final beer.

Do yeast starters decrease lag times? I did not notice any difference in lag times between the two fermenters, probably because they started overnight while I was asleep. By the time I checked the fermenters the next morning (maybe 16 hours after pitching), both had a good inch of kraeusen and were churning away merrily. While it’s possible the fermenter with the starter started more quickly, the fermenter that got the smack pack certinly had an acceptably short lag time.

Do yeast starters decrease the time to completion? Both fermenters had very similar times to completion. I checked them morning and evening every day while they were actively fermenting, and they both seemed to ramp up and taper off at about the same time. One interesting thing is that the fermenter with the starter had a thicker, heavier kraeusen which took longer to fall into the beer after the active ferment stopped. The fermenter with only the smack pack may actually have been ready to rack a day or so ahead of the other because of this.

Do yeast starters give more complete ferments? The OG on both fermenters was the same, of course, since they came from the same kettle. Their final gravities (FG) were also the same, at 1.008. This is an apparent attenuation of 86% which is fairly high for the yeast I used (Wyeast American Ale II).

The only remaining questions seem to be related to the flavor of the final beer, which we won’t know for another week and a half or so. The beer is currently resting in its kegs on dry hops and under pressure. Once it’s carbonated and has had a chance to soak up some aroma, I plan on doing a semi-blind test to see if I or my testers can find any difference.

So far, the results seem to indicate that there is little advantage, if any, to making yeast starters when there are healthy smack packs available and when the beer is not above 1.060. The advantages might be more obvious if the yeast in question were older, or if the beer were very strong. As starters cause extra work and therefore increase my overall level of worry (which Charlie tells us is to be avoided in pursuit of homebrew), my inclination is to skip them unless I am doing something extraordinary.

Line & Color, v

PINK

With the basic foundations of warm and cold greens laid down, time to paint the flowers. Pink seems to be more summery to me, so pink it will be! I will be using a total of three pinks. The foundation pink is neither too blue nor too red, and so will be the underpainting for the warm and cold pink to be applied later. This picture shows several layers of the same pink – the darker the pink, the more layers of color. The palest areas are single color layers. The medium pinks are two to three layers of color. The darkest have up to six.

The detailed picture will give you a better idea of some of the subtle differences of one, two, or more layers. The smaller flowers have only one to two color layers – see the slight changes in color density?

Line & Color, iv

COLD GREEN

Once the warm green dried – and more than one layer of it in some areas – it was time to add the cool green. This green is a viridian or phthalo green, so there is a bluish tint to it. The next picture shows the pale layers before they begin to build up. Warm and cool greens begin to meet.

Subsequent layers – two or three more -begin to show the intensity of the colors, as well as areas where warm and cool work together to show the underside of a leaf, such as on the far right side. Mottling is done to see how warm and cool will work together underneath yet another layer of green. Below you will see a leaf with a lighter, warmer green center surrounded by cooler green.

Line & Color, iii

WARM GREENS

The paper for this project is a handmade kozo paper. It is a thin, lightweight paper. One purpose of this painting adventure is to test how the paper handles repeated thin washes of color – bleeding? wearing? weakening of the fibers? So far, it is holding up beautifully, and does not seem to be buckling or pilling with the layers of color. The natural color of the paper is a very pale warm beige.

The key to layering colors is not to put them on too wet – that is, making sure the brush is damp but not wet. Then, pick up some of the color, blot the brush a little, and then onto the paper. I start toward the central areas, just in case the brush is wetter than I think it is, and if there is some bleeding, it won’t leak out into areas I want white or another color. The brush I am using is a very small brush, and the bristles are cat hair! It comes to a very fine, delicate point, even when wet, with a nice resiliance to it, even loaded with water and color.

The following picture illustrates the beginning of layering of a warm green over the yellows. This warm yellow was applied over both cool and warm yellows, to see the effects of the underlying yellow on the now overlying green. Some areas of the leaves were not evenly covered so that when the cooler green is applied, some variation of warm and cool will hopefully appear.

Follows is a detail of one of the leaves, so you can see the variations within a leaf.

Line & Color, ii

YELLOWS

Another picture of the outline:

The first underlayers are begun: a lemon yellow, which is a yellow with a greenish cast to it, and a warmish yellow, one closer to orange than green. The idea is that the underlying lemon yellow will aim toward a cooler green, and, obviously, the underlying warmish yellow, will aim toward a warmish green. Two separate photos are provided – the first with the lemon yellow applied, then the orangish yellow.

As you can see in the next photo, the warmer yellow – I think it is a cadmium – has been added to the outline drawing. Sometimes there was more pigment in the brush, sometimes less. The intensity of the yellow varies. There is a definite difference between the two yellows. Some of the leaves have the lemon yellow for the sub-painting, but most have the warmer color.

I don’t know if this is “traditional” in color or approach, but it should be fun to see the results!