barleyhole
Well-Known Member
I brewed a 10 gallon batch of maibock a couple of weeks ago, fairly standard recipe with mostly Pils and some Vienna and light munich. Mash was on target around 150F and I pulled a decoction and added back in around 1 hour. 80% efficiency. My OG was around 1.067 and I split the batch into 2 fermenters. One got a dose of WLP 862 (Cry Havoc) and the other WLP 838 (Southern German Lager). I think the 838 came out OK, the gravity was down to 1.017. Not as low as I wanted but at the top of the supposed range for the style. However the Cry Havoc only went down to 1.020-1.021. For some reason I was talked into this strain at my homebrew store given that it seemed pretty neutral and completely ignoring its low- poor (IMO) attenuation of around 68%. Both yeasts seemed to hit their average mark for attenuation..so I do not think this was a fermetables issue...
So what would you do if you want to get the Cry Havoc down a few more points? I tasted out of primary. It wasn't bad per se. Of course it's not a flocculant strain either and these beers need to lager for a reason.... But perhaps a bit too much malt sweetness for my liking.
Forget it. Lager it. Enjoy it? Or try something (what?) to knock it down a few points? Currently it's sitting in the 63 F basement hopefully dropping another point before I start lagering this weekend but there is no reason to think it will drop anymore than it has already without some intervention.
So what would you do if you want to get the Cry Havoc down a few more points? I tasted out of primary. It wasn't bad per se. Of course it's not a flocculant strain either and these beers need to lager for a reason.... But perhaps a bit too much malt sweetness for my liking.
Forget it. Lager it. Enjoy it? Or try something (what?) to knock it down a few points? Currently it's sitting in the 63 F basement hopefully dropping another point before I start lagering this weekend but there is no reason to think it will drop anymore than it has already without some intervention.