This is a “re-do” of my extract version of this recipe. It’s a blonde ale from Jamil Zainasheff’s Brewing Classic Styles book. I had taken a big brewing hiatus and jumped back in with an extract version of this recipe. The US05 yeast I had didn’t kick off after about 72+ hours so I repitched. I had some fermentation temperature issues and the resulting beer just tasted off.

This will be my first brew using liquid yeast and my new stir plate. I need a .75 liter starter for this batch but I made a 1.25 liter one with the goal of splitting it and preserving 500 ml. What that will accomplish is that I will be able to use that 500 ml later to create a new yeast starter instead of buying another $7 vial of yeast.

Then when it is time to make that starter, I will save 500 ml again and the cycle will continue. This is following the “Novel Approach” yeast starter technique.

It will also be my first brew using my new kettle ball valve and sight glass. The ball valve will allow me to drain directly into the fermenter without an auto-siphon and the sight glass will let me check the water volume without using my wooden dipstick (twss).