Confessions of a Yeast Abuser

....other yeast postings from the HBD

Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 08:10:30 -0800
From: Demonick 
Subject: Re: Yeast Starters

From: Mike Lemons 
>This idea of putting the starter in the fridge overnight before pitching
>sounds like a bad idea to me.  You are exposing the yeast to some pretty
>rapid temperature changes.  If getting those last stragglers to
>flocculate is the only justification for doing this, it doesn't seem
>worth the stress it causes.

From: "Pannicke, Glen A." 
>Mike, I agree, I think there is a minor logical fault in this procedure.
>... Sounds good, but temp-shocking yeast isn't the best thing for them. 
>... Surely there's enough of a drop at a rapid enough rate to kill a few
>cells.  I'm sure that the yeast which haven't been killed already will
>love the even quicker 30F jump back to ambient when you pitch it the next 
>day.
>...Now I know *SOMEBODY* might read this and ask "How can Glen say
>this?  I chill my starter s and my beers turn out fine."

Hey, Glen.  I chill my starters and my beers turn out better than fine.
They turn out great.  :-)

The only statistic I have is that my lag times are never more than 4 hours,
often just 2 hours.

This is sounding more and more like a religous argument.  The basic
assumption underlying all the discussion against fast step ups and 
chilling yeast is the avoidance of stress.

Why?

I think there is a minor logical fault here.

First, I question the use of the word "stress".  That's a value judgement,
yeast adapt to changing conditions.  The REAL question is, "Is the
adaptation you are forcing them to make detrimental to your beer?"  Maybe
it makes BETTER beer.  How do we know that it doesn't?

I think yeast "stress" avoidance is a cultural phenomenon.  We have been
told over and over and over by the nannies and nags in our society that
stress is bad.  We should remain calm.  We shouldn't get angry.  We
shouldn't scream at the idiots on the road.  It's bad for out hearts and
arteries.  We should be forgiving, understanding, and tolerant.  We should
submit.  We should call 911.  We should do it for the children.  Baloney!  
Stress makes us strong!  That which does not kill us makes us stronger.  
Our lives have become so cushy that we react to minor inconveniences as if
they are life threatening.  Imagine the "stress" of the first settlers of
the western US.  Imagine the stress of your grandparents immigration to the
US.  My point is that in our cushy, leather-seated, personally
climate-controled, clean-handed, well-fed lives, stress has gotten a bad
rap.

We as a culture are in such a sorry state that people CRAVE stress!  They
do things like extreme sports, jump out of airplanes, jump off bridges with
rubberbands around their ankles, release beta software, snowboard down 60%
slopes, bicycle through mud and rocks and rivers, run 26 miles as fast as
possible, surf monster waves, play violent video games, and watch
frightening movies.  All this, just to experience a little healthy stress.

Those that believe that yeast are delicate little creatures needing
coddling and obsessive care are projecting.  (But, I'm not :-)  The proof
IS the beer.  Intra-cellular enzyme profiles, transcription profiles,
altered krebs cycle function, and altered transmembrane functioning, yield
proof that the yeast is adapting/responding to your stimulus, but the
relevant judgement is whether that adaptation is bad for the beer.  It's
irrelevant if such yeast treatment makes a human feel cruel and/or
uncaring and/or yields some vague notion that the yeast is stressed.

I've said it before, yeast are hearty buggers.  They evolved in a cold,
cruel world of feast or famine, without the EPA, without OSHA, and without
the nanny-state.

They are tougher than we think they are, and, they are tougher than we
think we are.

:-)

Domenick Venezia (Unabashed yeast abuser)
Venezia & Company, LLC
Maker of PrimeTab
(206) 782-1152  phone
(206) 782-6766  fax
Seattle, WA
demonick at zgi dot com
http://www.primetab.com

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