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Brewferm top or Safale US-05?

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zaptop

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I'm going to buy some yeast for my wort, and I don't know which one to buy. Because it says that the final density is low with Brewferm and medium with Safale. Which one is the best for maximum ABV? Are beer density the same as gravity, Like I want to get low density to get highest amount of ABV?
 
Is that really your #1 priority, to get alcohol into your beer? You're not interested in which one tastes better, right? In that case, get the cheaper one and for the money saved, buy some sugar and add it to the brew. That sugar will make more difference to the ABV than the yeast.
 
i think it's a fair question, but you probably mean to ask "which one will attenuate better?"

never heard of brewferm top but a source says it will attenuate from 64-77%. i would go with s-05 and mash low.
 
Is that really your #1 priority, to get alcohol into your beer? You're not interested in which one tastes better, right?

I'm brewing this batch for a friend who wanted anything with high ABV. Otherwise I'll go for the taste ofcourse!
 
i think it's a fair question, but you probably mean to ask "which one will attenuate better?"

never heard of brewferm top but a source says it will attenuate from 64-77%. i would go with s-05 and mash low.

This might be a stupid question, but could you tell me how you mash and mash low? (I'm a beginner)
 
sure thing. frankly, im sorry others just dismissed your question, normally this forum is very helpful.

mash low means have a mash temperature somewhere between say 146-149 degrees fahrenheit. it basically makes the sugars created in the mash more fermentable, so that regardless of yeast a lower final gravity can be reached. a lower final gravity means more alcohol made.


if you haven't brewed this yet. try to mash your grains (assuming you're using grains) at about 148 for 60+ minutes, then do a mash out in the 160s.

if your friend just wants a higher ABV beer, maybe add up to 5% cane sugar.
 
if you haven't brewed this yet. try to mash your grains (assuming you're using grains) at about 148 for 60+ minutes, then do a mash out in the 160s.

if your friend just wants a higher ABV beer, maybe add up to 5% cane sugar.

Actually I'm using an extract and specialty grains (wheat and oat flakes) so I do not need to mash right?

And one more question, when you say 5% cane sugar, 5% of what? The amount of water? I've been reading about specialty grains when I should use cara malt and they talked about percents there to, was that the water too?

Sorry for all these stupid questions. .
 
Actually I'm using an extract and specialty grains (wheat and oat flakes) so I do not need to mash right?

And one more question, when you say 5% cane sugar, 5% of what? The amount of water? I've been reading about specialty grains when I should use cara malt and they talked about percents there to, was that the water too?

Sorry for all these stupid questions. .

Sometimes people on this forum act like ABV shouldn't be a consideration. Of course it is!

If you use wheat and oats, you need to mash those. I think the wheat can convert the oats, too. Someone will say if that's incorrect. You should mash the grains for 60 minutes at 148. Use a ratio of 1.25 quarts for every pound of grain.

When they say 5% of something, it means the amount of sugars from it, usually based on gravity. So your total fermentables (extract, steeped grain, sugar) is 100%. 5% of that could be straight sugar. Same with the cara malt. Except that you're not measuring the weight of the sugar or grain, you're counting the gravity that each gives.

It would help if you posted the recipe.
 
Sometimes people on this forum act like ABV shouldn't be a consideration. Of course it is!

If you use wheat and oats, you need to mash those. I think the wheat can convert the oats, too. Someone will say if that's incorrect. You should mash the grains for 60 minutes at 148. Use a ratio of 1.25 quarts for every pound of grain.

When they say 5% of something, it means the amount of sugars from it, usually based on gravity. So your total fermentables (extract, steeped grain, sugar) is 100%. 5% of that could be straight sugar. Same with the cara malt. Except that you're not measuring the weight of the sugar or grain, you're counting the gravity that each gives.

It would help if you posted the recipe.

This post really helps! Truly appreciate it!

The recipe is coming right at you!

Malt Base: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) Brewferm Light Liquid Malt Extract
Specialty Grains: 250g (½ lb) Wheat, 250g (1/2 lb) Flaked Oats
Hops: 100g (3.5 oz) Nugget Hop Pellets(bittering, maybe too much?)
Yeast: Brewferm Top or Safale us-05
Extra: Supermoss HB(Irish Moss), 1 kg (2.2 lbs) Fructose

Made it myself, So please tell me if something is clearly wrong. I've done it one time before using Brewferm Blanche as yeast and no fructose. Got a really low ABV. Didn't mash the grains that time.
 
This post really helps! Truly appreciate it!



The recipe is coming right at you!



Malt Base: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) Brewferm Light Liquid Malt Extract

Specialty Grains: 250g (½ lb) Wheat, 250g (1/2 lb) Flaked Oats

Hops: 100g (3.5 oz) Nugget Hop Pellets(bittering, maybe too much?)

Yeast: Brewferm Top or Safale us-05

Extra: Supermoss HB(Irish Moss), 1 kg (2.2 lbs) Fructose



Made it myself, So please tell me if something is clearly wrong. I've done it one time before using Brewferm Blanche as yeast and no fructose. Got a really low ABV. Didn't mash the grains that time.


You're a little heavy on sugar. Should prob be 20% and you're at 30%. But it should be fine.
 
You're way overdoing it with 100g of Nugget for 60 minutes. Unless you want something super bitter and completely unbalanced, you'd be better off cutting that down closer to 20g or even less. Any reason why you aren't adding aroma or flavor hops? You'll make better beer if you do.
 
This post really helps! Truly appreciate it!

The recipe is coming right at you!

Malt Base: 1.5 kg (3.3 lbs) Brewferm Light Liquid Malt Extract
Specialty Grains: 250g (½ lb) Wheat, 250g (1/2 lb) Flaked Oats
Hops: 100g (3.5 oz) Nugget Hop Pellets(bittering, maybe too much?)
Yeast: Brewferm Top or Safale us-05
Extra: Supermoss HB(Irish Moss), 1 kg (2.2 lbs) Fructose

Made it myself, So please tell me if something is clearly wrong. I've done it one time before using Brewferm Blanche as yeast and no fructose. Got a really low ABV. Didn't mash the grains that time.
This would be for a 20L batch, I suppose? A rough calculation gives me an estimate of expected 3.75% ABV. To get to a significantly higher ABV, yeast won't cut it. You need more fermentable ingredients. I'd recommend at least another 1.5kg of malt extract, that would yield 5.79%.

Put your ingredients into this calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

That should help you get an idea. To my knowledge, most common yeast strains are just fine up to 10% ABV (with the appropriate pitching rate), only when you exceed that you need to be picky about what strain(s) you use. Also, be prepared that high gravity brews will take time fermenting and conditioning. So if don't have one yet, get a hydrometer so you can detect a stuck fermentation (nobody loves bottle bombs) and be patient.
 
This would be for a 20L batch, I suppose? A rough calculation gives me an estimate of expected 3.75% ABV. To get to a significantly higher ABV, yeast won't cut it. You need more fermentable ingredients. I'd recommend at least another 1.5kg of malt extract, that would yield 5.79%.

Put your ingredients into this calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

That should help you get an idea. To my knowledge, most common yeast strains are just fine up to 10% ABV (with the appropriate pitching rate), only when you exceed that you need to be picky about what strain(s) you use. Also, be prepared that high gravity brews will take time fermenting and conditioning. So if don't have one yet, get a hydrometer so you can detect a stuck fermentation (nobody loves bottle bombs) and be patient.

You might not be adding in the sugar when you're calculating ABV? I come up with about 5% ABV. I don't know how fermentable the oats are. I guess this is a Belgian style ale, so the sugar amount is ok, but a little high. If you want to go higher, then I would say additional DME would be the way to go. But right now, this is a "normal" level beer.

Different yeasts do attenuate at different levels, producing different levels of ABV. The ingredients also come into play. If you use a higher attenuating yeast, you'll get more alcohol. BUT I don't think anyone here has knowledge of how Brewferm Top performs.

Here are the other problems. If this is a Belgian (because it looks like it with the wheat, oats, and sugar), then the aroma should come from the yeast. I don't know about the Brewferm yeast. If it's a solid Belgian yeast, then your aroma will come from it. You won't get that from US-05. For dry, you can try T-58 or S-33, although I have not used T-58, and S-33 didn't really add anything and it's fickle and hard to get it to finish. But if you're relying on the yeast for aroma or flavor, US-05 isn't right.

That's a lot of hops to add at 60 minutes. I would split it out, like someone mentioned. If you use US-05, then you need hops for aroma. So 60 minutes, 30 minutes, and then 15, 5 OR flameout. Then it won't matter what yeast you use, because you're not getting the aroma from the hops, and either of those yeasts probably attenuates close to the same.

Your previous experience with low ABV was probably because without the fructose, you should get about 3.25%. And that assumes that you mash the grains. If you just steep, you might get a higher OG, but also a higher FG, which means less alcohol was produced. So if you used a can of extract and that was it, you probably started with an OG of around 1.023-25. If you steeped grains, it might have been 1.033 (maybe), but the additional gravity from the grains would be starch, not sugar. Thus the extra 10 points of gravity that you get from the grains would not ferment, leaving you with a higher FG that you should have (as well as a starchy, not sugary, and less flavorful beer).


Did that make any sense?
 
Here are the other problems. If this is a Belgian (because it looks like it with the wheat, oats, and sugar), then the aroma should come from the yeast. I don't know about the Brewferm yeast. If it's a solid Belgian yeast, then your aroma will come from it. You won't get that from US-05. For dry, you can try T-58 or S-33, although I have not used T-58, and S-33 didn't really add anything and it's fickle and hard to get it to finish. But if you're relying on the yeast for aroma or flavor, US-05 isn't right.

That's a lot of hops to add at 60 minutes. I would split it out, like someone mentioned. If you use US-05, then you need hops for aroma. So 60 minutes, 30 minutes, and then 15, 5 OR flameout. Then it won't matter what yeast you use, because you're not getting the aroma from the hops, and either of those yeasts probably attenuates close to the same.

The batch I did before this one tasted great, and I boiled 100 g of whole Brewers Gold hops in 60 minutes. But I used the yeast Brewferm Blanche. I might not be the best taster in the world, but I liked it!
 
The batch I did before this one tasted great, and I boiled 100 g of whole Brewers Gold hops in 60 minutes. But I used the yeast Brewferm Blanche. I might not be the best taster in the world, but I liked it!

So really, you liked the first batch, but wanted more alcohol. That's really the extent of your question. You'll get more alcohol with the sugar you added, as well as more from mashing the grains. You'll probably end up with what you want regardless of the yeast. Maybe use the same yeast this time, but mash the grains and add the sugar.

Brewers Gold and Nugget have different levels of bitterness, so you might want to tweak that to make it the same. Look at the AA% for the actual package you have.
 
Maybe use the same yeast this time, but mash the grains and add the sugar.

Brewers Gold and Nugget have different levels of bitterness, so you might want to tweak that to make it the same. Look at the AA% for the actual package you have.

Can't use the same yeast because the vendor haven't got more of it yet.

Oh right, Nugget has almost the double percent alpha acid as Brewers Gold, Is it because Nugget are pellets and Brewers Gold are cones? But thanks for the reminder. Now I will order the same hops as I used before! :)
 
Can't use the same yeast because the vendor haven't got more of it yet.



Oh right, Nugget has almost the double percent alpha acid as Brewers Gold, Is it because Nugget are pellets and Brewers Gold are cones? But thanks for the reminder. Now I will order the same hops as I used before! :)


No, just different varieties. You do have to account for cones vs pellets. Pellets give more bittering than the same amount of cones I think. Don't know exactly through.
 
OP - how did you measure the ABV of your first batch?

There was a thread a while back from a guy complaining that his ABV was too low. Turned out he was taking FG readings with a hydrometer that lists ABV along with SG. ABV readings on a hydrometer are an estimate of what ABV you'll get from a beer with that OG after fermentation, and even then they're not very reliable because they don't take into account that different beers finish at different FG's.
 
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