Conan Yeast Experiences

[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.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

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

Is that what you were hoping for, or not so much?

 

[doublehaul]

Is that what you were hoping for, or not so much?

Ha - definitely not! It's a Pale Ale. I have a ferm chamber, it was full. I just didn't think it would get that hot. I was thinking, some of the flavor could be from some acid malt I added too though.

 

[mintyice]

I finally got around to writing up tasting notes for a juicy German pale ale I made with Herkules hops and Conan. This beer is weird and delicious. It smells like a creamsicle!

https://latchkeybrewing.wordpress.c...ay-a-german-pale-ale-brewed-with-conan-yeast/

 

[mintyice]

---

woops wrong thread!

 

[jbaysurfer]

^ seems like a good place to me!

 

[mintyice]

^ seems like a good place to me!

Oddly enough the post I was trying to make was kind of comparing Conan to Wyeast 1318

 

[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.

This ended up dropping a few more points to 1.013 and alot of the cloviness went away. So I dry-hopped with Citra and Centennial, and the gravity sample is TART. Like a lemon drop. It does have some spice though.

 

[BrewCityBaller]

This ended up dropping a few more points to 1.013 and alot of the cloviness went away. So I dry-hopped with Citra and Centennial, and the gravity sample is TART. Like a lemon drop. It does have some spice though.

Very interesting. I'm glad that clove went away, but I'm really interested to know where that tartness is coming from!

 

[doublehaul]

Very interesting. I'm glad that clove went away, but I'm really interested to know where that tartness is coming from!

I brewed basically the same batch with Wyeast 1272 that I have on tap now and it has some of that going too - both batches were a boatload of CITRA (1272 batch no centennial) and pretty simple grain bills with a little acid malt (actually less acid malt in the conan batch), so maybe that's it. But it is definitely more noticeable with the Conan batch.

I can't wait to use this yeast again at correct temperatures - what's everyone recommending for ferment temps?

 

[masonsjax]

Well acid malt will add lactic acid and that can definitely make a tart beer.

I usually ferment Conan (and most of my beers) at 63F and raise to near 70F over a few days as fermentation slows.