T-58 n00b, who has used it?

I grabbed a packet of T-58 along with some other yeasts the other day and I'm planning to use it. I've read around HBT and other forums and seen some claim to get the peppery flavors cold and fruity flavors when it gets warm, whereas others claim that it skips over fruity and goes straight to nasty-ester-and-fusel land. I'd love to get some of the pepper notes from it, and I'm thinking if I start it off at around 60 and let it come up on its own to 63 that should do it, but I don't have any hands-on experience so I am looking for some input. I'm also not opposed to running it in the 65-70 range if that truly results in banana flavors and not fusel or crappy esters. If I use it, I'll want to harvest and reuse it, so I've got to come up with a few recipes to really test it out.

So, for those that have used it, what different temperature ranges are you using and what flavor profiles are you finding? How warm have you taken this yeast without getting unpleasant off-flavors? When you keep it cool, is there clove along with pepper, and does it get overpowering at any point?

The grain bill I use will probably be mostly 2-row and MO since I have plenty on hand, and I will probably keep the hops very simple to showcase the yeast - maybe just some Warrior for bittering, and either omit using any flavor additions or at the very least keep those to a minimum.

I have feremented it in the mid 60's and gotten lots of banana esters in the past. I tend to stick to more like the 63-65 range, letting it naturally rise to 68 or so after the first day or two. You will get some fusels produced during the initial stages, but they will clean up if you just let it sit there for a week or two.

I have gotten "bad" fusels from it before, but that was during an uncontrolled fermentation that ventured into the 70's - 80's, not to mention that I woefully underpitched it.



I didn't really get much clove from it any time I've used it. More of a black pepper in terms of phenols.

Cool, thanks. I'm going to dough in sometime in the next hour or so, I think I'll go for the banana notes. I'm doing about 30% MO, with the rest 2-row and a few ounces of C60 for some color. I think the banana will go nice with that. What was your attenuation like? I see it says it leaves a high FG... I plan on mashing at 148-150 though so I'm hoping that helps get me 75%+ AA.

Well I brewed on Tuesday evening and did a no-chill overnight. Rehydrated and pitched the yeast yesterday morning, and by the evening I had airlock activity. This morning I've got a nice thick krausen. I pitched at 61F, and have it at 63 currently. The airlock smells fantastic. Time will tell on the actual beer.

It's a great yeast from my one experience. Made a Saison type ale and fermented mid 60's. Got some nice banana, but no other estery flavors. The recipe spices really came through. I'm going to do something similar with white labs 565 and compare.


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Just don't let it ferment too warm and do not underpitch, you'll like the outcome. It it's a great yeast but woefully unforgiving if you treat it wrong.

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cjgenever said:

Just don't let it ferment too warm and do not underpitch, you'll like the outcome. It it's a great yeast but woefully unforgiving if you treat it wrong.

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Thanks for the tip, I think I met those conditions with it. Pitch rate was about 0.8 million cells/ml/*P, and I'm keeping it at 63 right now, will do 64 tomorrow and 65 the following day.

Excited to hear the outcome! Keep us posted

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I started getting a sulfur smell out of the airlock a couple days ago. I saw that others had written about similar experiences, and that the flavor shouldn't carry over into the beer, so I shrugged it off. Yesterday, I peeked and the krausen had fallen and the beer started clearing. Today, looking even more clear. So I pulled a hydrometer sample to see where it was at. I'm at 70% apparent attenuation (1.061 down to 1.018) after keeping my mash in the 148-150 window for an hour as planned. It's currently sitting at 64 degrees. There are some really cool pepper and banana flavors, but the sulfur really stole the show in the sample. I'm used to using US-05 and S-04 for dry yeast. By day 5, if they look done, they are typically done for me. This one looks done. I expected better attenuation though, and thought that the CO2 during vigorous fermentation would blow off the sulfur.

I'm turning to you guys for insight. Obviously I'm going to let it condition in the fermenter - I'm not about to bottle something that smells sulfury. Should I be expecting the gravity to drop a few more points over the next week or so? How long have others had to wait to condition out the sulfur?

Some have reported sulfur bombs with t-58. From what I see all has turned out good in the end. You do need to let it vent the sulfur before packaging though. I'm not sure why some get more sulfur than others. Sulfur is a product of OG, pitch rates, temp, amount of sulfur containing amino acids, among other things. With a list like that and a strain known to throw sulfur it is hard to pinpoint the issue. I'd leave it on the cake a while. Once bubbling ceases I'd rouse the FV to purge co2 from solution. Any escaping gases will take sulfur with them. You could even bubble some co2 through the beer if you have co2 and a wand?

I wouldn't worry at this point and give the beer a chance to clean up.

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If you keg you can burp it twice a day until the sulfur clears

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Haven't used this yeast, but another Belgian yeast I used (WLP400) took 3 weeks to fully attenuate. Read about that when I used WLP565, though it didn't do that to me. I'd just let it sit, maybe bump the temp up slightly. Shouldn't hurt the flavor at this point.


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Thanks

Used it once on a Belgian Blonde and it turned out great.
Fermented in the low 60's.
I recall an overpowering sulfur stench during peak fermentation, but it went away prior to bottling.
Give it a few weeks in primary and you should be fine.

My biggest issue was that it didn't clear very well in primary, but my bottles are very clear now.

I will use this again and again as my Belgian strain.

CKing said:

Used it once on a Belgian Blonde and it turned out great.
Fermented in the low 60's.
I recall an overpowering sulfur stench during peak fermentation, but it went away prior to bottling.
Give it a few weeks in primary and you should be fine.

My biggest issue was that it didn't clear very well in primary, but my bottles are very clear now.

I will use this again and again as my Belgian strain.

Click to expand...

This is about where I'm at right now. I am planning on bottling it later this week or perhaps this coming weekend, as long as the sulfur is gone. It hasn't cleared much while sitting in the primary, but I also haven't tried cold crashing as I've been hoping the ambient temp will help drive off the sulfur smell.

Bottled this today. The sulfur smell is gone, and the green beer tastes really good. Gravity dropped another several points, putting me at about 77% apparent attenuation. I collected the yeast and plan on using it again soon. The banana and pepper flavors were both present, but not overpowering, and likely to become a bit more pronounced with conditioning I'm sure, but so far I'm happy with it. Other than the long conditioning period this one needed, that is.

Cracked a couple of these open today, and I'm happy with the results. The beer cleared up completely in the bottle, leaving a very clear golden color. Strong pepper flavor up front along with a spicy nose, followed by banana and citrus (from the lemon zest I added and not the yeast, no doubt).