In Praise of Rogue Pacman Yeast

[permo]

I just bottled up my IIPA today....my sample tasted STUPENDOUS...usually my IPA samples don't taste that great out of the fermenter. I fermented this at 60 degrees for 3.5 weeks in primary and straight to the bottle. Even fermented this cool, it attenuated like crazy and dropped like a rock when it was done.

I know that you aren't supposed to wash and reuse yeast from large and hoppy beers, but the fermentation went so well and the yeast cake was such a beautiful light color that I just had to save some!

I am a huge fan of Nottingham yeast, but pacman may have just taken the lead as my house yeast. It appears to attenuate similary if not a little better, and handle cool temps like a champ.


Amount Item Type % or IBU
15.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 79.96 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.67 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM) Grain 2.67 %
0.38 lb Munich Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 2.03 %
0.38 lb Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 2.03 %
1.00 oz Summit [18.00 %] (60 min) Hops 41.2 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (30 min) Hops 10.1 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (30 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.5 IBU
1.00 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 6.2 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [5.50 %] (15 min) Hops 3.1 IBU
0.50 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (10 min) Hops 4.8 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (10 min) Hops 2.0 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (10 min) Hops 2.3 IBU
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (5 min) Hops 1.3 IBU
1.00 oz Chinook [11.50 %] (5 min) Hops 5.2 IBU
0.50 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (5 min) Hops 1.1 IBU
0.50 oz Summit [18.00 %] (1 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 oz Williamette [4.80 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] (0 min) (Aroma Hop-Steep) Hops -
2.00 lb Corn Sugar (Dextrose) (0.0 SRM) Sugar 10.66 %



Beer Profile


Measured Original Gravity: 1.090 SG
Measured Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Actual Alcohol by Vol: 10.23 %
Bitterness: 93.4 IBU
Est Color: 11.5 SRM

 

[jppostKW]

I love pacman i have use it on 4 out of the last five batches i brewed
did you bottle harvest or buy?

 

[permo]

I bottle harvested from the shakespear stout. My attemps to harvest from brutal bitter failed for some reason.

 

[jppostKW]

I bottle harvested from the shakespear stout. My attemps to harvest from brutal bitter failed for some reason.

yea got mine from the shakspeare too i had sucess with the mocha porter as well. made the mistake of drinking the shakspeare at 9 am on a brew day

 

[Pommy]

thats one hell of a beer

 

[Reno_eNVy]

I've been wanting to harvest it for some time and keep it around for.... well... EVERYTHING! And the recipe looks delicious. That's quite a hop schedule.

Do you know if anyof the Rogue beers are harvestable? Like the Dead Guy growlers, etc etc?

 

[jppostKW]

thats one hell of a beer

the obovoid oak aged oatmeal stout is another that should be consumed later in the day but damn its tasty.

back on topic I am probably going to grab a smack pack of it so i can assure purity on my next batch of slants bottle harvesting was fun just to get a idea on the yeasts behavior

 

[Mongo64]

I used pacman in a Dead Guy clone and pale ale and really liked the results. Later I brewed a 10 galllon batch and pitched Pacman in half (fermented at 60F) and S-05 in the other(fermented at 68F). I found quite a difference in the two and preferred the cleaner taste of the S-05 in this particular beer. It seemed to me that Pacman fermented like something closer to S-04 yeast.

 

[iamopie2]

I've been wanting to harvest it for some time and keep it around for.... well... EVERYTHING! And the recipe looks delicious. That's quite a hop schedule.

Do you know if anyof the Rogue beers are harvestable? Like the Dead Guy growlers, etc etc?

You can buy the pacman yeast if you dont want to harvest from a bottle.
http://www.rebelbrewer.com/shoppingcart/products/Pacman-Yeast-from-Rogue-%2d-Wyeast-1764.html

 

[Monty420th]

Pacman yeast on Dead Guy did wonders for my batch too. It is still in the primary but I can't wait to rack that sucker into the keg and force carb it.

 

[mmonacel]

I know that you aren't supposed to wash and reuse yeast from large and hoppy beers,

I've never heard this. Any particular reason why? Do they get too strained or worn out or something? (those lazy bastards! )

 

[PorterIV]

Alcohol is toxic to yeast, so big beers can leave them in bad shape. For hoppy beers, the yeast pick up some of the "hoppiness" so you wouldn't want to go from a hoppy beer to a non-hoppy beer if that makes sense.

 

[Zen_Brew]

As Porter said high alcohol levels are toxic to yeast. Also the hops have an anti bacterial property that essentially works by coating the cell walls of bacteria with their oils which interfere with the reproductive cycle. These oils to a lesser extent have a similiar effect on yeast. So in a beer that big with that many hops the yeast may well be in less than ideal condition.

Nice recipe by the way. Pacman is one efficient bug, and I'm sure that 2 lbs of sugar helped take the gravity down as well. That should be a tasty beer.

 

[mmonacel]

Alcohol is toxic to yeast, so big beers can leave them in bad shape.

Thanks - that makes sense. Any rule of thumb on when it doesn't make sense to harvest the yeast then? I'm fermenting a DFH 60 min. clone with an OG of 64 and was planning on harvesting for future batches. I mostly drink IPAs so i'm not too worried about hoppiness being transferred to the next beer. Is the general rule of thumb to not harvest at all for IPA / IIPAs or just don't harvest past X generation?

 

[Zen_Brew]

Yeast from a big beer can be nourished back to health with the correct nutrients in a good starter. A large hop bill is of more concern as the oils can interfere with the yeasts cell wall and reproductive cycle. Jamil often states he does not like to reuse yeast from any beer that had more than 60 IBU worth of hops in it.

 

[PorterIV]

On a recent Brewstrong show on yeast, Jamil and Palmer said that after 4 or 5 generations you should probably change up your yeast. That being said, many commercial brewers and some homebrewers seem to get many more generations than that - though their sanitation practices must be top notch. My hunch on the OG is that you would be fine but near the upper limit at 64 - though that is purely an educated guess.

 

[permo]

Nice recipe by the way. Pacman is one efficient bug, and I'm sure that 2 lbs of sugar helped take the gravity down as well. That should be a tasty beer.

Thanks so much, my sample tasted so good that I have very high hopes for this brew. I was actually concerned that it may have attenuated a bit too much! But my tasted test pretty much made me forget about that. At bottling time, I dosed it with a little fresh US-05, just to ensure carbonation. That was probably overkill, but I want this thing fully carbonated, crisp, easy drinking and hoppy as heck. I think I got it.

 

[permo]

Just an update, I pitched a large washed slurry from my 1.090 IIPA that I fermented with Rogue into my fat tire clone recently, 4 hour lag time and is bubbling away like it is no worse for the wear. I think this yeast is a real beast, and my initial taste testing tells me that it really helps accentuate malty flavors.