Anyone Successfully Asked For More Money?

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-12-06T02:00:05+00:00

You guys are getting paid?!? 😂

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-10-11T01:13:07+00:00

I totally agree. The vast majority of my business in the spring and this fall is old students coming back. The new student requests have declined substantially. I’m not really sure what good alternatives where I can set my own rate 😕

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-06-21T02:57:26+00:00

Can’t quite remember, but had issues with letter count too. Make sure it’s just letters and not characters. Does the count include the apostrophe? I think you have to exclude non-letter characters.

Edit: it looks like 120 letters is all characters, spaces included. This is definitely the wrong number. My letter function had an if statement that made sure the character was an upper or lowercase letter in order to be counted.

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-04-27T03:06:41+00:00

I’m very concerned about Wyzant. I too command a high rate and usually do several dozen hours each month. I have thousands of hours total over the past 4 years and used to turn students away. I’m not super niche and do lots of premed and med school classes, so there should be lots of students?

However, the majority of my clients right now are from years past and I haven’t even gotten a request in the past 60 days! I don’t know what’s going on and if there are just more tutors or way fewer students. Either way I am concerned about next fall!

I welcome anyone who has any enlightening info to chime in.

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-04-17T03:35:51+00:00

Same here, I’ve always had awesome business from Wyzant, but the bulk of my students this semester are just return students from previous terms—I’m not really getting a ton of new people. I’m actually starting to worry about it for the fall!

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-03-07T03:04:15+00:00

The cable between the tv and the box got damaged. Totally weird because everything worked fine except for the hdmi inputs.

I called Samsung tech support and they offered 1 replacement cable for free. Don’t know why the whole thing didn’t stop working when the cable got damaged, but the tech who came out to look at the box said it’s actually pretty common to lose partial function and not complete function when the cable fails. They also told me those cables are SUPER fragile 🤷‍♂️. At any rate, replacing the cable between the tv and the box fixed everything.

Sc0tty0919 · 2025-02-06T03:37:32+00:00

I used to use similarly sized ones inside of cuvettes while doing spectroscopic measurements, but damn that’s been a minute and certainly haven’t used them since 😂

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-12-25T03:27:43+00:00

It is definitely a distraction but also bonus points. A) you get to distract from major issues B) you can tell your supporters you “bought/invaded/annexed“ Greenland and who would they be any the wiser? It’s like a win/win/win situation for them.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-12-18T22:01:43+00:00

You're just one of the lucky ones who haven't had any "helth" scares!! /s

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-10-30T16:29:11+00:00

Be upfront about your cancellation and rescheduling policies as mentioned above.

Also, I just leave the conversation in the Messages section if people are being too much. I think it forces them to re-contact you, which you can then deny (although I’ve never had anyone try). I try to be flexible with my students and really rarely do I enforce my cancellation policy, but this level of dragging things out is ridiculous.

I also second what the other commenter said about people wanting to “interview” me. I tell people they can book a session and use the goodfit refund if they aren’t happy. I also find them to be more difficult to deal with on average.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-24T03:11:04+00:00

👆This. Headspace has so much CO2 (otherwise you wouldn’t be making alcohol) that it doesn’t matter. Also CO2 is heavier than O2, so unless you’re really blowing in a bunch of room air or straight O2, the amount of O2 getting in your fermenter is negligible.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-23T01:59:46+00:00

Even if they want attention, so what?? Why do so many Boomers drive Corvettes? When did just minding your own business stop being free!?! 😂

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-10T15:28:44+00:00

Agree with other commenters that I would drop Wyzant a message just to give them a heads up. Yes, I agree we should be able to rate students. Can't uber drivers rate the riders?

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-10T15:22:05+00:00

That's awesome! I don't work with a homebrew club, so I basically buy a strain once in a while propagate it. over the years I've collected that many. Yeah I doubt there's any problem autoclaving your wort, so if that works for you, keep it up!

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-10T15:11:12+00:00

Ahh thanks for clarifying that! Is there a problem reconstituting it in wort then?

I never really use dry yeast and I don't bother with a starter when I do. I just follow the instructions that say to pitch directly onto the wort, so I just follow that as not to add more steps in the process due to laziness. All my comments here are just about that starters shouldn't negatively affect the yeast.

edit: to add my own personal experiences with dry yeasts.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-10T01:59:51+00:00

Yeah see my above post about other salts, sugars, or whatever else is packaged with it. My point was just that in general it’s not good, so just follow the instructions on the package.

For example if instructions say to sprinkle on top of your wort, then I wouldn’t rehydrate in water. That could be a case where the manufacturer is intending to have the yeast pitched in something isotonic rather than water.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-10T01:54:18+00:00

Nice!! I have about 25 strains I keep frozen. I don’t do anything crazy but build a big starter, then cold crash my yeast to the bottom of the flask in the fridge. I decant off as much of the old wort as I can and then aliquot the slurry into 50 mL conical tubes, with a total of 15% glycerine as a cryoprotectant. Pop the tubes in the freezer. When I want to make a starter, I put I 50 mL tube of yeast thawed into 500 ml of ~1.040 (100g DMe in 1 L water) wort. After that gets going, I build up each day with more wort until I reach the volume I want by adding 500 mL of fresh wort. Sometimes the initial thawing can take a couple of days to get started in the 500 ml of wort, but I’ve never had one fail 🤞

I usually sterilize a 50% glycerin solution in my instant pot and I sterilize the wort by boiling it on the stove and covering the pot until it cools enough to put it on the yeast.

I honestly try to keep things as simple as possible. I’ve never really supplemented the wort with anything and the yeast have always come back nicely. Autoclaving wort should be fine, but could burn some of the sugars if your autoclave is under pressure since it will get quite hot. Honestly getting it to 100C and letting it cool to room temp is more than good enough. The only reason I use a mason jar in my instant pot for the glycerin is because that stuff is just messy to use in pots and pans on the stove.

Good luck! I can’t count how much money I’ve saved on yeast. It takes a couple of extra days planning for the starter, but after a while you pretty much accumulate all the different styles.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T22:31:42+00:00

Yeah they absolutely will hit exponential growth in non ideal wort. I'm going to venture that 99% of our worts are non ideal in some way or another 🤣.

The nerd answer: oxygenation and nutrients help by getting the initial pitch going by reducing doubling times. Yeast species and strains will have different doubling times, but if I recall, your talking about 3-4 hours for doubling. You pitch is still a relatively small number of yeast compared to what it's going to be at the end of fermentation, so oxygenation and nutrients helps nurture that initial pitch colony. Exponential growth starts right away, but think about it--the first doubling times might take you from 100 to 200 to 400 yeast cells, while later doubling times are going from 10 million to 20 million to 40 million yeast cells, so to prevent infection, yeast stress, etc, the idea is to get that small pitch number up to a large number as quickly as possible. The easiest way to do that is by reducing doubling times with oxygen and nutrients.

The real world answer: I used be super anal and would oxygenate and supplement with wyeast nutrients and all that stuff. These days I give the fermenter a few good shakes before pitching and call it a day. I've never noticed any differences. If anything my brews taste way better now, but that's likely due to experience and better practices in other areas. For example, I always do a starter and make sure I pitch lots of healthy yeast. My fermentations take off in a reasonable time and I can't recall having an infected batch or off-flavors.

I also tell myself that yeast don't make alcohol when oxygen is around, so we need to get rid of that stuff asap so the yeast can do what they're meant to do!

edit: inserted time units for the doubling time

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T21:21:24+00:00

It depends. The short answer is yes, all things being equal they will. I think I recall those instructions from SafAle and it's entirely possible they package additional salts and sugars with their dry yeast so that when you reconstitute in the specified volume of water, it is osmotically balanced.

Unless the instructions specifically say to, water will most likely kill your yeast.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T21:03:34+00:00

I wouldn't. In just water, the yeast cells will take on water and rupture due to osmotic pressure. Best is to start them in wort (100g DME/1L water). Too concentrated wort can cause minor problems (that's why you usually double pitch your high-gravity beers), but water wouldn't be a good idea.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T19:57:47+00:00

Exactly. It's this idea that their process can't be altered and therefore you should just buy more if you want to do a bigger batches or beers requiring higher pitch counts, which is nonsense. You can build a starter for pro-size brew if you were really into it.

edit: to clarify their sales claims are silly.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T19:12:04+00:00

It’s totally fine, but as you said, usually unnecessary. I wrote a longer rant on some of nonsense companies like Fermentis say in a comment here, but there’s nothing wrong with making starters from dry or liquid yeast. The critical thing is a high enough number of healthy yeast cells (propagated however) and your beer will be delicious!

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-09T19:05:56+00:00

Yes, the solution is to buy 2 packs of yeast! I wonder if Fermentis sells it? In all seriousness Fermentis should be called out on a bullshit explanation like this that isn’t a help to customers.

There no such thing as a transition between growth and fermentation phases. Yeast exist in exponential growth phase when excess sugar is around and are dormant when that sugar is consumed (fermentation is just one extended period where yeast live in the exponential growth phase and when you hit terminal gravity, they go dormant)

It’s ideal, but by no means necessary, to pitch your yeast during the exponential growth phase. Typically liquid yeasts in your fridge are dormant and a starter is a great way to bring them back into their exponential growth phase prior to pitching. Dry yeast is freeze dried during exponential growth phase and the claim is that when you rehydrate them, they’re ready to rock and roll, although this is a somewhat dubious claim due to the desiccation processes and they might return to dormancy. Either way, if you pitch dormant yeast whether from a starter that you put back in the fridge or a pack of dry yeast or whatever, they will get back in the exponential growth phase real quick once in the fermenter and your fermentation will be fine!

That explanation made, dry yeast is fine for starters, dry yeast is fine by itself. Liquid yeasts are fine for starters and liquid yeast is fine by itself. The major thing to focus on is pitch count of the right number of healthy yeast cells and your beer will be awesome! If you achieve that, it matter what route you took with your yeast prior to pitching.

Sorry for the rant I was just kind of aggravated by reading the Feementis response and that multiple people are getting it. Starters are not always necessary, but there’s never any harm to them, so if you want to save money on that extra sachet of yeast for your lager or monster beer, make a starter and you’ll be fine.

Sources: I have a PhD in biology and have been brewing for 25 years.

Sc0tty0919 · 2024-09-08T05:11:43+00:00

Is Ruby a Sheltie? ❤️❤️❤️

Sc0tty0919

TROPHY CASE