Recent content by 40yr@HB

Lalvin EC-1118 Wine Yeast - Champagne Yeast

Lips puckering + warm ferm. Check acidity. Have a pH meter? What was the OG, FG?

Was there a specific gravity reading at Day5, and how many total days on the yeast?

Lalvin EC-1118 Champagne Had the same thing happen with a Cran grape + sugar ferment. Put this yeast in? Plowed down from a stuck 1.020 to around 1.002. Saved the batch. Plus kept fermenting as new CranGrape and CranRasp were added. Fast ferment.

1. Liquid yeast 2. Ferm temp <68F (live in hot climate) 3. Corny kegs 4. Recipes with >30% grain 5. More hop varieties available 6. More communication with brewers

What was done after the 152?

Could you provide a recipe of the latest batch?

Wort chiller copper or stainless? (or other)

2.5% ea of 120 and Chocolate malt for nutty. Abt 1/4# ea in a 5-6gal batch.

Takes practice to avoid the over "over the top caramelly, malt and melanoiden laden beer" (huckdavidson above) and throw in the extra diacetyl from the malt. Difficult to get the flav just right with decoction.

:::having an Octoberfest Marzen::: with very little diacetyl btw.

What really helped mine was after 50F primary (FG < 25% OG), do a diacetyl rest for several days, at house temp (72F). Same container, no transfer. That cleared out the butter bigtime. Then transfer to serving keg.

I'm all for a head that sticks with a FG < 25% OG. So if the extra time for a decoc step does it? Worth it for me.

Might have to try that.