Conan Yeast Experiences

[BeerGrylls]

Live in Vermont and there is a lot of talk about Conan.
I hear that it came from the Vermont Pub and Brewery ( source local Guru).
That the Alchemist uses the same strain for up to 16 generations. Hence, the variability in flavors from Peach to Grapefruit ( lower Attenuation, more grapefruit flavor).

My usual and very successful culture method for this hearty strain:

3 cans of HT: pour into a glass ( yes its brew time, not taste time!) 3/4 of a can that has been upright and chilled to 42 degrees, and decant the remaining beers with the top of the can sterilized into a 1.040 DME light solution ( that had been boiled and chilled to about room temp) in a 2 liter flask. Fill to about 1200 cc shake and cover with sterilized porous foil and wait a few days and pitch. You may also step up the DME concentration especially if you want more cells, etc. With this method I usually get the FG to about 1.016 to 1.014.

Sign Post Brewing had the best HT Clone that I could find but is now off the internet:

Here is my suggestions for good Clone:

https://www.brewtoad.com/recipes/heady-topper-clone-8

Yes, what we call Conan is actually VPB-1188 that Kimmich was given by Greg Noonan. There are multiple ways to gather enough yeast to make a batch. In my case, heady is difficult to come by, so I could only culture from a single can. I used multiple steps to achieve this successfully. It sounds like your method should work, but at an estimated 2 billion cells per can, 1200 ml is quite a bit. I would still recommend a step procedure to grow them properly and avoid stress failures.

Oh, and the signpost recipe is the same one from the first post of the massive "heady topper can you clone it?" thread here on HBT.

 

[masonsjax]

Where do you get this from?

From the Yeast Bay of course:
http://www.theyeastbay.com/brewers-yeast-products/vermont-ale

 

[BeerGrylls]

Also, morebeer currently has a double pitch of gigayeast Vermont for only 8.99.

 

[Fermented_minds]

Also, morebeer currently has a double pitch of gigayeast Vermont for only 8.99.

Have you used this specific strain before? What were your thoughts? I used it last December in a pale ale I was using to test out all the similar strains, and it under-attenuated around 70% and tasted fruity, but not the kind of fruity coming off of the other strains I tried. My wife thought the yeast character was reminiscent of Pabst (a lager fermented warm?). The starter smelled like all of the other similar strains did, but the beer tasted different (fermented the same as the others at 68 F, then raising the temp at the finish), which may have been from the attenuation. Might have been an old pack though. I have been meaning to retry for comparison purposes.

 

[jaw94087]

I used the Gigayeast Vermont strain to make a HT clone that tasted very close to the real thing in a side by side comparison. I fermented at 63 raising to 68.

Jim

 

[stbnj]

Using this yeast in a recipe that's more than half wheat with a good sized dry hop makes for one cloudy beer.

 

[tagz]

I followed conan with gelatin almost every time I used it. Otherwise it looked like mud. Cloudiest yeast ever.

 

[m00se]

I just picked up the Giga strain. Plan to brew something small first to build up the cake and see what the 2nd gen pitch is all about in a DIPA.

 

[Fermented_minds]

I used the Gigayeast Vermont strain to make a HT clone that tasted very close to the real thing in a side by side comparison. I fermented at 63 raising to 68.

Jim

I'll have to retry then!

 

[mbbransc]

Morebeer has Gigayeast Vermont 20% off today with coupon code HBFGIGA20.

 

[BeerGrylls]

Morebeer has Gigayeast Vermont 20% off today with coupon code HBFGIGA20.

Thanks .. got two double-pitch pouches for $20 shipped.

 

[masonsjax]

A few months ago I couldn't find Conan to save my life. Now it's everywhere including an HBS not terribly far from me, in the can of Heady that a friend in VT sent me, and I've got a fermenter full of Yeast Bay's Conan working on a pale ale now.

 

[Fermented_minds]

A few months ago I couldn't find Conan to save my life. Now it's everywhere including an HBS not terribly far from me, in the can of Heady that a friend in VT sent me, and I've got a fermenter full of Yeast Bay's Conan working on a pale ale now.

So go all fads! The reality is that there are a ton of great strains out there, and this is just one of them. Once the novelty and allure of trying something new wears off and people really put it through it's paces, it will simply be shuffled into the mix with all the other good strains out there.

How's the Pale Ale tastin'? Gonna do some side-by-sides with the different strains? I had a fun time with that, using dregs from a can, the Gigayeast, the ECY and the Yeast Bay strain.

 

[masonsjax]

Exactly. I am doing the same all-Citra pale ale recipe using several strains for comparison purposes. The first used Kolsch, then Conan, the next will be Funktown, and I'll probably do one with Pacman. I've only tasted the Kolsch one so far, it's fantastic.

 

[m00se]

Exactly. I am doing the same all-Citra pale ale recipe using several strains for comparison purposes. The first used Kolsch, then Conan, the next will be Funktown, and I'll probably do one with Pacman. I've only tasted the Kolsch one so far, it's fantastic.

That sounds like an experiment I need to try. Great idea! I have 4lb of Citra waiting to work it's magic.

 

[LakesideBrewing]

It's such a fickle yeast. I have an in house Conan strain that I use all the time. It performs awesome; usually 80% attenuation. Last time I used it in a DIPA it stopped at 1.020 (OG 1.075). Frustrating because I pitched and aerated as I always do for that recipe. Fermentation and mash temps as usual too. Oh well, it still taste fantastic and has tons of peachy aromas, but the beer is a little too sweet.

-Mike

 

[chato]

Has anyone had an experience with Conan and high fermentation temps? I just had an APA self raise to ~78 during it's initial growth phase and I'm wondering what to expect. I cooled it down as soon as I noticed it, but maybe too late to have avoided off-flavors. I'd hate to lose this batch...everything was going so well up to this point.

 

[tagz]

I suspect you may get the belgian phenols and some fusels.

 

[Austin_]

What are everyone's fermentation times with this yeast? I have my first batch going with it and I've had it going for 8 days now. I just removed the dry-hops yesterday that had been in there for 3 days. I was thinking of giving it 10-12 days total. It's holding steady at 1.012.

 

[pm5k00]

I just kegged a batch of pale ale that I fermented with Conan. I got the yeast from yeast geek awhile back, did a two stage starter and pitched after decanting.

Mashed at 153, OG 1.060, FG 1.016, 72% attenuation. Grist was only 5.6% specialty malt (honey malt). Fermented at 63*F for the first 4 days then increased it to 66*F to finish. 48 hour cold crash at 32*F and kegged.

Didn't get much peach aroma but there was a lot of hops in this one, so I am interested to see how it turns out after its carbed up.

Edit: typo; attenuation changed from 78% to 72%

Well I don't know what happened on this batch, came out very clear and almost nothing on the nose, just a hint of malt. No peach from the yeast and no hop aroma despite 4 oz in the last 10 minutes and I "no chilled" this batch, aroma was intense right before pitching yeast. I threw in two ounces into the keg and its now smelling good and hazy.

 

[ianmatth]

I got a great strain of Conan from a can of Heady Topper about 8 months ago. It consistently gets 85-93% attenuation. I've made numerous starters with it and I always make sure to save a little bit so I can keep reusing it. I've compared it to quite a few yeasts. In a starter beer it will give a strong lemon flavor, and that is probably the nature of the yeast that gives the apricot flavor in a beer that has hops in the boil. All my other starter beers taste more like Budweiser. It also will give the Belgian flavor if it goes above 70* before fully fermenting, so I try to err on the side of keeping any beer I brew will in in the low 60s until fermentation slows down, then I'll let it up to the high 60s. After two weeks it doesn't seem to make a difference if I let it go into the high 70s.

 

[AnOldUR]

Giving the ECY version of Conan another shot. Following pretty close to your ferment schedule ianmatth. Brewed an IPA on Sunday. Pitched at 60 degrees and let it rise up to 62 and held there. Had a good 3" of kruasen by 18 hours. Started to ramp up the temperature last night (Wed). The prep date on the vail is Apr 22, 2014. If the rumors of the ECY Conan having problems were true, I'm hoping this newer propagation is better.

Even at the low temperature, I'm getting a strong fruity, banana fragrance from the airlock. Is this normal for Conan? Not really wanting any Belgian character in my American IPA.

 

[Fermented_minds]

Giving the ECY version of Conan another shot. Following pretty close to your ferment schedule ianmatth. Brewed an IPA on Sunday. Pitched at 60 degrees and let it rise up to 62 and held there. Had a good 3" of kruasen by 18 hours. Started to ramp up the temperature last night (Wed). The prep date on the vail is Apr 22, 2014. If the rumors of the ECY Conan having problems were true, I'm hoping this newer propagation is better.



Even at the low temperature, I'm getting a strong fruity, banana fragrance from the airlock. Is this normal for Conan? Not really wanting any Belgian character in my American IPA.

I don't think banana is not normal for that yeast. That sounds like more of a German Weiss bier yeast. From The Yeast Bay Vermont Ale and Gigayeast Vermont IPA I've used, I gets strong apricot and peach in the airlock across a wide temperature range.



Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[masonsjax]

I decanted and sipped the spent wort from my Yeast Bay Conan starter and got a mouth full of banana esters. I didn't get any of that from the beer though. Perhaps the warm fermentation temp or the oxygen from the stir plate was to blame?

 

[Fermented_minds]

I decanted and sipped the spent wort from my Yeast Bay Conan starter and got a mouth full of banana esters. I didn't get any of that from the beer though. Perhaps the warm fermentation temp or the oxygen from the stir plate was to blame?

My stir plate starters with constant access to oxygen always taste and smell not great and nothing like the fermentation. Those are kind of apples and oranges. I assumed the individual above was referring to their fermentation because they were talking about an airlock, but maybe that was a bad assumption. If they were referring to a starter, then that could potentially be the cause for off flavors.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[masonsjax]

I assume they were referring to actual fermentation as well, I was just confirming that under starter conditions, I got banana esters, so I suppose it's possible they could appear in a full batch as well, though I wouldn't expect it under proper temperature control.

 

[bigmike99]

Grabbed some from yeast bay myself ( ships next week) to use first on a cream ale. Just have to figure out another to pitch onto the cake afterwards.
Interested to see how different the current yeast bay gen is from what I harvested from heady last summer.

 

[CliffMongoloid]

If anyone needs conan yeast i have a extra vile, its a small amount and would need to be stepped up but its free... Just pay shipping

 

[mtnagel]

That's mighty generous of you!

 

[CliffMongoloid]

That's mighty generous of you!

Were all friends here