First extract brew questions

You can use a yeast calculator, like Mr. Malty or YeastCalc.

 

Safale 05 is a great clean fermenting yeast and good for most styles of American ales. It comes in 11.5 gram packets, but I have never seen it, or any other ale yeast, in any bigger sizes. You may be able to find a professional brewers pitch of a dry yeast (much bigger sized than the smaller packets) but I'm unfamiliar with how to obtain it.

 

Dry Brewer’s Yeast is packaged in 500 gram ‘bricks’. Perhaps you could contact BSG for a retailer?

https://bsgcraftbrewing.com/fermentis-safale-us-05-500gr

Cheers!

 

I would encourage you to discuss with your brewer friend the aspect of how best to ‘preserve’ your yeast brick once opened.

Fermentis states on their US-05 data sheet: “Opened sachets must be sealed and stored at 4C (39F) and used within 7 days of opening.”

Maybe if you have the ability to vacuum seal your brick it will be OK?

Maybe another strategy would be to repackage the entire 500 gram brick all at once into smaller vacuum sealed bags?

Cheers!

 

Sounds like a plan.

Cheers!

 

For the bright side, you'll be able to ferment high-gravity 1 gallon batches with one dry yeast sachet. You could also increase your batch size as well. No need to go to 5 gallons either, you can pick really any size and scale your recipes appropriately.

 

If you clean out the trub debris that is sticking to the wall of the carboy you won't need to put it into your dishwasher. Your dishwasher's drying cycle likely would bake on any remaining debris so you'd never get it clean later. When you brew your next batch, just use your sanitizing solution to get the carboy ready for its next fermentation.

Taking notes so that you can improve on your next batch is the way to go, so keep doing that.

What is the ABV for your Belgian Strong Ale? If it's 7% or higher, and since you are using a 1-gallon fermentor, you may not have enough head space to contain your krausen so that a blow-off tube may be advisable. A blow-off tube replaces your normal airlock with a tube that attaches to your fermentor at one end and is placed in a bucket of water at the other end. This minimizes the normal style of airlock from clogging that can occur with the krausen overflow. Google that term to see ways that you can hook one to your particular fermentor.

Also, there was discussion in this thread about matching the yeast amount to the quantity of beer. Factored into that decision of how much yeast should also be what the ABV will be of the beer. Big beers need a healthy pitch, and it's okay to over pitch to be safe.

Good luck on that brewing session.

 

The kit likely has at least enough yeast for the recipe, and they may recommend a half sachet, etc. But since left-over yeast is difficult to keep, rather than measuring a portion of a sachet if the recipe calls for only a portion of it, I'd be on safe side and pitch a little more than what the recipe calls for, especially if the date on the yeast is not the freshest. Extra yeast does not hurt the beer, and can only help assure a good fermentation.