Jasper Munchen lager

[rmr9]

Does anyone have any experience with Jasper Yeast’s Munchen lager strain? I’ve used their Franconian lager strain which worked great, but I’m trying out a handful of lager strains to see which I like best!

 

[1Pivoman]

I have only tried their Czech Lager I yeast, and it was fantastic. I pitched the 2nd generation in a dark lager with equally impressive results. I have not tried any others but anxious to, as well as their ale strains.

 

[rmr9]

Good to know their Czech 1 is good! I used their Franconian lager and thought it was pretty great. Thats 2/2 on solid endorsements, maybe I’ll have to give the Munchen a try then!

Solid yeast lab!

 

[rmr9]

Finally pulled the trigger and ordered the Jasper Munchen lager strain. Going to try it out in a Vienna lager. 12lbs Barke Vienna, 2oz Styrian Goldings FWH and 1oz Saaz at 10 minutes. Normally wouldn’t go that heavy with the FWH but the AAs on the Styrians are only 2.5% ugh.

Hoping this strain performs well, I hope to do this Vienna lager then pitch the cake on a märzen and Munich dunkel to round it all out.

 

[Broothru]

I had never heard of Jasper Yeast. Now I find out that it’s only a :45 minute drive from here, at least to the lab. Anyone know it they do direct sales?

 

[rmr9]

I’m not sure if they do direct sales on the homebrew scale, I’ve never seen it advertised in their website. It looks like they take orders from commercial breweries - you can request a quote which I assume means commercial scale.

I get pouches from Maryland Homebrew and I’ve seen it on Annapolis Homebrew’s website as well.

 

[Broothru]

Yeah, I see that now. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to either Maryland Homebrew or Annapolis H.B., even though I used to visit both shops quite often when I was still working, or just happened to be in the Baltimore vicinity. Might be worth an excuse to see Chris and the guys, and maybe make a side trip to G&M for some crab cakes.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Yeah, I see that now. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been to either Maryland Homebrew or Annapolis H.B., even though I used to visit both shops quite often when I was still working, or just happened to be in the Baltimore vicinity. Might be worth an excuse to see Chris and the guys, and maybe make a side trip to G&M for some crab cakes.

Their lab is right next door to Ocelot in the Sterling-ish area of VA, but I don't think they do homebrew sales there...though I have some vague memories of a fridge of yeast at Ocelot. Jay's Brewing in Manassas stocks Yasper, and I know Jay's ships orders. Kettles & Grains in Leesburg used to sell Jasper, but I don't think they do any longer.

 

[Broothru]

Their lab is right next door to Ocelot in the Sterling-ish area of VA, but I don't think they do homebrew sales there...though I have some vague memories of a fridge of yeast at Ocelot. Jay's Brewing in Manassas stocks Yasper, and I know Jay's ships orders. Kettles & Grains in Leesburg used to sell Jasper, but I don't think they do any longer.

Yeah, Kettle and Grains. I stopped in there a few times on the way back from Dulles. Nice little shop and attached brew pub, though a few twists and turns to get there off US-15. Might have to plan a trip there to get some Jaspers, and stop by Vanish on the way home.

 

[rmr9]

Got around to brewing the recipe today, ended up at 1.053 OG which was my target. Grew up a 2L starter of the Jasper München lager strain, decanted and pitched at 50 degrees.

I’ve got high hopes for this one!

 

[rmr9]

Took a gravity reading today down to 1.016. I’m hoping it’ll chew away at the last few points and finish in the 1.010-1.012 range. Fingers crossed!

 

[Witherby]

So funny. I actually brewed a Vienna Lager the same day as you with 12 pounds of IREKS Vienna malt and had an OG of 1.052. I built up a starter from my current house lager blend which 34/70 and Bootleg Franconian Keller. It has been chugging along open fermented at 50F and today it is at 1.011. I forget how slow some other lager yeasts are.

 

[rmr9]

So funny. I actually brewed a Vienna Lager the same day as you with 12 pounds of IREKS Vienna malt and had an OG of 1.052. I built up a starter from my current house lager blend which 34/70 and Bootleg Franconian Keller. It has been chugging along open fermented at 50F and today it is at 1.011. I forget how slow some other lager yeasts are.

I’ve wanted to try IREKS malts but never could find them! Yeah, my last few lagers were onto full cakes of omega Bayern and that ripped through fast. Jasper’s Franconian was super fast as well. This feels so slow by comparison!

 

[Witherby]

I’ve wanted to try IREKS malts but never could find them! Yeah, my last few lagers were onto full cakes of omega Bayern and that ripped through fast. Jasper’s Franconian was super fast as well. This feels so slow by comparison!

IREKS is imported by Stonepath here in Massachusetts, so I have been buying it by the sack directly from their warehouse. I really like their malts.

 

[rmr9]

Checked the gravity again at the beginning of the week and saw it made it down to 1.010, right where I was hoping. At the tail end of the cold crash, hoping to keg and harvest yeast next week.

 

[rmr9]

Been in the keg 2 weeks now. Nice and carbonated. Not brilliantly clear but close. From the first pint, I like it. Interesting hop note but the yeast brought it down nice and dry but still left some nice maltiness. Brewing up a Munich Dunkel with the yeast cake from this batch tomorrow!

 

[Broothru]

Very nice looking beer. I haven’t yet had a chance to chase down any of the Jasper yeasts. I did order WLP-835x and a couple others from the White Labs Yeastman site. UPS screwed up the 2nd Day Air which took four days and arrived with the gel packs thawed and the yeast samples at ambient (78F) temperature.

White Labs has offered to ship a replacement for free, so we’ll see if it arrives intact. In the past I’ve gotten yeast from San Diego in less than two days, but this shipped from Asheville, NC, Looks like it spent a day in Asheville before spending a second day in Jacksonville, FL, before spending a third day in a truck driving across Florida to St. Petersburg where we’re staying with our daughter for a while. Her 78F front porch for a few hours was less than hospitable for the yeasties.

I’ll probably attempt to propagate the original packs just to see if anything survived. If so, I’ll be drowning in yeast for a while. Lagers only in my foreseeable future.

 

[rmr9]

Very nice looking beer. I haven’t yet had a chance to chase down any of the Jasper yeasts. I did order WLP-835x and a couple others from the White Labs Yeastman site. UPS screwed up the 2nd Day Air which took four days and arrived with the gel packs thawed and the yeast samples at ambient (78F) temperature.

White Labs has offered to ship a replacement for free, so we’ll see if it arrives intact. In the past I’ve gotten yeast from San Diego in less than two days, but this shipped from Asheville, NC, Looks like it spent a day in Asheville before spending a second day in Jacksonville, FL, before spending a third day in a truck driving across Florida to St. Petersburg where we’re staying with our daughter for a while. Her 78F front porch for a few hours was less than hospitable for the yeasties.

I’ll probably attempt to propagate the original packs just to see if anything survived. If so, I’ll be drowning in yeast for a while. Lagers only in my foreseeable future.

I will definitely consider some of their other strains as well once I’ve worked through my string of lagers with strain.

I’m curious to see how this beer comes together over the next couple weeks. Never used styrian goldings before and I’m getting a very interesting hop note that I think is from them.

Brew day on the dunkel went smooth, OG 1.055 so we’ll see how low the München strain takes it and how much maltiness is left behind!

 

[rmr9]

The dunkel is down to 1.022, just a bit more to go. Only oddity with this batch is my cold crash guardian. Usually it fills up fairly quickly but this time it has some CO2 in the bladder but not much. That seems like not a lot of CO2 for that much gravity dropped.

When I took the sample for the gravity reading, it was sparkly with a decent amount of CO2 I had to stir out of solution. Is it possible that the CO2 is soluble enough at 48-50 degrees that it’s just sticking in the fermenting beer?

 

[rmr9]

Boy…if I could use my memory…I had the same thing happen with my cold crash guardian the last time I brewed a dunkel 2ish years ago…posted a thread and everything about it.

 

[rmr9]

Dunkel has made it down to 1.016. Not as much attenuation as I was hoping for, I’d like it to drop a bit more. Brought it up to 65 for a diacetyl rest 5 days ago, so it might be done. I have nothing to lose so I might just leave it be for another couple days see if I can sneak out a couple more points.

Given that it went from ~80% attenuation first batch to now currently ~70% I’m having a tough choice of whether to use the cake from the dunkel in a märzen. I guess I need to wait a couple days and see if it drops a bit more.

 

[rmr9]

Well, it hasn’t dropped any more since Sunday so I think this is as far as this strain will go. A bit disappointing that it didn’t attenuate more, but perhaps my wort wasn’t terribly fermentable - 50:50 light and dark Munich (8L/12L) from Avangard with a dash of carafa iii for color.

I’ll have a bit to ponder but I think I’ll give it one more shot with the märzen. Maybe collect the yeast cake and take some to propagate more with a starter and pitch a whole boat load of yeast.