Spencer Brewery Trappist yeast

Did you use the refectory ale recipe or the one in BYO? Either way 3787 lends itself to a very tasty blonde/pale ale. I'm sure you'll have a great sipper there.

Kinda went off the trail just a little bit. I used 9 pounds of American two-row, 1 pound of Munich, and two pounds of home-made very light Belgian candi.

Sub'd Galena for the Nugget I didn't have, and used a ounce of Willamette at 15 and another at 5 to bump up the hop presence a bit - being post-lupulin shift and to keep up with the added sugars.

And I just dropped another ounce in the fermenter for a few days before I crash it and keg, so it's definitely going to be hoppier than either of the refectory ale recipes, but hoppy is what I like

Cheers!

So I kegged this and put it on gas yesterday, and caught myself rocking the keg today. On three occasions no less. I never do that!

Guess I'm a bit eager for that first pour. The FG sample was sooo tasty.

Gotta get a grip...

Cheers!

My pale ale was excellent though it lacked the crispness of the original and not as bitter. Might have been my hop choice as I used magnum for bittering and not the nugget. Maybe my hops are not as fresh as Spencer. The malt and yeast had great flavor! Could have several in one sitting.

Well not sure if my yeast harvest was as healthy as I had hoped. My pale seemed to have gotten stuck at 1.018. I mashed a little higher than I meant to at 153 but doesn't seem like that would cause that (I've made the same recipe with 3787 mashed at 152 and still got 80% apparent attenuation). I had good temp control it never got cold, just slowly ramped up to 75. I tried rousting gently and warming even further but no movement so I kegged it. The aroma is nice, flavor not near the phenolics/spice of the the Spencer pale. Mine is a little more pear/apple like I get from 3787. I usually prefer my Belgians bottled but I was lazy, so it's not fully carbed yet either. I'll give it a try in a few more days. I did store some slurry so maybe I'll try again with that.

My second and third generation have certainly gotten lazy in settling out of suspension but attenuation is questionable since I haven't checked my tripel yet. The quad is still going. I will report back.

I've heard mash temp doesn't have that much influence over attenuation. A debunked myth from what I read awhile back.

djbradle said:

[...]I've heard mash temp doesn't have that much influence over attenuation. A debunked myth from what I read awhile back.

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Hmmm? There are certain intractables that I don't think have been repealed.

Anyway, I totally went over to The Dark Side, have been accelerating the carbonation of this brew (every time I thought about it I went down and rocked the keg a bit) and tonight I poured a few ounces. I'm very pleased indeed.

Going to have to pick up another four pack of Spencer to compare more closely, but it's definitely in the ballpark...

Cheers!

day_trippr said:

Hmmm? There are certain intractables that I don't think have been repealed.



Anyway, I totally went over to The Dark Side, have been accelerating the carbonation of this brew (every time I thought about it I went down and rocked the keg a bit) and tonight I poured a few ounces. I'm very pleased indeed.



Going to have to pick up another four pack of Spencer to compare more closely, but it's definitely in the ballpark...



Cheers!

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I should be more specific and say that it is not debunked but rather an non-important factor for attenuation. This I base also on my own experience when reviewing all my notes over the last 4 years.

Back on base, the carbonation in Spencer is high and a component I liked. My pale ale was not up the desired carbonation but decent enough. The tripel will be bottled rather shortly.

Just bottled my Westvleteren 12 clone yesterday. OG was perfect at 1.091 and the wlp530 (Westmalle strain) attenuated at 88%, making the FG 1.011. I was so happy that I hit my numbers darn near perfectly. This yeast is pretty awesome...

That's good news catdaddy.

I am aiming for another batch of my dubbel which will make this the fourth generation. I noticed a very sluggish fermentation with my quadrupel. One batch was mixed with wlp540 and that finished quick with almost exactly the same numbers as you but another half that took only the Spencer yeast was still going at the 8 week mark tomorrow in primary! I'm wondering why my batch was so slow since the yeast was from the same large starter.

My yeast health on the quadrupel was par for the course I'd say. Shaken 500ml slurry starter for the Spencer only batch and the same 300ml slurry for the Rochefort/Spencer mix.

catdaddy66 said:

Just bottled my Westvleteren 12 clone yesterday. OG was perfect at 1.091 and the wlp530 (Westmalle strain) attenuated at 88%, making the FG 1.011. I was so happy that I hit my numbers darn near perfectly. This yeast is pretty awesome...

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Did you use the Spencer yeast for the Westy clone


Edit: I noticed on post #38 that your not using the Spencer.

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The refectory ale is super tasty at fridge temps. Going to cold condition the tripel and try that on about 2 weeks......or less

Yum! I'll be dry-hopping 10 gallons tomorrow (yeah, out-of-bounds for the style I suppose, but it sure kicks it up nicely). So with that, cold-crash and keg, and then carbonation, I'm still looking at a couple of weeks before it's ready.

I have to say I miss it greatly and will be happy when it's back on tap...

Cheers!

djbradle said:

Forget my last statement about the family strain as I reread the article and it clearly states they tasted the three overlaps "against" the family strain so indeed it must be one of be great ones....

Credit to Rafaelpinto for his thread which had this image embedded https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=485238....

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Is this the recipe you used for the beer in the latest picture?

Yes it was though I made a twofold mistake. My ibu's were too low and my CO2 volumes were too low as well. I would aim for 3 volumes if I brewed it again and the ibu issue was due to my misreading the aa% on the hop bags.

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Here's the tripel. So the Spencer yeast makes a solid tripel too!

Have this yeast still going strong. Another Dubbel recipe is coming up. Love it.....

When my second keg of 3787 refectory ale goes on-line I'm going to give the bottle dreg thing another try, and if it doesn't take you may hear me knocking on your door

Cheers!

Cool pic! Don't see too many frogs like my younger days.....too bad

You should be online now, no? Dry hopped and kegged starting on 7/7? I'd bite into it now!

I did a ten gallon batch, and the first keg has been on-line for weeks.
When that one kicks and the second goes on-line it'll be time to brew that recipe again so I can keep it on tap.

Not only has this quickly become one of my favorites, turns out my wife likes it as well. Score!

Cheers!

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Had another of the Spencer tripel and man does this yeast shine through! It's spot on to the flavors expressed in the Dubbel. Love the flavor and I have not had this in any other commercial Belgian brew to date and I've had almost all of them.

Second try is the charm: I have the Spencer yeast growing!



Started with four bottles of dregs, 100ml of 1.010 wort with a bit of nutrient in the boil, let that run for a day.
Crashed it and pitched the dregs into 300ml of 1.020 wort, then crashed that and pitched the dregs into 1L of 1.020.

The aroma is spot-on - similar, but still distinctly different from WY3787.

Going to slowly take this up to two liters of 1.040, jar half and pitch the other this weekend...

Cheers!

[emoji106]

Still enjoying generation 5 fermenting right now! Then generation 6 for another golden strong. Love this yeast as it gets better and better.

Excellent! I don't know that I'll be anywhere near as successful keeping this strain going that long, but I reckon it's a testimony to the ancient trappist strains that their character is so stable from generation to next.

I'm convinced my first under-educated attempt was doomed due to the "normal" starter OG (37 points).
The bottle dregs apparently need to be babied for the first couple of cycles - 10 points was recommended and did the trick.

It's spinning in my office with a nice krausen and I love the aroma. Very nice...

Cheers!

My first starter was about 1.040+. Don't know why yours didn't propagate with 1.030. Honestly this yeast is extremely hardy with everything I've put it through, high temps and all else.

On the first attempt with 1.037 wort I was careful about everything - especially temperatures so as to not shock the yeast - but three days on the stir plate didn't budge the SG a tick.

The recommendation to start off small and low made a lot of sense considering how little yeast four bottles contain. But while it was successful, it's possible there was something else going on between the two attempts - maybe the second four pack was fresher.

Dunno, but I just started a two liter forty point starter for brewing on Sunday. I'm also spinning some stored 3787 so I can do two different trappist style brews and be able to compare them over time...

Cheers!

Great work and do report your findings!

As threatened, I cooked up 10.5 gallons of a refectory-style beer on Sunday and split it between wy3787 and the Spencer strain using roughly equal masses of decanted starter slurry.
24 hours post-pitch the chamber is set for 70°F wort temperature, and here's what's happening...


The 3787 to the back-left lit up promptly and has been churning along like a front-load washer, thumping the blow-off at a ~1.5 second cycle and occasionally yakking up a ball of yeasty foam into the catch jug.

Meanwhile the Spencer batch developed a colorful krausen - lots of big brown patches in the midst of a creamy light field of foam a few inches thick - but has been comparatively demure wrt CO2 production - a light burp every five seconds or so - and is gently stirring itself, no threat to the blow-off at this point.

Not sure what I'm looking at there, but it doesn't feel wrong.
Maybe it's a kinder, gentler yeast? A monk thing?
Do you notice the same rather calm fermentation behavior?

Assuming the Spencer strain is amenable to the same temperature range as the 3787 I'm going to be ramping the temp up a degree per day 'til the wort temp hits 75°F, run it there for 10-14 days, and see what happens...

Cheers!

[edit] Just checked again (couple of hours later) and the Spencer strain is gaining on the 3787. Looking good...

looking too far into physical fermentation signs doesn't really get you anywhere imo. I recently made a beer that never even had a noticeable krausen.

It is a gentle fermenter after 5 brews with it, low gravity and high. It's "fizzy" rather than foamy and makes for easy headspace control. Don't be shy of 80's....Honesty it puts off some awesome flavors up there.

Thanks for responding, that's what I was looking for.
I have both batches up to 72°F and will keep jacking the wort temp up by a degree each day for awhile and see how it goes.

Aroma with these two batches is fabulous - a hella lot of funky spicey sulphury stuff mixed together...

Cheers!

TheHairyHop said:

looking too far into physical fermentation signs doesn't really get you anywhere imo. I recently made a beer that never even had a noticeable krausen.

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Never had that happen. What strain would that have been?

I've only been brewing on my own for a little over 15 years and there's a hella lot I don't know.

But I've always brewed in 6.5g Italian glass and I have learned that, along with all their technical specifications, every yeast strain I've used has its own "personality" through fermentation stages. And after numerous fermentations with the strains I've used you get to know what to expect.

It doesn't happen often, but there have been a few times that just looking at a fermenter triggered the realization that I had mislocated a temperature probe, or set the chamber controller wrong, for example.

This is a new strain for me and the first that I can draw on someone else's experience, and I appreciate the confirmation of observed behavior. It provides a measure of assurance that all is proceeding apace, which is manna for an O/C technoid dweeb...

Cheers!

[edit] I'll add that this isn't the Chico strain we're discussing.
There's like - what - all of two people on HBT known to have brewed with the Spencer strain?

day_trippr said:

Never had that happen. What strain would that have been?

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Wlp 644. Great ipa yeast

I will add that the Spencer strain gives an extremely strong sulfur off gassing!

I notice you used 64 ibu's. That's quite higher than what I'm used to! In such a mild pale ale...well moderate pale ale you don't think it will be too bitter? The refectory ale recipes called for about the 20's range for ibu's. The lower abv version I brewed did not have the flavor that the higher abv versions had. I say throw a High gravity wort on that cake when you rack! Save some of course before you do that

Prost

Yes, the bittering is out of style, but I'm old as hell and my lupulin shift happened about 10 years ago. I need the high voltage!

The 15 gallons I've brewed using 3787 have been wonderful and well received, and it will be a treat to be able to A-B the two batches over a month or so once these two hit the keezer.

I saved some of the Spencer starter to build up a reserve, but I'll probably save the cake as well.

The aroma inside my ferm fridge has been epic between these two strains. 3787 has consistently generated a lot of spice and sulphur after a couple of days of churning, and the Spencer yeast has it's own distinct "nose". It's an odiferous duet down there right now

Cheers!

The Spencer yeast is definitely the slowest flocculating strain I've ever used.

While my latest two batches are puttering along I started spinning some more of the Spencer yeast just to build up some stock. I had saved the decanted two liters of "beer" from the final starter and let it settle in one of my fridges for a week, and there was an 1/8" thick layer of clean yeast covering the flask bottom, plenty to get things rolling.

After just a couple of hours in 1500ml of fresh 37 point starter it's already doing its thing.

Going to do a gravity check on those two batches tomorrow. I'm confident the 3787 has hit FG as that sucker was rockin' and rollin'. I have a feeling the Spencer batch is done, too, but it was so much quieter about its business I'm curious to see if that's the case...

Cheers!

Yes it does take its time to settle out though every one of my batches produced crystal clear beers. I think we may need to brew swap to get the most out of these batches

If this batch finishes cleanly, I'll have to bring some over.

So the 3787 batch had been sitting quietly for 24 hours with nary a burp whenever I took a quick look.
And the Spencer seemed to have also slowed to a crawl when I checked it this morning, with barely a sign of movement in the air lock.

This evening I was going to do an SG check on them and dry-hop them if they were ready.

Dragged both carboys out of the chamber over to a shop bench, went to grab my hydro kit.
Came back - and noticed the Spencer was actually churning and the S-lock was popping every second.

The 3787 was spot-on the expected FG of 1.015, so I went ahead and hit it with an ounce of Willamette.
There wasn't much point in checking the Spencer at this point so I didn't: whatever it's doing it sure looks like it's going to be doing it for awhile

Smells fantastic, there's a good looking thick creamy krausen on top, and blobs of yeast and trub are circulating nicely.
If I didn't know better I'd have guessed this was ~24 hours post-pitch.

And if I had to guess what this is all about, the simplest answer is that I over-estimated the size of the pitch - by a lot.

So I'm finding this whole thing quite intriguing. We were talking about pitch rates, and there's a good chance I just tested an extreme case.

Stay tuned

Cheers!

Oh wow, I just realized that you two are from Central MA. I'm from Lancaster

Welcome, ex-neighbor? You're a long way from home!

Cheers!