Garrett Oliver recently came to Philly for a night of debauchery high-brow discussion.  A bunch of us met up at Bishop’s Collar, and after Garrett finished mixing some beer concoctions behind the bar, we figured we could pick up a few tips.

We learned that he has a new beer encyclopedia in the works, covering all aspects of beer.  How such a thing could exist and not have to be split into 8 volumes is as-of-yet beyond me.  But if anyone is able to make such a thing not only readable, but enjoyable, it’s him.

We were also able to glean a very important tip from him.  Joe asked, “If there was one thing you could tell all home-brewers that would make a definite difference in their brewing attempts, what would it be?”  Garrett didn’t even blink: more yeast.  He asked if we use liquid yeast (sure), if we’ve ever run into the situation where we ever waited more than a day for the yeast to start bubbling away (yes!), and if we ever notice off-flavors in those batches (umm, yeah).  He said that if his batches aren’t bubbling away after 12 hours, he starts sweating.  There are two good reasons behind this (the 12 hour mark, not the sweating).  Pitching too little yeast puts the yeast into “reproduction mode” first, where they have to multiply to achieve sustainable numbers.  He said this produces a lot of esters that you may not want in your beer.  Also, it gives other bacteria a head start, creating even more chances for those tongue-twisting off-flavors to occur.  He said that the amount that most home brewers pitch is between a quarter to a third of what big-time brewers use.

His recommendation?  Buy two pouches of the liquid yeast and pitch them both at the same time.  A yeast starter would work too, but if you’re brewing on short notice (as we often are) two pouches should be sufficient.

Which reminds me…  We’re brewing this weekend, so if I’m going to get that starter going, I’d better go buy some yeast.