Conan Yeast Experiences

[beardown2489]

Anyone try Omega OYL-052 yet?

I just pitched my first slurry of DIPA last night. Haven't been back home since to see the activity. Hopefully good news coming.

Anyone else use Omega OYL-052 yeast yet?


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[m00ps]

I just pitched my first slurry of DIPA last night. Haven't been back home since to see the activity. Hopefully good news coming.

Anyone else use Omega OYL-052 yeast yet?


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I ordered some cause I'm on my 8th generation of the gigayeast conan and figured I'd start new. Not expecting any differences since omega yeast even calls is Conan. Just ferment in mid 60s for peach and expect 80% aa

 

[youreanimpulse]

Just pitched 2nd gen slurry into two 2 gal batches this weekend: an all-Mosaic IPA and an Imperial Stout. Excited to see what it does to the stout. Had about a 4 hr lag time on that one, it's really going to town.

 

[beardown2489]

What's the lowest you guys would have started your fermentation at?

I had put my carboy in the garage originally but it got colder than i anticipated overnight. It dropped from 65 when pitched at 10 that night to 58 when I woke up. So... I moved it inside to a cooler spot in the house that was about 64 or 65.

I live in Chicago and got home today to find the new location had gotten down to 61 after the cold front hit today.

I've moved it upstairs where it should easily sit at 67 or 68.

Do you think I'll see any bad come of this temperature mess I've created?

The yeast was pitched Saturday night so it's been almost 72 hours and the little guys are still really working hard so I think that's a good sign. But I'm pretty new to the game and don't know quite what to expect with yeast and how tolerant they are to different situations.




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[m00ps]

I started my last one at 58. Put it outside and forgot about it until morning haha. Took off just fine

Conan is a very robust yeast. Fermenting in the mid 60s will get you good peachy character. It attenuates a bit higher than most, but also seems to give the beer a silky body like using a bit if oats. Amazing yeast

 

[Helly]

I just pitched my first slurry of DIPA last night. Haven't been back home since to see the activity. Hopefully good news coming.

Anyone else use Omega OYL-052 yeast yet?


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Just did a starter for it last night for the first time. It took off quickly. Will be brewing this weekend and pitching it.


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[youreanimpulse]

What's the lowest you guys would have started your fermentation at?

I had put my carboy in the garage originally but it got colder than i anticipated overnight. It dropped from 65 when pitched at 10 that night to 58 when I woke up. So... I moved it inside to a cooler spot in the house that was about 64 or 65.

I live in Chicago and got home today to find the new location had gotten down to 61 after the cold front hit today.

I've moved it upstairs where it should easily sit at 67 or 68.

Do you think I'll see any bad come of this temperature mess I've created?

The yeast was pitched Saturday night so it's been almost 72 hours and the little guys are still really working hard so I think that's a good sign. But I'm pretty new to the game and don't know quite what to expect with yeast and how tolerant they are to different situations.




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Sounds like my schedule almost. I've been starting at 60 ambient counting on ferm temp to be 4-5 deg higher then ramping to mid-60s ambient after a couple days then room temp after it slows. Tasty yeast profile so far!

 

[Helly]

Just did a starter for it last night for the first time. It took off quickly. Will be brewing this weekend and pitching it.


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I decanted and stepped up the starter. The decanted beer definitely had that banana flavor with a touch of spice. Got some fruitiness but not the peachy aroma. I cooled the next batch of starter wort down a little more than the other day so I'm hoping that doesn't show up in the HT clone I'm doing.


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[beardown2489]

So now that the fermentation is slowing after 5 days, what's the warmest I should have this at for the rest of primary?

What number wouldn't you go over.

I've got a 2 options. Around 67/68. Or like 73/74.


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[m00ps]

So now that the fermentation is slowing after 5 days, what's the warmest I should have this at for the rest of primary?

What number wouldn't you go over.

I've got a 2 options. Around 67/68. Or like 73/74.


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I try to stay under 70 but I've heard you can go past that without offensive flavors. I usually do mid 60s then warm to room temp after a week

 

[beardown2489]

Seems like the spot I thought would be 74/75 is actually going to be 70/73

I'm going to leave it there and I'll let you guys know how it turns out.

I'm leaving it near the furnace, which obviously puts out some heat. I've monitored the heat for the last day and it seems to peak at 72.6.

I think this will be just fine. But we will see.


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[ianmatth]

You are most likely going to have noticeable Belgian flavors at that temperature. Anything over 70* is asking for trouble until it is mostly attenuated. You can even get Belgian flavors from bottling over 70*.

 

[beardown2489]

Transfers my beer into secondary a few days ago. My friend and I took a sample and it tasted hoppy as hell but we realized it had not attenuated as much as suspected. I panicked and added more yeast. (Chico strain snack pack) It was reading around a 1.030

My buddy has told me it was still nibbling at a 30 second rate.

Did I overreact by pitching more yeast? Should I have just let it be?

The beer was an OG of 1.076. What should it have been after 12 days in primary?

I pitched more yeast 3 days ago. Our hope was to get about an 8 or 8.5 percent beer. To be honest the sample we took was delicious and I am now wondering if the hydrometer was off and if I overreacted.

I guess time will tell, but what do you guys do in a situation like this. Being new(ish) to the homebrew game I panicked and pitched more yeast but thinking back, I am guessing I could have taken a few more steps before pitching more yeast.



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[masonsjax]

I wouldn't have transferred to secondary. There's rarely a good reason to use a secondary vessel at all. I would have raised the temperature to the 70s and possibly swirled lightly to kick up a little of the yeast into suspension. Adding fresh yeast won't hurt though.

 

[steinsato]

I pitched 1L starter into a 1.058 Pale Ale 1 week ago and it finished at 1.010. Fermented around 70F. I did not notice the peachy/apricot that this yeast boasts BUT I had some juniper berries in the beer and they are probably masking it. No blowoff during fermentation but a good 2-3 inch kreausen

I just pitched another 1.5L starter onto a 1.075 DIPA, it's been about 6 hours and the bubbler is already quite active. 12 hours later and I needed to attach a blowoff tube. EDIT: I let this double IPA sit in primary for a week, then moved into secondary for some dryhopping. After 2 weeks of dryhopping it has gone from 1.075 down to 1.011 and tastes fantastic. I am very happy with the results of this yeast. No off flavors due to stressed yeast.

Beardown
Did you pitch a good sized starter with your Conan?

 

[beardown2489]

I did make a starter. It is only my second starter ever made.

Here is what I am worried happened. After I made my first starter, I dumped the entire solution into the wort.

I started reading that this isn't necessary and that it can be better to stick your starter in the fridge and let the yeast settle out, then decant a majority of the liquid.


Well, I made a dumb drunk mistake and decided to use this technique. Problem was I did it like 90 minutes before I needed to pitch.

I did see a large amount of yeast in the bottom of the Erlenmeyer flask but my guess is I probably dumped a decent amount of yeast down the drain because I was in a hurry to make some beer and excited to use a new technique

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[steinsato]

Yeah, 90 min. is not long enough to get a good decantation. Over night is usually what I do. Plus, that was probably just long enough to cool the yeast down so when it was added to the warm wort, it probably shocked your yeast which can also cause problems. You'll just have to slow down and take it easy next time. Plan your brew out. When making starters and decanting them I like to make the starter 3 days ahead of pitching, let it build up for 1-2 days, then chill it for a night in the fridge. On brew day, take the starter out of the fridge, decant most, but not all of the liquid on top, and let it sit on the counter all day to warm back up to room temp. You want to pitch the starter as close to the same temp as your wort as you can.

 

[beardown2489]

Makes sense.

Note to self. Stick the game plan!

There was really no reason to decant at all, right? It's not like I'm going to make world class beer right out of the gate. The little DME wouldn't have affected it dramatically.


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[steinsato]

If it's only a liter starter, sometimes I won't bother. It's when you have really big starter like 3L and up that you need to decant.

 

[ianmatth]

Decanting isn't necessary, making sure you actually have enough yeast is. Decanting is good to really know how much yeast you have though (I assume 4 billion cells/ml of solid.) I always save 20-140 billion cells (5-35 ml solid) in a 35ml White Labs vial these days so I know exactly how much I have when it's time to make a starter. I use the brewersfriend calculator to figure out how much yeast I need and pitch at 1.0 if the gravity is over 1.060. It also has calculations for multi-step starters: http://www.brewersfriend.com/yeast-pitch-rate-and-starter-calculator/

 

[bestbuds]

I did make a starter. It is only my second starter ever made.

Here is what I am worried happened. After I made my first starter, I dumped the entire solution into the wort.

I started reading that this isn't necessary and that it can be better to stick your starter in the fridge and let the yeast settle out, then decant a majority of the liquid.


Well, I made a dumb drunk mistake and decided to use this technique. Problem was I did it like 90 minutes before I needed to pitch.

I did see a large amount of yeast in the bottom of the Erlenmeyer flask but my guess is I probably dumped a decent amount of yeast down the drain because I was in a hurry to make some beer and excited to use a new technique

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What happened here is you likely selected for less attenuative members of the population by only pitching the yeast that settled first. High flocculation is typically correlated with lower attenuation. The yeasts still in solution that you dumped are also the yeasts more likely to stay in solution in the beer and chew through the fermentable sugars before dropping out.

 

[sweetcell]

There was really no reason to decant at all, right?

the beer from a starter is typically highly oxidized, so by pitching the whole thing you're adding oxidized beer to your batch. i don't know if 1 or 2 liters of oxidized beer is going to have a flavor impact on 5 gallons, but personally i'd rather not find out.

 

[Helly]

I decanted and stepped up the starter. The decanted beer definitely had that banana flavor with a touch of spice. Got some fruitiness but not the peachy aroma. I cooled the next batch of starter wort down a little more than the other day so I'm hoping that doesn't show up in the HT clone I'm doing.


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So I think I'm at FG with my full batch and I still have the Belgian ester profile. Not getting the peach aroma/flavor. Fermentation never got over 63. Anyone else have this experience with Omega OYL-052? I had high hopes for this but I'm disappointed at this point. Took it out of the swamp cooler a few days ago and I will check it later in the week and start the dry hop.


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[revansCAAD8]

So I think I'm at FG with my full batch and I still have the Belgian ester profile. Not getting the peach aroma/flavor. Fermentation never got over 63. Anyone else have this experience with Omega OYL-052? I had high hopes for this but I'm disappointed at this point. Took it out of the swamp cooler a few days ago and I will check it later in the week and start the dry hop.


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Any updates on Omega OYL-052? I just ordered some thru Farmhouse.

Robert
Gypsybrew

 

[Helly]

Any updates on Omega OYL-052? I just ordered some thru Farmhouse.



Robert

Gypsybrew

I took it out of the swamp cooler and let it sit for the second week. It's probably up to mid 60s now, two weeks after brew day. I haven't gained any points but the fruity aroma has increased and the spiciness, while still there, has faded. This is the first time I've used it and I also got it from farmhouse. I have no idea if I did something wrong or if this is just the yeast being finicky. Never got above 63 in fermentation so the esters don't make much sense to me. Really enjoying the beer much better after two weeks than I did after one week and I did dry hop #1 yesterday.


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[mintyice]

OK. Sanity check. I am currently in the process of building 2 starters from 2 separate cans of HT. My planned build up steps are 150ml>400ml>1L>1L>1.8L.

I got pure peach through step 1. But it could be because I poured ~100ml of dregs into 150ml of starter.

I stepped to 400ml last night. Today, when I smell the starter, I get a real light clove/pepper aroma that says Belgian to me. I will say that the upstairs room I have the starters in did get to around 77F ambient while I was at work yesterday. I've since turned the AC on in that part of the house to get the ambient under control.

I have gone over my sanitation regimen from each step and don't believe I missed a step that would have favored infection or wild yeast. I can detail my sanitation if it helps, but that's a lot of typing.

It sounds to me like I might have grown at a little warmer than optimum. I intend to wash the yeast with pressure canned distilled water when I am done as I have another beer on deck before I brew with the Conan and want to store my starter results as clean and cold as I can.

I guess what I am asking is, does the light pepper/clove I am getting sound like what some of you have seen? I am definitely willing to chalk it up to heat stress which I believe I can combat by decanting future steps and washing at the end.

Just finished culturing some from a can and I experienced the same thing. Very fruity during the first step which turned more Belgian during the two next steps. I attribute it to oxidation (stirplate on full blast for a week straight).

 

[Braufessor]

Same thing here. About step 3/4 at 1.5L it got peppery/clove/belgian. Everything I have read about Conan is that it goes "belgian" close to 70 degrees. A stir plate will warm the starter up to that easy probably. I was a bit hesitant when I smelled mine too. But, I put it in a mason jar and it is as white as snow and looks great. Gonna try it in a beer this weekend. An off flavor in a starter (decanted) should not transfer to a beer if it was only there because of a temperature thing during the step up of the starter.

 

[Braufessor]

I attribute it to oxidation (stirplate on full blast for a week straight).

Also - no reason to leave stirplate on for a week....... 18 hours or so is plenty. Then shut it down.

 

[mintyice]

Also - no reason to leave stirplate on for a week....... 18 hours or so is plenty. Then shut it down.

I gave it around 2 days for each step (200ml -> 800ml -> 1600ml) then a day off the plate for it to settle and build up glycogen reserves, transferred ~500ml to a mason jar and left the rest in the flask, and now it's in the fridge crashing out until next brew day where I'll probably take it out a day before, decant liquid on top, let it warm up, and add a tiny bit of mash run off during brewing before pitching.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Drinking my IIPA. I wasn't trying to clone Heady, but based on memory (since I don't have a can to compare it too) I got really close anyway. Peachy, citrusy, delicious. This yeast sure don't like to flock though. Pours from the keg are ugly as sin...luckily they taste like heaven

 

[beardown2489]

Just bottled my Pliny Clone using heady yeast last weekend.

Looks like my premature decanting of the starter is going to cost me a point in the ABV department. Finished at about 1.02. Excited to try it still. Didn't taste too sweet and the hops were seriously potent in bottling day.

I guess in the bright side, a lot of the yeast floc'd out and the beer appeared pretty clear

I'll wait another week or two and report back.

I'm bummed because this could have been superb. But glad that it won't be lost.

 

[mintyice]

Ended up brewing a Kolsch today with this yeast harvested from a can. Definitely not the usual style, but hopefully it'll show off the yeast well.

 

[youreanimpulse]

I've done a cherry cream ale and an English pale ale that really showed the yeast character. Both were great. Also 2 RIS's, one of which is still aging in bulk. The first is nice. Could use some time in the bottle. Very versatile yeast.

 

[jbaysurfer]

Drinking my IIPA. I wasn't trying to clone Heady, but based on memory (since I don't have a can to compare it too) I got really close anyway. Peachy, citrusy, delicious. This yeast sure don't like to flock though. Pours from the keg are ugly as sin...luckily they taste like heaven

Update, eventually the yeast HAS flocc'd/dropped out, and my beer is fairly clear now, but with a hop haze. Fantastic. One of my best batches of beer yet.

 

[edroberts]

I can attest to some peppery finish. I fermented around 72 (ambient house temp) and had some faint pepper in the finished product. I'm sure if I fermented in the low to mid 60s those off flavors would have been gone. Like some have said, it doesn't flock well. If I cold crashed a bit longer, it may have helped though. Overall, I wasn't impressed. I personally prefer S-04 to highlight citrusy hop flavors.

 

[mintyice]

Ended up brewing a Kolsch today with this yeast harvested from a can. Definitely not the usual style, but hopefully it'll show off the yeast well.

Had an OG of 1.049 and it fermented down to 1.008 for an AA of 83% Not bad! Hydrometer sample tasted pretty clean.

 

[BumpyAZ]

Read a little bit of this thread but don't have time to do the whole thing. I'm using the Yeastbay strain and the krausen dropped in the 72-96 hour range. Seems from what I've read that this is pretty typical. Is that right?

 

[doublehaul]

Anyone let Conan get too hot? I got a new fermenter and did not have a brewmoemter, and finally got one and I'm knocking at 73F! Getting a swamp cooler going right now but the damage is probably done...

 

[BrewCityBaller]

Anyone let Conan get too hot? I got a new fermenter and did not have a brewmoemter, and finally got one and I'm knocking at 73F! Getting a swamp cooler going right now but the damage is probably done...

I haven't read through all of the posts, but I think I have seen people getting a lot of Belgian character (spicy, phenoly) from Conan when it ferments about 70.

 

[doublehaul]

I haven't read through all of the posts, but I think I have seen people getting a lot of Belgian character (spicy, phenoly) from Conan when it ferments about 70.

judging from the gravity sample I took since it appeared to be done in 3 days, this is a pretty accurate description.