Conan Yeast Experiences

[sweetcell]

My experience with the East Coast Yeast version has not been good (significant under-attenuation).

slight aside, but i've now user conan 3 times, from different yeast vendors, and it has under-attenuated for me each time. i believe the issue is that the yeast doesn't do well in its first generation. my working assumption is that the yeast needs hops and stress to toughen up. if/when i use conan again, i'm going to make a high-gravity starter (1.060?) that is hopped to 50-60 IBUs.

 

[Braufessor]

slight aside, but i've now user conan 3 times, from different yeast vendors, and it has under-attenuated for me each time. i believe the issue is that the yeast doesn't do well in its first generation. my working assumption is that the yeast needs hops and stress to toughen up. if/when i use conan again, i'm going to make a high-gravity starter (1.060?) that is hopped to 50-60 IBUs.

In my experience I have had attenuation problems trying to pitch original pitch/starter into 1.055+ beers with this yeast too.

I always run mine through a blonde ale (1.040) first generation. low hops, low gravity. Finishes out around 1.010-1.011. I harvest that yeast in 6 jars and then use them for future beers. I always use 1 jar for another blonde and another harvest of 6 jars.

I pitch each jar into a 1L starter 18 hours before brewing and pitch the whole thing - this seems to work very well and I almost always hit 1.011-1.012. This works better than building up a starter, fermenting it out, crashing and decanting it. Pitching the active starter seems to be a better strategy in my experience.

 

[PeteNMA]

Make a small beer first to get it going. Centennial Blond for instance

 

[sweetcell]

^ problem for me is that i don't brew nearly as often as i would like to - kids, house, work, etc. so dedicating a rare brew day to making a precursor (small blond) to what i actually want (a full-strength IPA) isn't appealing to me. a few years ago when i was brewing several times a month a small blond would have been my strategy.

my next-best option, IMO, is to make a "rougher" starter. i'll be sure to post back here when i next do this.

alternately, i might let conan go for 48 hours then add some active Chico or other attenuative yeast.

 

[PeteNMA]

That's a bummer. You could always grab a mason jar full of slurry from a past batch and keep it around that way.

 

[olotti]

I just bottled my first beer using what I gather is the Conan strain, it's the omega oyl-052 strain bought from farmhouse. Made a starter for my 1.068 IPA and poured off a little into a 12oz jar for later use. Anyway, kicked off less than 12 hrs later and got my fg to 1.010 fermented between 66-68 deg tops during peak fermentation. It fermented pretty vigorously as I had krausen right up to the neck of the carboy, it's 5.5 gal into a 6.5 gal glass carboy. Bottled today and I'm surprised I didn't really get the whole peach thing people talk about, but I like to really hop my IPAs I used 12oz in my batch so 8+ in boil and hopstand and 4oz dryhop. I cold crashed for 36hrs and the beer was hazy but I could still see the shadow of my finger through the small glass I tasted the sample from. Attenuation was real good for this being the first use of this so that's nice, looking forward to seeing if I can't pick out the yeast a little more once it carbs in the bottles.

 

[GRBC]

my working assumption is that the yeast needs hops and stress to toughen up. if/when i use conan again, i'm going to make a high-gravity starter (1.060?) that is hopped to 50-60 IBUs.

I have also used it multiple times from at least 3 different vendors & had a mixed bag of high to low attenuation. Seems unlikely that it needs stress to toughen it up. I think temperature is the key. Keep cool ~63-66F through high Krausen & let the temp rise to ~68-72F once fermentation has started slowing. Never let the temp fall, like after high Krausen when the heat from active fermentation falls and your ferm fridge catches up to your setpoint...

 

[jessup]

Omega just gave me an under attenuated buttery peach cobbler. Low ferm temp w no diacetyl rest. Actually yummy & cuts through the high ibu's & ridiculous hopping rates.

 

[Chrisbrewbeers]

I can't understand attenuation problems with it. I have used maybe 10 times from 2 different labs and never over 1.010. Then again I wind up mashing longer because sparge water usually isn't ready.... And mash out never happened.

 

[joehoppy]

Anyone ever had conan get up 71-72 during peak fermentation (day2) and if so how did it turn out? I've used it several times now and never had it create this much heat overnight. It was 66 at 10 last night and 71.5 at 8 this morning. Also as an expriment I pitched at .65mil/ml/deg plato. Maybe this has something to do with the different ferm characteristics this time.

 

[tagz]

It's possible you may get some of the Belgian-like phenolic flavors this time around. Definitely report back.

 

[specharka]

Just about attenuated my East Coast IPA with Conan. Got down to 1.013 from 1.059 (78% AA). I'm sure if I cranked up the pitch rate or fermentation temperature I could get a few more points out of it. Right now it's looking very hazy -- planned on kegging this one after 2 dry hopping additions and I hope it stays that way.

Can't detect any peach or apricot (yet) but maybe I'll find some when it's done.

 

[EyePeeA]

What can I expect from my Heady Topper clone fermented at 63-64 F for the first two days of very active fermentation, and then raising to 68 F on day 3, when fermentation significantly slowed?

 

[ianmatth]

68* is fine for Conan, anything over 70* is pushing it unless you like the Belgian flavor.

 

[joehoppy]

Well I am pleased to say I took a sample on day 5 and it is down to 1.020 from 1.075. The sample tastes incredible. No belgian character whatsoever. Big fruity taste. Peach galore. Blends beautifully with the hops. There may be something to pitching low with this yeast. To clarify I pitched at 63. Then after 24 hours it was fermenting away nicely and at 66. Day two is where it briefly hit 71.5 for probably a couple hours but I was able to quickly bring it down to 69. Held there till day 4. Now on day 5 I have warmed it to 70.5 to help it finish up. Lots of pure O2 before pitching and yeast nutrient in the boil.

 

[joehoppy]

Hopefully it's gets down another 4-5 points. This is first gen yeast bay so I don't expect huge attenuation like I get from gens 2 and up.

 

[jessup]

68* is fine for Conan, anything over 70* is pushing it unless you like the Belgian flavor.

What about a diacetyl rest 70-72 after primary is mostly done? That shouldn't add phesters like a massive ferment @72.

 

[hopbrad]

I made a starter last week, pitched it into 8 gallons of 1.068 IPA last night, cooled wort to 75 and was planning on my ferm chamber to take care of the next 10+ degrees.
The power went out after 2 hours, for about 6 hours. I checked on it this AM, full blowoff.
Im guessing it hit a point of high 70s at some point overnight while the power was out. set the controller to 60 this morning. hoping I dont get a ester bomb. if this turns out not so great, any advice on trying to harvest the yeast? yay or nay? its challenging bringing liquid yeast down, so i like harvesting as much as possible.
this is the omega DIPA strain

hop schedule was
1 oz Apollo @ 90
1 oz Columbus @ 90
6 oz at 10 mins - even mix of mosaic, columbus, simcoe, citra
7 oz FO/ 20 min hopstand - mix of mosaic, columbus, apollo, citra

grain bill was 80% 2-row, 15% pils, 5% wheat.

 

[wilserbrewer]

So power goes out and you have a batch at 75 degrees ready to volcano and you peacefully sleep the night away?

I haven't heard of such a case of negligence since watching the titanic.

Jk
Sorry for your situation....

 

[hopbrad]

So power goes out and you have a batch at 75 degrees ready to volcano and you peacefully sleep the night away?

I haven't heard of such a case of negligence since watching the titanic.

Jk
Sorry for your situation....

Haha I woke up Mid outage, tossed and turned in horror of all those potential wasted hops. me and my buddy brew at a small space that we rent so woulda been a mission to take off middle of the night

 

[wilserbrewer]

Haha me and my buddy brew at a small space that we rent so woulda been a mission to take off middle of the night

Ok you're excused, I mistakenly thought you were a "home"brewer lol

 

[sweetcell]

Im guessing it hit a point of high 70s at some point overnight while the power was out. set the controller to 60 this morning. hoping I dont get a ester bomb. if this turns out not so great, any advice on trying to harvest the yeast? yay or nay? its challenging bringing liquid yeast down, so i like harvesting as much as possible.

you'll be fine to harvest the yeast. the high temps might negatively impact the beer, but the yeast will be fine. harvest as usual.

 

[mbbransc]

I just reviewed my notes with different generations of TYB's VT Ale yeast.

1st Gen - 71.5%
2nd Gen - 73.0%
3rd Gen - 77.2%

Sample size is much smaller after that, but...

4th Gen - 78.3%
5th Gen - 82.5%
6th Gen - 82.9%
7th Gen - 88.4%

7th batch picked something up. My notes stated it appeared infected after 2wks in fermenter but kegged anyway. After 2wks in the keg, dumped.

I should include fermentation temps with these as well. I have tried (2) different fermentation schedules.

1) 65° for 3-days, 67°, 69°, then 72° for 2-days, lower to 65° for dry hop before cold crashing
2) 65°, incr 1° each day to 72°, rest for 3-days, lower to 65° for dry hop before cold crashing

I have moved away from VT Ale recently (giving the WY1318 a go like many others). I plan to go back to VT Ale on my next IPA with a slightly modified schedule:

66° incr'g 1° each day to 70° for 4-day rest, lower to 65° for dry hop before cold crashing. Think I'm going to try a force fermentation test too. I'd really like to get these beers to finish around 1.012.

 

[BeardedBrews]

I'll just jump in with my one and only batch experience:

Pitched a pretty fresh starter from a new vial (Yeast Bay) - 200B Cells - into 3 gallons of 1.058 IPA at 64F. Fermented there through high krausen (4 days) and then bumped to 67 on day 4, 70 on day 5, and held for 4 more days for d-rest.

FG - 1.012 / 79% attenuation

Life came up so it sat at d-rest temperatures for a total of 6 days before dry-hops, but I'm not too worried about that.

Day 4 of dry hop now, cold crash soon, gelatin, then into a keg.

 

[olotti]

I'm on my second IPA with the omega strain and its dropped the first from 1.068 to 1.010 and 1.062 to 1.010 both with starters. Fermented at 68 until about day 3 when the krausen drops then I move the carboy upstairs to 72 and let it finish out and rest, then I dry hop it and do a 24hr cold crash. So far this yeast is working great, I've been mashing at 149-150 and using 1/2lb of dextrose in the boil. Still not really picking up any apricot or peach from the yeast but it may be getting covered up by the hops.

 

[BumpyAZ]

Stupid question regarding counting generations. If I make a larger than needed starter from the initial vial of yeast and save a portion for a future batchq prior to pitching (instead of harvesting/washing yeast from the fermenter), would that reused portion count as a new generation and potentially see an increase in attenuation?

 

[ianmatth]

From what I've been told that is the case. Maybe that's why Conan has always attenuated great for me, I always make a starter, often a multiple step starter, for every batch I brew.

 

[masonsjax]

My conan beers have been kinda thin and dry. I need to start mashing a little higher or maybe buy some fresh yeast and start over.

 

[hopbrad]

other than my few hour power outage mishap, my chest freezer was set to 60 for 4 days, 68 for 2 days and just set to 71 today. still a little krausen on it today.
I took off the bung to get a whiff and decide if i was going to dry hop yet and whoa! the c02 took the breathe right out from me. I couldnt really get a good smell, the c02 burned too much. maybe sulfery if anything. will check again in a few days. may dry hop this weekend or early next week.

how long typically grain to package day is the norm with this yeast?
and when are most people dry hopping their IPAs with this strain? after fermentation or during the end?

 

[beardown2489]

other than my few hour power outage mishap, my chest freezer was set to 60 for 4 days, 68 for 2 days and just set to 71 today. still a little krausen on it today.
I took off the bung to get a whiff and decide if i was going to dry hop yet and whoa! the c02 took the breathe right out from me. I couldnt really get a good smell, the c02 burned too much. maybe sulfery if anything. will check again in a few days. may dry hop this weekend or early next week.

how long typically grain to package day is the norm with this yeast?
and when are most people dry hopping their IPAs with this strain? after fermentation or during the end?

The popular thing to do lately is do 2 dry hops. Half at the tail end of fermentation, and another once FG has been reached.