East Coast Yeast -- Al's Bugs

[doobliebop]

Al's Bugs is a popular sour strain of yeast on the babble belt board. It seems he is expanding his business, and has created a facebook page to answer any questions.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/East-Coast-Yeast/168646113149281

I'm not affiliated in any way with his business, but I had a good experience having his yeasts shipped across the country to me, and I like the idea of supporting such a small yeast manufacturer.

I just got this in my inbox today and thought I'd pass along his production schedule:

CY01	BugFarm: A large complex blend of cultures to emulate sour beers such as lambic style ales. Over time displays a citrus sourness and large barnyard profile. Contains yeast (S. cerevisiae and S. fermentati), several Brettanomyces strains, Lactobacillus and Pediococcus. The BugFarm blend changes every year and can be added at any stage of fermentation. Now producing Bugfarm 4 (includes a newcomer – Brettanomyces custersianus). 

ECY03 Farmhouse Brett: Saison brasserie blend (ECY08) with a pure Brettanomyces isolate from a small but fascinating producer of Saison. Produces a fruity and funky profile with some acidity gradually increasing over time. 

ECY04	BRETT blend #1: Three individual Brettanomyces isolates from lambic producers combined to give an aggressive brett presence in any beer. Vigorous, funky and acid-tolerant, the blend can be added at any stage of fermentation and is excellent for priming or re-yeasting. 

ECY05	BRETT blend #9: A blend of Brettanomyces that produces a dry, leathery, horsy and/or goaty profile. Can have a pronounced barnyard character and be added at any stage of fermentation. Funk is in the house, so let it out. 

ECY07	Scottish Heavy: Leaves a fruity profile with woody, oak esters reminiscent of malt whiskey. Well suited for 90/shilling or heavier ales including old ales and barleywines due to level of attenuation (77-80%). Suggested fermentation temp: 60-68°F. 

ECY08	Saison Brasserie blend : A combination of several Saison yeasts for both fruity and spicy characteristics accompianied with dryness. Apparent Attenuation: up to 80%. Suggested fermentation temp: 75-85° F. 

ECY10 Old Newark Ale: Sourced from a now defunct east coast brewery, this pure strain was identified as their “ale pitching yeast”. Good for all styles of American and English ales. Top fermenting, high flocculation with a solid sedimentation. Suggested fermentation temp: 60-68°F. Apparent Attenuation: 68-72% Resurrected from a freezed-dried deposit library, this pure strain of S. cerevisae is NOT the rumored Chico strain. 

ECY13 Trappist Ale: Traditional Trappist yeast with a complex, dry, fruity malt profile. Rated highly in sensory tests described in "Brew Like A Monk" for complexity and low production of higher alcohols. Apparent Attenuation: 74-76%. Suggested fermentation temp: 66-72° F.

 

[dwarven_stout]

I saw this a couple days ago. So excited.

 

[doobliebop]

Yeah, I can't wait to try his Saison and Wee Heavy yeasts

 

[nutty_gnome]

I'm using the Old Newark Ale in a Pale this weekend and couldn't be more excited.

 

[WalkingStickMan]

I've had a beer brewed with Al's Saison blend, and the flavors from the yeast were awesome!

Got some Bugfarm 4 going now, and am definitely interested in picking up one of the Brett blends for reyeasting or bottle conditioning.

 

[XXguy]

I'm using the Old Newark Ale in a Pale this weekend and couldn't be more excited.

How'd that turn out?

 

[nutty_gnome]

The beer is very interesting. I am very happy with the yeast performance... I am less happy about the amount of roasted barley I used. The roast comes through a bit much. The yeast is clean and pleasant and floccs well in the fermenter and bottles.
It went from aorund 1.046 to 1.009. So it dried it out quite a bit (and probably accentuated the roasted barley taste).

I took 12 ounces of the fresh slurry from that batch and pitched it into a 5 gal american pale ale (no roasted barely!) which will be ready to bottle in 4 days; its been fermenting for a month. I'm curious to see how dry this one will be; if it looks good, I"ll pitch some of that slurry into a 1.07'ish IPA and see how it does in there. I'm curious to see if it can compete with WLP 007 Dry English Ale.

Anyway, give these yeasts a whirl! I'm looking forward to a few Saison batches this summer with Al's yeasties.

 

[XXguy]

Thanks for the update!

 

[nutty_gnome]

So I noted above that I had repitched the slurry of Old Newark Ale into an APA. I bottled it the other day and it too is very clean. I used 7lb pale, 3lb vienna, and 1lb crystal 40 and the 'woodyness' of the vienna malt is obvious in the malt profile and meshes nicely with the centennial flavor hops.

I flavor and dry hopped it with large amounts of centennial and cascade and those flavors are also clean and obvious. This was a 1.056 OG and the yeast took it to 1.009.... about the same (or more) attenuation as in the first batch. I'm happy with the way it turned out. Flocced out like crazy!

 

[XXguy]

I've got some of the ECY-07 coming for a Barleywine I'll be doing - but he was out of the ECY-10, so I decided to try a vial of the ECY-12 instead.

 

[GuldTuborg]

Wow, some of these look really interesting. While I doubt my days of tossing bottle dregs into a carboy in the hopes of something fun happening are over, I definitely want to try some of these yeasts. Thanks for sharing!

 

[elproducto]

Any idea how it works with shipping, etc? I obviously can't get it here in Canada, but will be at my in-laws house in Florida for a week at the end of April, and would consider getting it sent there to bring back.

 

[XXguy]

You can try to contact Joe Bair at Princeton Homebrew. I believe he's really the only retail sales outlet for East Coast Yeast.

I just got an email the other day talking about their yeast supply & shipping strategies, and there was some type of cut-off coming, because they did not want to have any issues with shipping yeast during the hotter weather.

I'd say just shoot Joe an email - joe at solarhomebrew dot com - he'll be able to tell you what they can do & what they've got.

 

[grindMARC]

Link to Joe's brand spanking new website! http://www.solarhomebrew.com

 

[AmandaK]

I'm excited to try and get my hands on some of this, thanks for the heads up, guys!

-Amanda

 

[WolvinMaine]

I am just getting to opening some of the first saison I made with this yeast blend, and I am very impressed. Lots of tropical fruit up front, nice and dry, with some spice. I fermented at 82F. A friend of mine used it in a basic 70/30 barley/wheat, fermented about 70F, and it was terrific, more on the spicy side, less fruity. Not nearly as fussy as 3724, but I think more estery then the beers made with 3711 that I have had. If you like Saisons, I would give this a try.

 

[Zen_Brew]

I just learned of this yeast at the NHC after tasting some of Drew Beechum's beers at a seminar he gave that had this yeast in it. I would love to get some, but now it looks like the sole distributor will not ship during the hot summer months.

While I can understand their concerns due to the hot weather potentially damaging the yeast in shipment, it is also ironic that the Saison style is a heavily brewed style in the summer due to the forgiving nature of high fermentation temps that can occur in hot weather.

Drat!!

 

[Saccharomyces]

I want to try their yeast strains as well. Might try to talk them into priority overnight shipping. I know it's mega$$ but since I do my own yeast slanting I only need to buy them once.

 

[VaBrewer]

I was finally able to obtain some East Coast Yeast! I got the ECY03, which is a Saison blend with Brett. I also got the ECY08 and can't wait to try it based on the above description of the flavors. I have brewed quite a few saisons this summer and now am branching out on yeast strains. So far I've used 3522, 565, 566, 3711 of these 3522 and 566 have been my faves. With the weather still warm I will be doing a few more

 

[dwarven_stout]

I'm on my 4th generation reusing ECY08. Every beer I've brewed with it has had between 86% and 90% apparent attenuation. The flavor and aroma profile had a bit of banana on the first generation but tend more towards orange with a touch of pepper and just a bit of clove now. Great yeast!

 

[Beezy]

Sweet.

 

[Zen_Brew]

ECY is shipping now to most of the US. Unfortunately they are still holding off on shipping down south due to the temps, but hopefully you guys down there cool off soon.

I just ordered an ECY-03 and a ECY-08. I'm exited to play around with these new strains. Thinking of working the ECY-08 up on a starter for two batches and doing a standard saison with half and a pumpkin saisonwith the rest.

 

[Steelers77]

Has anyone used the ECY05 (Brett Blend #9) I just used it and I'm looking for some feedback on it.
Thanks

 

[two_one_seven]

Old thread but I was wondering how to purchase from ECY. I went to their facebook page and short of emailing them I couldn't find any way to order. Thanks

 

[dwarven_stout]

Old thread but I was wondering how to purchase from ECY. I went to their facebook page and short of emailing them I couldn't find any way to order. Thanks

Well, you figured out how to order. :cross:

 

[eastoak]

http://www.love2brew.com/East-Coast-Yeasts-s/217.htm

 

[flyingfinbar]

Scored some ecy08 from Love2brew, can't wait to make my first saison! Anyone have any experience with this yeast?

 

[smokinghole]

I've used ECY03 a few times now which is just ECY08 with a brett strain. It makes very tasty beer. Will come off as banana forward at first in my experience and it will die down.