Conan Yeast Experiences

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mtnagel said:
Can't see what you are posting. I get this:
Click to expand...
yup, me too:

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The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

maybe your sharing settings are such that one needs to be friends or fans of your brewery's page before we can view the video?

FB isn't a good platform for sharing videos. do let us know if you put it on youtube or vimeo. sounds like a good one!
 
sweetcell said:
no, but they do cold-crash. the point is still valid, as he was talking about what was going in to secondary (i.e. the clarified beer coming out of primary). so whether going into secondary or a can, i believe his estimate was still valid.

your point about there being 5-10 ml of slurry, and your conservative estimates, is a compelling one.

anyone here got a hemocytometer and a can of HT?
Click to expand...

I got a Microscope and a hemocytometer but no can of HT left. I had a buddy mail me two cans that I just poured into a starter a week ago. I didnt think of doing a cell count before I started growing the yeast.

If someone is willing to send me a single can I can do a cell count and post my findings
 
sweetcell said:
yup, me too:

This content is currently unavailable
The page you requested cannot be displayed right now. It may be temporarily unavailable, the link you clicked on may have expired, or you may not have permission to view this page.

maybe your sharing settings are such that one needs to be friends or fans of your brewery's page before we can view the video?

FB isn't a good platform for sharing videos. do let us know if you put it on youtube or vimeo. sounds like a good one!
Click to expand...

Ok, here it is...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqh1uKW9bgc&feature=youtu.be
 
mtnagel said:
Wow. Almost makes me want to buy a 6 gallon glass carboy just to watch fermentation :)
Click to expand...

exactly! i always use buckets, but I'd heard that Conan goes crazy and wanted to see the show! So I brought out my old carboy, and, damn, glad I did...I was down there watching the show often...my 2 yr old thought it was great too!
 
Any thoughts on how Conan would do in a session ipa? I am planning to harvest some conan and it seems a shame to only use it for a single DIPA!

I worry the yeast flavors would be too strong in a lighter beer, or that the high attenuation may leave me with a thin beer...

Thanks!
 
FRS said:
Any thoughts on how Conan would do in a session ipa? I am planning to harvest some conan and it seems a shame to only use it for a single DIPA!

I worry the yeast flavors would be too strong in a lighter beer, or that the high attenuation may leave me with a thin beer...

Thanks!
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No, it doesn't specifically make things dry when it goes down, sweetness is still there.

I watch that video of Conan and have never seen that happen in the probably 50 starters of conan I've made over the past 8 months. It's just cloudy the whole time, even if not on a stir plate, and it never clumps up like that. Wonder why.
 
theveganbrewer said:
No, it doesn't specifically make things dry when it goes down, sweetness is still there.

I watch that video of Conan and have never seen that happen in the probably 50 starters of conan I've made over the past 8 months. It's just cloudy the whole time, even if not on a stir plate, and it never clumps up like that. Wonder why.
Click to expand...

Never seen anything like it? hmmm...wonder why, too! Hope it's ok!?
 
mtnagel said:
Isn't it possible that the yeast reacts and looks different in a starter wort vs the wort from your beer? Seems pretty likely to me.
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true, yeah wasn't sure what above post referred to...the starter didn't look anything like that mess in the carboy!...had a nice krausen...was ready to go!
 
It's because you have hop particulate and proteins flying around in there that you didn't have in your starter with just plain ol DME.
 
I've done 1-gallon batches and bigger ones and all in carboys, all turn cloudy orange khaki color and no clumping. Not trying to just be contrary, it's observations of over 50 fermentations/starters with conan. That being said, I only bring it up because it might be showing us what Conan acts like as it heads off into the distance so to speak. We know it tends to go down in attenuation every generation, it drops out faster as the generations go up too. Might just be a sign this is older generation conan. Will be interested in seeing the attenuation figures if you can post them when they're ready.
 
Has anyone tried top-cropping this yeast? I normally top-crop instead of washing...wondering if the krausen sticks around long enough to top crop?
 
sweetcell said:
isn't clumping more a function of the wort, and not the yeast?
Click to expand...

I just seem to have a much easier time cropping some strains compared to others. Might be a function of the styles I'm brewing with those strains, but I thought it was strain specific.
 
sweetcell said:
isn't clumping more a function of the wort, and not the yeast?
Click to expand...

Not primarily. Clumping is flocculation and yeast type is the primary determinent in actual flocculation. The degree of flocculation is then based of OG, nutrients, temperature, and oxygen. So a yeast strain may be low flocculation and could vary between 80-85% attenuation based on OG, nutrients, temp, and oxygen levels.

You're not going to turn a low floc yeast into a high floc yeast that doesn't clump by altering the wort. You can make it slightly more or less attenuative, but it won't change the underlying ability to clump or not.
 
I've been holding steady @ 68 degrees for a week now...still have intermittent, tiny bubbles coming out blowoff tube...
 
I'm going to be brewing my first real attempt at a HT clone next week. I've been waiting to finish building my all-electric rig, and it's pretty much done now (I think!).

What I'd like to know is how quickly most of you have stepped up a can of HT to a viable starter? I'm home from a trip on Tuesday, and I'd like to be ready to pitch the yeast by Sunday. Possible?

I have a pressure cooker for sterilization, 2L and 5L flasks, a good stir bar, and lots of mason jars. I also have some little capped vials to store samples in. If I can save enough, I'd be happy to share some.
 
It took me 10 days to get to 329 billion cells. That was with 2 days on the stir plate for each step and 2 days to crash the last step because I couldn't fit my last step in the previous step which was a 2L flask.
 
I plan on brewing a sculpin IPA clone this week with conan yeast. Anyone have any reasons to not use conan in this clone?
 
Hey guys,

Quick Q for everyone, anyone seen color stratification like this in their conan? I have about 10 mason jars, and all show the same stratification to some degree, but this is my largest individual culture (about 300ML in thick yeast sediment/slurry; this is a 600ML jar), so it is the most pronounced. Almost 100ML is noticeably darker than the bottom 200ML. Thoughts/observations?

conan yeast color.jpg
 
Forgive me if I've missed any of the below information in the thread, but this is my first yeast harvest attempt and I have a few questions. Since I was hooked up with a four-pack of Heady I figured this would be a good time to try this.

A buddy recommended starting with 2 C (473 ml) of 1.040 so that is what I did. I started the harvest on Friday night and am shaking the flask as frequently as possible. I built a stir plate but still haven't worked out the delicate balance between magnet strength, fan strength and fan distance from the stir bar.

1) Since it has been a few days since I started, should I go ahead and step up or wait until this step slows down? In the past 24 hours there has been pretty significant foaming when I shake the flask.

2) Yesterday when I got home from work there were three or four white specks of something floating on the surface. After shaking the flask the specks settled on the bottom and have stayed there. Might this be yeast, or am I growing something else?

3) It will probably be a few weeks before I am ready to brew anything with this, so what should my steps be to continue to grow the yeast to split it up to brew several batches? I know I could wash the yeast after a fermentation, but I've never done that and I figure let's try to learn one new thing at a time.

4) When I do step this up, let's say to 1 L, do I add the existing wort/yeast to 1 L, or do I account for the fact that I already have 473 ml of wort and add 527 ml? Or do I decant and just add the slurry to 1 L of wort? Since Conan doesn't flocculate well decanting doesn't sound like the best move.

I'm glad to hear that the peach aroma is the yeast. I felt like I poured too much beer into the starter and thought I was just smelling the beer.
 
MTate37 said:
Forgive me if I've missed any of the below information in the thread, but this is my first yeast harvest attempt and I have a few questions. Since I was hooked up with a four-pack of Heady I figured this would be a good time to try this.

A buddy recommended starting with 2 C (473 ml) of 1.040 so that is what I did. I started the harvest on Friday night and am shaking the flask as frequently as possible. I built a stir plate but still haven't worked out the delicate balance between magnet strength, fan strength and fan distance from the stir bar.

1) Since it has been a few days since I started, should I go ahead and step up or wait until this step slows down? In the past 24 hours there has been pretty significant foaming when I shake the flask.
Click to expand...
Not sure if this is in veganbrewer's blog (which is down now) or if I copied it from this thread, but I saved this to my notes:
Depending on the age of the yeast, it could take anywhere from 1 day to 4 for you to see any signs of fermentation. It may be difficult to see signs of life at this point, so I recommend waiting at least 4 days and then proceeding to the next step regardless of whether you see signs of fermentation or not.
A frequent problem reported at this stage is lack of visible fermentation. I tell everyone to raise the temp to 70-75 degrees, shake hard, and let it sit 24 hours. At that point, the yeast usually kicks into action and you might see some yeast rafts in the middle of the wort and a tiny bit of krausen.
Click to expand...
I did that and then I had visible yeast the next day (the 5th day after harvesting).

MTate37 said:
2) Yesterday when I got home from work there were three or four white specks of something floating on the surface. After shaking the flask the specks settled on the bottom and have stayed there. Might this be yeast, or am I growing something else?
Click to expand...
Not sure, but you will see a layer of yeast, not specks. Hopefully it's not something bad.

MTate37 said:
3) It will probably be a few weeks before I am ready to brew anything with this, so what should my steps be to continue to grow the yeast to split it up to brew several batches? I know I could wash the yeast after a fermentation, but I've never done that and I figure let's try to learn one new thing at a time.
Click to expand...
The steps I did are here. I copied this from veganbrewer's site, so I didn't come up with that, but it worked. After I got to my last step, I boiled then cooled some water, crashed the starter, poured off some of the liquid, split it up between 3 jars and topped with the boiled/cooled water for storage in my fridge.

MTate37 said:
4) When I do step this up, let's say to 1 L, do I add the existing wort/yeast to 1 L, or do I account for the fact that I already have 473 ml of wort and add 527 ml? Or do I decant and just add the slurry to 1 L of wort? Since Conan doesn't flocculate well decanting doesn't sound like the best move.
Click to expand...
Don't decant unless you have to to fit it into your vessel. I fit all the steps into a 2L flask until I got to the last 1700 ml step, so I crashed and decanted before that step.

Hope that helps.
 
Thanks! Since I skipped what was your first step I guess I'll go with 1 L for my next step. Do I want to add 1 L of fresh 1.040 wort, or do I want the total to be 1 L after the addition?
 
Looks okay to me. Is it still bubbling? How long has it been? There's lots of foam there. I like to give my starters 2 days if possible just to ensure fermentation is complete. Although, the one I made yesterday has stopped bubbling by 24 hours.
 
This yeast is crazy! It was bubbling like mad when I got home yesterday. I added 1 L of fresh wort and by bedtime it was bubbling away again. When I got up this morning I gave it one quick little swirl and it immediately foamed out of the top of the flask.

I don't know if I've missed it in the past, but I've never seen a starter work like this one has. I can't wait to brew something with it. I'm normally a bucket guy but I think I'm going to pull out a carboy so I can watch.
 
I harvested Conan a few time before with excellent results. I have a 400ml step going right now from a recent harvest and all I'm getting is bread-like aromas when I smell it. It is fermenting nicely and it looks real good. But no peach aroma like usual. Anyone ever get that?

-Mike
 
ok, I racked my Heady clone ("Eddy Popper, or EPIC IPA...Eddy Popper Imperial Cicada IPA...) into keg #1 and dryhopped round #1 yesterday...and the numbers are:
OG: 1.067
FG: 1.011
abv: 7.3%
Color, right on
Taste from test flask: even w/out dryhop taste was remarkable...very much in the neighborhood of HT....two other HT fans tasted, too, and said, "Wow" and "Damn" and "Congratulations" etc....
Washed yeast and now have four 16 oz jars of Conan for next time!
Thanks veganbrewer and all who contributed to this thread!!
 
MTate37 said:
This yeast is crazy! It was bubbling like mad when I got home yesterday. I added 1 L of fresh wort and by bedtime it was bubbling away again. When I got up this morning I gave it one quick little swirl and it immediately foamed out of the top of the flask.

I don't know if I've missed it in the past, but I've never seen a starter work like this one has. I can't wait to brew something with it. I'm normally a bucket guy but I think I'm going to pull out a carboy so I can watch.
Click to expand...

yes, def do the carboy...spectacular show!! go back a few pages to my video!
 
doomXsaloon said:
yes, def do the carboy...spectacular show!! go back a few pages to my video!
Click to expand...

Oh I've already checked that out a couple of times. That video is my motivation for using the carboy. I guess I'll either be doing a 4G or so batch, or buying a 6.5 G carboy so I can do a full 5G.
 
So my Conan harvest is currently at 1.5 L. Bubbling has slowed significantly and it is starting to clear up. Considering my intent is to divide this up into three or so jars for use when I'm ready to brew again should I:

1) stop now
2) cold crash, decant and step up to 2 L (or a larger volume)
3) dump the existing 1.5 L into a gallon jug and add fresh wort? If so, how much should I add?

This has been such a cool process that I'm probably going to harvest my last two cans as well to have more on hand/give some out.
 

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