Rogue pacman yeast

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chemman14

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What are your thoughts? I was thinking about using this for the Old Monster barleywine from Brewing Classic Styles. The book calls for wyeast American ale or white labs California. Also, does anyone know why wyeast doesn't make this strain year-around?
 
I think it would work fine for that recipe. Some stores like mine, Austin Homebrew, and Rebelbrewer, etc. do carry it all year round. You just can not buy it directly from Wyeast all year round. I do not think you will see it offered directly from Wyeast all year round because the strain is Rouge's yeast.

Ed
 
I think it would work fine for that recipe. Some stores like mine, Austin Homebrew, and Rebelbrewer, etc. do carry it all year round. You just can not buy it directly from Wyeast all year round. I do not think you will see it offered directly from Wyeast all year round because the strain is Rouge's yeast.

Ed

when you say you carry it all year around, how is that possible? is it just older, yeast?
 
when you say you carry it all year around, how is that possible? is it just older, yeast?

No it is not older yeast, but fresh yeast that is available through a distributor that Rouge has approved to sell it. When Pacman is not available through Wyeast, Wyeast still sells Pacman to 1 distributor, who in turn sells it to homebrew stores. If a homebrew store does not do business with that distributor or decides not to sell it then they will not have it year round.
 
No it is not older yeast, but fresh yeast that is available through a distributor that Rouge has approved to sell it. When Pacman is not available through Wyeast, Wyeast still sells Pacman to 1 distributor, who in turn sells it to homebrew stores. If a homebrew store does not do business with that distributor or decides not to sell it then they will not have it year round.

ah, I see that makes sense. good to know
 
I've used the Pacman yeast on 3 separate occasions, 2 IPAs and 1 American Amber. I enjoyed it in each beer. I love all Rogue beers and that distinct Rogue character came through in each of the beers I brewed with the Pacman. Everything I read about it said it would eat everything in sight, similar to WLP 001. However, from my experience I got 74% attenuation with the Pacman and close to 80% attenuation with 001. Your system could yield different results but when I first tried Pacman I was expecting an attenuation closer to WLP001. I fermented with the Pacman between 65 and 68 degrees, however John Maier from Rogue says they ferment all their ales with Pacman at 60 degrees. I may try the pacman again and ferment at 60 to see the difference in the final product. Just my $.02. If you enjoy Rogue beers I say definitely give it a try.
 
No, Wyeast is the yeast repository for Pacman and the only supplier. WLP 041 has lower attenuation, lower alcohol tolerance and more fruitiness.

Pacman is in the Winter Private Collection this year and available now.
 
Thank you, david 42.

guess I'll take that lhbs's advice with a grain of salt in the future.
 
It is my house yeast and I love it. I ferment at 63F and let it chew through the sugar like a rototiller on crack cocaine. Pacman allows me to use more specialty malt with out adding cloying sweetness. Damn good yeast strain.
 
Don't forget that it's also available year round in their beers, especially their darker ones. I have a maibock going like crazy right now using yeast I harvested from a bomber of Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout. Definitely riskier, but fun (plus, you get to drink the beer).
 
It is my house yeast and I love it. I ferment at 63F and let it chew through the sugar like a rototiller on crack cocaine. Pacman allows me to use more specialty malt with out adding cloying sweetness. Damn good yeast strain.

The recipie suggests fermenting at 68* for the cal/american yeast. What temperature should I ferment at? The og is 1.115 so I dont want this flocculating too early
 
Don't forget that it's also available year round in their beers, especially their darker ones. I have a maibock going like crazy right now using yeast I harvested from a bomber of Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout. Definitely riskier, but fun (plus, you get to drink the beer).

they bottle condition with the same yeast?
 
I have a maibock going like crazy right now using yeast I harvested from a bomber of Shakespeare Oatmeal Stout. Definitely riskier, but fun (plus, you get to drink the beer).

I've attempted to harvest Pacman yeast a couple of times. First time was an epic failure, the yeast in the bottle was completely dead. Second attempt was successful, but the starter did not flocculate well at all in the fridge. This tells me the bottle did not contain a reasonable cross-section of the yeast and, ultimately, was a poor sample.

In short, I decided to purchase a pure culture from Wyeast...
 
I brewed a dead guy clone this weekend and pitched some pacman yeast from wyeast. Hit the numbers pretty good and it is cranking along at 60 degrees right now :D Quite the krausen actually considering it is on at 60 liquid temp.
 
I think Dead Guy and one or 2 others are filtered. Mostly they don't filter. I know they didn't filter my beer when they made it.
 
how different is pacman verus notty or us05 in the overall final tasting
 
VERY different than Notty, pretty different than US 05. Much cleaner than Notty, cleaner than 05, better mouthfeel than either and I'd say maybe a bit more attenuative.
 
Actually, I just order some Pacman & Belgian Schalde (sp) earlier this week. I was thinking along the lines of brewing the same Belgian recipe w/ both yeasts and comparing the results. :)
 
The recipie suggests fermenting at 68* for the cal/american yeast. What temperature should I ferment at? The og is 1.115 so I dont want this flocculating too early

Pacman does flocculate amazingly well, you still need to ferment LOW. I have a year old barley wine fermented by Pacman that sat at 63F for three weeks (roused at week two) that fermented pretty damn low (beersmith recipe on the other computer). I usually ramp up the temperature the last few days to help the yeast clean up the beer. Your pitching rate will be the real factor to your 1.115 ale. Pitch big and watch the yeast make your beer.
 
Pacman does flocculate amazingly well, you still need to ferment LOW. I have a year old barley wine fermented by Pacman that sat at 63F for three weeks (roused at week two) that fermented pretty damn low (beersmith recipe on the other computer). I usually ramp up the temperature the last few days to help the yeast clean up the beer. Your pitching rate will be the real factor to your 1.115 ale. Pitch big and watch the yeast make your beer.
Yeah, I planned on making a 1.8 liter stirred starter with 2 smack packs.
when you say "roused at week two" do you mean you raised the temperature? or did you allow the temperature to rise as you saw activity in the fermenter decrease?
 
You should consider WLP007. It is very alcohol tolerant, attenuates to 80%, flocculates well and, does give a clean flavor...not too Londoney
 
I use it in all of my ales, it's really great! Just pitch a crap load of yeast, and it will finish VERY fast and with few yeast flavors. just try it
 
Pacman does flocculate amazingly well, you still need to ferment LOW. I have a year old barley wine fermented by Pacman that sat at 63F for three weeks (roused at week two) that fermented pretty damn low (beersmith recipe on the other computer). I usually ramp up the temperature the last few days to help the yeast clean up the beer. Your pitching rate will be the real factor to your 1.115 ale. Pitch big and watch the yeast make your beer.

Anyone else have any thoughts on this?
 
Yeah, I planned on making a 1.8 liter stirred starter with 2 smack packs.
when you say "roused at week two" do you mean you raised the temperature? or did you allow the temperature to rise as you saw activity in the fermenter decrease?

With big beers, I usually will take my better bottle out of the fermentation cabinet and roll it around to reinvigorate the yeast. Then I put it back into the cabinet and raise the temperature of the beer to a couple degrees below it's maximum recommended temperature. I find that it produces the cleanest taste if I follow those two steps.
 
Made a starter of pacman this weekend. I made a 1000 ml starter on Thursday night, then on Saturday afternoon I cold crashed it. Took it out yesterday and warmed it up to my pitch temp. which was 60. The weird thing I noticed was that when i took it out of the fridge there was a big layer of dark colored yeast below the creamier colored stuff on top. does this mean I killed most of my yeast by cold crashing it for a day?

Anyways, the doppelbock was fermenting at ~60 when i checked it this morning. I shook the fermenter a little bit an it was bubbling.
 
Made a big starter of this today...32oz water 8 oz DME pitched a Wyeast PacMan smack pack from Brewmasters..
Going to pitch it Friday when I brew the Grateful Dead Guy Ale AG kit from Northern...I'm hoping this will be ready for a wedding second week in April.
 
PacManstarterforDeadGuyAle2-18-10.jpg
 
Heck I made a 1 liter 1.035 OG starter for the yeast harvested from 1 bottle of shakespear stout. I let that starter go for 3 days and pitched it into 6.5 gallons of 1.045 dunkel...I had fermentation going 6 hours later and it is still going strong 3 days later at 60 degrees and sitting at 1.020...so it looks like it is going to finish low...but it also appears as if at 60 degrees it may take a while for pacman to reach final gravity. I suppose that is expected at lower temps...lower temps take longer.
 
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