Spencer Brewery Trappist yeast

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I am floored! This golden strong is delectable. Whatever aroma I picked up during the bottling stage is completely gone. It's floral, yeasty, spicy, dry; exactly what I've been looking for. It's young so time is needed but at this point I know a few months will make it shine.

I also just had the quad which was another story to tell. That was a fermentation mixed with Rochefort since I love that yeast. It is about 9 months old and only need a good long cold conditioning. Reddish bronze, dark fruits, more complex than I expected, earthy hops, strong at 10-11%, exhibiting an upper eschelon profile I have not obtained in my dark strongs before. Both of these were simply carb checks at this point. Not tooting my own horn but I'm happy with all the results of this yeast this far!
 
Very pretty!

Bacon's had the stout, chilling it for tomorrow, hopefully to celebrate the Patriots win (but either way, it's gettin' drunk tomorrow ;))

Cheers!
 
Unfortunately the few ratings that exist are not too good for that stout but I get it being their first stab at it. I'll post my own unbiased review since a stout is....well a stout.Let me know what you think of it if you still have your wits about you.
 
Well, I'm a fan. This stout hits all of my happy buttons.
spencer_stout.jpg
I think the Brothers did quite well with this...

Cheers!
 
I had 4 bottles of Spencer's beer from a trip to east coast late last spring, honestly I had forgotten I even had them. My wife and I split the 4 pack over the weekend and all the dregs from the bottles were pitched together into a starter (around 1.02 OG) which is on a stir plate now.

I tried to prop this up about a year ago from one bottle, directly in the bottle and didn't have any success, in fact I only seem to have ended up with an interesting infection/pellicle. Hopefully it works out better this time around and I can step it up and brew a 4-5% Patersbier with it in a few weeks and be able to harvest some additional pitches off that.

Who knows how long I'll be able to keep it working without it straying too far and in Michigan it's unlikely I'm going to come into another chance at a bottle for a while. So if it works it should be interesting. :D
 
Maybe, no sign of problems this time had a good amount of yeast settled out and stepped it up again today.
 
I think I need to start my Spencer farm over.
Burn the village and the crops, and get a new set of dregs cooking.

I'm definitely enjoying my latest batch that started with Spencer yeast - but had to be saved by 3787.
It has all of the amazing flavor of the Spencer strain but with a reasonable FG - my Spencer crop literally only got half way home from a 60 point OG.

Not totally sure it's a mutant thing or that I still haven't figured out how much of this yeast is needed per point per gallon, but I'm not giving up on it, that's for sure.
It's just too uniquely tasty...

Cheers! :mug:
 
Was picking up some ice at my local packy and my main man there pointed me to this...

spencer_ipa.jpg

Hadn't read word one about it. $11.99 for the sixer.
Gonna let it chill over the weekend while I'm out of town...

Cheers! :mug:
 
Boy, that ipa must taste interesting. Haven't seen any of that yet but haven't dropped by the package store recently due to a superfluous amount of tasty homebrew. Must try.

On another note, I am surprised you guys have been having some not so great experiences with this yeast such as stalling out and gushers. I can't say in all my batches I've experienced anything contrary except one stalled batch that restarted some time later with increased temps.
 
Given the majority of the strains I use I've been using for almost 15 years, I'm inclined to chalk up the shaky fermentations of my two Spencer batches to inexperience with the strain, and the whole "how big is this pitch, actually?" problem with home yeast propagation.

Even assuming I got a healthy start from the dregs, for sure I majorly underpitched the first batch, it had all the classic signs. Rescued with US-05, which did not step on the Family Yeast character at all. Was good enough to give it another go.

Second batch went better but still could not reach a reasonable FG, even with a month simmering in the upper 70s°F. Rescued with 3787, which did add its character a bit, but it was so compatible with the Spencer yeast that it came out great.

I really do enjoy this "yeast forward" style, so when I get 'round to it I'll start anew and really build up to something that might actually verge on an overkill pitch and let it rip through another batch.

Meanwhile, there's this little matter of a Trappist IPA to consider...
spencer_ipa_02.jpg

Verdict? Quite good indeed (and pretty as a ripe Persimmon).
And definitely NOT the Family Yeast here.
I would rank this with Southern Tier's 2XIPA in many respects, the prominent characters are very similar.
If I had to choose I'd go with the Spencer...

Cheers!
 
djbradle said:
Okay so I popped another one of the Dubbels and I am floored. This brew is a phenom! Vinous is the first descriptive I have with a balanced maltiness in the background and every other aspect of a Dubbel expressed. 8 gallons a must on the next brew. I have to also add that this yeast floccs extremely clear. On the 22 oz. pour there was not even a hint of sediment, not a hint.
Click to expand...

Can we see a full recipe? I like where this is going/went! I have a few bottles of Spencer that I need to Prop!

Cheers
Jay
 
day_trippr said:
Given the majority of the strains I use I've been using for almost 15 years, I'm inclined to chalk up the shaky fermentations of my two Spencer batches to inexperience with the strain, and the whole "how big is this pitch, actually?" problem with home yeast propagation.

Even assuming I got a healthy start from the dregs, for sure I majorly underpitched the first batch, it had all the classic signs. Rescued with US-05, which did not step on the Family Yeast character at all. Was good enough to give it another go.

Second batch went better but still could not reach a reasonable FG, even with a month simmering in the upper 70s°F. Rescued with 3787, which did add its character a bit, but it was so compatible with the Spencer yeast that it came out great.

I really do enjoy this "yeast forward" style, so when I get 'round to it I'll start anew and really build up to something that might actually verge on an overkill pitch and let it rip through another batch.

Meanwhile, there's this little matter of a Trappist IPA to consider...
View attachment 342350

Verdict? Quite good indeed (and pretty as a ripe Persimmon).
And definitely NOT the Family Yeast here.
I would rank this with Southern Tier's 2XIPA in many respects, the prominent characters are very similar.
If I had to choose I'd go with the Spencer...

Cheers!
Click to expand...
where do you pick this stuff up? Weyman's is my go to in the Lancaster area and they don't have squat
 
My town is blessed with an enlightened liquor store, but if they are missing something I scoot over to Bacon's next door in Hudson...

Cheers!
 
It's kind of a bummer to see places like Ommegang and Spencer doing IPAs.
 
dyqik said:
Is that Colonial Spirits next door to Shaw's? That's pretty much at the end of the street from me, so the closest liquor store. Or is there a better option?
Click to expand...

That's the place. It's a toss-up between them and Bacon's in Hudson for me wrt carriage, but between them I can usually find what I'm interested in.

I haven't bought much beer in the last decade, and what little I have I've gotten almost exclusively from those two stores...

Cheers!
 
Just an FYI that this yeast is good to the seventh generation. The golden ale that ended my run is super tasty (just downed two bottles). I know daytrippr would like it for the extra hopiness; Magnum to bitter, Hallertau, and Ultra to finish.

The first pitch into my dubbel was my favorite for a darker beer and maybe for all the ones that followed but this final pitch into a golden ale is just as desirable.

Too bad I ended my run after I was discouraged by the final pitch aromas. I did not decide to follow up with another culture. The flocculation is good and leaves the beer clear and crisp. Still gives a very complex yeast profile that I would buy from the store any day of the week.
 
Having the quadrupel right now which was brewed 4/15. It does express the same slight cola flavor of the Spencer dubbel. Lacing on the glass is out of this world. Very very nice! Some burnt raisins and stone fruits. I think Spencer should have gone with a few more enkels, dubbels, tripels, and quadrupels before a Ris and an ipa (not knocking what I haven't tried as in the ipa). This yeast is firmly suited to the Belgian offerings. Watching the "Babadook" right now too. Not the best combo! [emoji317]
 
One can imagine the Brothers are trying to maximize the utilization of that spanking new brewery (I can't even imagine the Bling Factor ;))
And given the comparatively embryonic US market for all beers Trappist versus the domestic IPA craze, the priority would be evident.

If they could get some financial traction from the IPA, I would expect it would finance more "Trappist" styles in the future.

But that could be a big "if". They're obviously just another small fish in a rather large pond with the IPA. I wonder how they get distributed and if there is any marketing effort to be found.

I missed the winter seasonal, but the stout was excellent, and the IPA is competitive both in character and price...

Cheers!
 
I understand the business rationale but I wish more
Breweries would have a focus. Be really good at a particular style instead of making one of everything to please the masses. It turns a cool idea like a American Trappist brewery into a generic brewpub style brewery.

Sorry to derail the yeast talk. This is probably best done in a new thread.
 
So, with my propped up yeast I've finally got a beer on tap and I can say this yeast that Spencer is using is definitely something distinctively different from White Labs 'Abbey Ale' yeast.

I did a 10 gallon batch of a Trappist Single and split it, recipe was:

20lb Briess Pilsen Malt
10oz Special B
8oz Carapils
.4 oz Summit (17% AA) @ 60 minutes
.5 oz Styrian Goldlings (5.25% AA) @ 10 minutes
.5 oz Styrian Goldlings (5.25% AA) Whirlpool 20 minutes

OG was 1.040, half got the Spencer Yeast, half got a brand new pack of WLP530 Abbey Ale. Both fermented at 68 degrees side by side (middle of the White Labs Abbey Ale rec.).

The Spencer version is already on tap, tastes great, nice light spiciness that compliments the pilsner grain profile. Super happy with it, one of the best beers I've done.

After that I was super excited for the WLP530 version. Except... ugh, it's got more than a bit of a harshness to it, basically still seems a bit green even though both fermented at the same temp side by side from the same wort. I think it's a character that will age out of it, but I'm kind of disappointed in it right now, it's certainly a completely different animal from the other one. Might be the lack of starter for the Abbey Ale but at 1.040 with a less than 1 month old purepitch I thought I was in the clear.

Overall they seem very very different at the moment and while my pitching rate might not have been identical I'd have expected more trouble with the bottle harvested yeast then a fresh pitch. I might just be super hard on the WLP530 version because I'm so happy with the Spencer version. It's not a terrible beer, it's just not the same or as 'clean'.
 

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