Dead Guy Ale and Pacman yeast?

[RayInUT]

Congrats!!! It's a neat feeling to see 5 gallons bubbling away from yeast you knew was a small slug of sediment at the bottom of a bottle!!!!

I'm just suprised that it will ferment at such a low temperature. It must be a blend of ale and lager yeasts. It is cool to see it work. I'm always on pins and needles until I see that first bubble in the airlock. Both batches that I did yesterday were cultured yeasts. One was Weihenstephan and the other was the Pacman. I did a thirteen hour brew day! My kegging system will be here in a few days and I don't want to be staring at empty kegs for too long. Do you think that 50 is too cold to ferment the pacman? I'm thinking about keeping it closer to 600 so I don't have too wait so long for it to finish. Anyone have any thought on that?

 

[Jonnio]

I'm just suprised that it will ferment at such a low temperature. It must be a blend of ale and lager yeasts. It is cool to see it work. I'm always on pins and needles until I see that first bubble in the airlock. Both batches that I did yesterday were cultured yeasts. One was Weihenstephan and the other was the Pacman. I did a thirteen hour brew day! My kegging system will be here in a few days and I don't want to be staring at empty kegs for too long. Do you think that 50 is too cold to ferment the pacman? I'm thinking about keeping it closer to 600 so I don't have too wait so long for it to finish. Anyone have any thought on that?

600 sounds a little high, but I would probably go a little higher than 50...probably 55-60. According to brewmasterswarehouse "Rogue Ales proprietary yeast strain. Pacman is best fermented between 60 - 70 degrees, very good attenuation, clean profile, and is very flocculent."

I have to say I am a little jealous. I tried and tried, but I think my bottles of dead guy are just too old...the yeast is kind of a dark grey color to start with, so it's likely already dead.

 

[RayInUT]

It should be whiter if it's viable. Try a couple of the 22 oz. bottles. They all seem to have more sediment in them when I was looking at the liquor store. It's kind of hard to tell though because the bottles seem darker than most. The hazelnut brown beer they make seemed to have a good yeast cake at the bottom but I used the Yellow Snow IPA. I think you can only buy that in the Rocky Mountains area. I checked all the DG bottles and I didn't see any yeast in them other than MAYBE a small dusting at the bottom of the bottle. I also noticed that the sediment went away as the beer got colder in the fridge so I opened the second on at room temperature and I think that was the one that got the party started!

 

[Revvy]

I've fermented with it as low as my strip reading 55 degrees, in my ice bottle filled swamp cooler...which I figure it was more like 58-80 actually inside the bucket..Worked out smashingly well!!!

 

[Revvy]

So is the Yellow snow a good IPA? I haven't tasted it yet...

 

[RayInUT]

So is the Yellow snow a good IPA? I haven't tasted it yet...

It's good. I'm going to brew something similiar to it with the pacman yeast and Amarillo hops. It's a pretty simple beer and Rogue makes better (in fact, I make better IPAs) BUT all the bottles had big yeast cakes at the bottom and the color of the glass was a little lighter than the others so I could really see what I was getting. It's definately not a six dollar beer but since the Wyeast costs more than that AND I got a 22 oz to go with my yeast it wasn't a bad deal. To answer your question bluntly, it's good but it's nothing out of the ordinary. I like Anderson Valley's Hop Ottin it IPA a lot better.

 

[RayInUT]

It's better than a Bud American Ale! I had one of those at a friends house and it was CRAP!!! It tasted like a Bud that someone dropped a cascade pellet in.

 

[Dougan]

I don't mind a Budweiser American Ale here or there. I find that when I'm drinking American Pale Ales I'll have a couple and then my pallet is a bit 'overloaded' with all the hoppy deliciousness and doesn't desire so much flavor... at that point the bud ale is just the blandish taste I'm looking for, as embarassing as it may be to admit...

 

[RayInUT]

I don't mind a Budweiser American Ale here or there. I find that when I'm drinking American Pale Ales I'll have a couple and then my pallet is a bit 'overloaded' with all the hoppy deliciousness and doesn't desire so much flavor... at that point the bud ale is just the blandish taste I'm looking for, as embarassing as it may be to admit...

I just can't drink anything that tastes like Budweiser and never have been able to. I'll drink water instead. Or...I'll drink my Dead Guy clone that is almost gone. Time to brew more! Next time I won't put the sugar in it though to boost the ABV. It's too much.

 

[Hombru1]

I have had good results pitching the last 1/4 of a Rogue Mocha Porter into a starter. Took a days or so on the stir plate, but it did set off. I was also under the impression that Dead Guy is filtered and force carbed. Could be wrong but, it is an awfully clear, sedimentless beer.

 

[Panzermann]

I made a Dead Guy Ale and althought it has not fully carbonated yet (just over 2 weeks in bottles), I did not use Pacman yeats for obvious reasons but it turned out awesome. I just checked my notes and I did not record the yeast I used.

 

[BullF-16]

I have had good results pitching the last 1/4 of a Rogue Mocha Porter into a starter. Took a days or so on the stir plate, but it did set off. I was also under the impression that Dead Guy is filtered and force carbed. Could be wrong but, it is an awfully clear, sedimentless beer.

deadguy didnt work for me, nor did double deadguy. I tried for over a week with both. I finally ordered a wyeast Pacman from Brewmasterswarehouse. Since then, i've washed 12 half pints of the pacman from a DFH 60 clone. Now pacman is my main yeast for my IPA's

 

[RayInUT]

I forgot to save the yeast from my last batch so it looks like I'll be trying to culture it again...

 

[Dougan]

I got a 22 oz shakespeare stout and a 22 oz american amber a couple days ago. Made one starter each (decided not to put all eggs in one basket). Took a couple days but they are both fermenting.

 

[RayInUT]

I started a new culture of Pacman a few days ago with one 22 oz bottle of Yellow Snow IPA. I've got about an inch build up of yeast now in the bottom of a 1/2 gallon vodka bottle. I don't have a stir plate so I have to manually swirl it several times a day. I'm finding it easier to culture yeasts from store bought beers now that I have a few under my belt. I think this is going to be used for an American Dunkelweizen. I'm thinking 5 lbs. of six row, five pounds of malted wheat, and a little munich and chocolate malt. Not sure on the hops yet but I'm leaning towards Centennial. They are cheap right now at the LBS. I think whole hops are about three dollars for a two ounce bag.

 

[humann_brewing]

What kind of smell are you getting from your pacman. I am using amber DME for the start but it smells sour. I realize this may be because there is no hops but just wanted to make sure. I didn't remember my previous starters smelling and tasting like this.


I brewed a Dead Guy Clone today and put some real wort into the starter and took off within 1/2 hour and going crazy. I want to taste the result of this before I pitch it into the whole batch.

 

[RayInUT]

I use pilsner DME for my starters but only because it's the cheapest DME at the store. Mine just smelled normal. I did put a couple Amarillo pellets in the starter though and that is mostly what it smelled like. I do my culturing in a 1.5 liter glass vodka jug these days. I've had good look culturing the 22 oz. Yellow Snow IPA. This last time I only used one bottle and it just took a few days to get going. I pitched the whole 1/2 gallon in an American hefeweizen and it's bubbling nicely right now. The temp on my bucket thermometer says 53*. I like to use the pacman at a really cold temperature. It comes out very clean. Should I do a diacetyl rest if I am using it like a lager yeast?

 

[MBasile]

I have a pretty god starter going from one bottle of DGA. I pitched the sediment I to a normal starter mixture (2 cups water, 1/2 cup DME, forgot yeast nutrient). The yeasts built up a little bit, but not a whole lot (less than a white labs vial). I added another starter mixture which had little effect. I decanted the mixture off the yeast and threw in some fresh starter mixture (3 cups of water this time, 1/2 cup DME, yeast nutrient) 2 days ago And have been keeping the temperature in the high 60s/low 70s for the starter and it has been going strong since then. This weekend I'll step up the starter again and hopeully it'll be ready for Monday's brew.

Also, I know this is an old thread, but I didn't want to create ANOTHER Pacman harvesting thread just to say I got some from 1 DGA bottle.

 

[Revvy]

I have a pretty god starter going from one bottle of DGA. I pitched the sediment I to a normal starter mixture (2 cups water, 1/2 cup DME, forgot yeast nutrient). The yeasts built up a little bit, but not a whole lot (less than a white labs vial). I added another starter mixture which had little effect. I decanted the mixture off the yeast and threw in some fresh starter mixture (3 cups of water this time, 1/2 cup DME, yeast nutrient) 2 days ago And have been keeping the temperature in the high 60s/low 70s for the starter and it has been going strong since then. This weekend I'll step up the starter again and hopeully it'll be ready for Monday's brew.

Also, I know this is an old thread, but I didn't want to create ANOTHER Pacman harvesting thread just to say I got some from 1 DGA bottle.

So you are saying that it actually looks like you are getting reproduction? Cool. Keep us posted and if you have a nice band of yeast on the bottom, get a picture. It will put a lot of questions about the viability of pacman in bottles of DG..

 

[Tripod]

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you MBasile! I'd love to see this work from DGA...

-Tripod

 

[MBasile]

So you are saying that it actually looks like you are getting reproduction? Cool. Keep us posted and if you have a nice band of yeast on the bottom, get a picture. It will put a lot of questions about the viability of pacman in bottles of DG..

It's still going too! I'll probably try stepping it up again tomorrow night or Saturday morning. Like I said, I'm hoping to use it Monday.

 

[MBasile]

Just stepped up the starter with some more wort (not sure of the total volume used). Like I said before, I'm planning on using this yeast for Monday's brew, so I'll keep you guys updated on how it does. If the fermentation is a success I'm going to wash it and use it again. After that I'll start over again from one bottle and take pictures daily.

 

[bhatchable]

I've done this sucessfully with double dead guy and their chipotle ale. start with a tiny mason jar starter, 1.020 gravity with a touch of yeastie food (i use fermax in every starter and batch). eventually step it up usually twice to a 3 liter 1.040 starter. crash cool, decant and pitch fat yeast cake. one week process. very easy

 

[MBasile]

Pitched the starter from the single DGA bottle at 7:30 last night. At 2:30AM there was a small amount of bubbling which is not indicative of fermentation. At 7:30AM there was more vigorous bubbling and some krausen.

Go pacman yeasties, go!!!