Finally(!), I managed to score a pitch of Jasper yeast!
Annapolis Homebrew started selling retail packages last year, but my dumb luck and infrequent trips out there conspired in such a way that there was never a strain that interested me when I was at the shop. Last week, though, I got my hands on a pitch of Franconian Lager.
When they first started carrying Jasper I asked about it at the counter and remarked about how substantial Jasper's pitch is--it's a big, heavy, solid pitch. Remember how Imperial and Omega seemed big and heavy compared to Wyeast and Whitelabs? Jasper's pitch is the same, except it's big and heavy vs. an Imperial or Omega pitch. The person behind the counter remarked that they're really 10gal pitches and I jokingly agreed, saying "Really makes you wonder if you could direct pitch 6-gals of lager with one of these monsters." We both thought about it and smiled. She said, "We just started carrying them, so we haven't tried that yet--you know, it might be able to do it."
That stuck with me and it made me wonder.
Here are some pictures of this husky boy on a scale and a further picture of a Wyeast smack pack on that scale. Bear in mind that a good proportion of the smack pack's weight is taken up by the activator fluid, whereas the Jasper pack is pure slurry. I wish I had a pitch of Imperial or Omega available because they're much better comps. Nevertheless, you can see you're getting good value for your twelve bucks. This chungus is an overbuilder's dream!
I, however, had something different in mind. I wanted to see if it's the lazy man's dream.
I prefer brewing lagers with dry yeast because dry yeast pitches are cheap (if you buy them from RiteBrew), easy, make outstanding beers, and once you get past the slow first pitch are complete animals that will take a lager to TG in five days using modern methods...and keep doing it until you lose faith and decide, unnecessarily, to repitch. Modern dry lager yeast is a miracle!
Ah, but outside of 34/70, -23, -189, and Diamond (if you don't consider it a 34/70 derivative) there isn't much variety in dry strains. True, but it's an unfair criticism because there isn't much room for yeast expression in lager strains.
And that's what makes the Franconian Lager strain interesting. According to Jasper, it's a strain that fell out of favor in the 1960's-70s. Perhaps, like the reborn heirloom malts, this heirloom strain might offer something unique to contemporary lager brewers?
Lager yeast is kinda lager yeast, but, what the hell, let's find out.
I direct pitched my pack three days ago, onto a step mashed Pre-Prohibition Pils wort that was pH controlled from the MT through to the fermenter, oxygenated for 90sec, treated with Wyeast nutrient, and given a shot of ionic zinc. In other words, it was the best, most fermentable wort that I know how to produce. I did push it a bit on the gravity, 1.050, and the pitch temp, sub-50F.
As you can see, it is responding much like a pitch of two sachets of dry yeast is apt to do. It's a much shorter lag time, but roughly on the same glide path. That's pretty impressive for a single direct pitch of liquid yeast.
Initial pitch of S-189 at 1.046 on a wort of similar composition (less the ionic zinc).
Franconian Lager on day three, lag? What lag?:
Its current performance is hard to measure, though. The fermentation is very active, it blew the auxiliary airlock on my anti-suckback rig dry, and the TILT's readings are all over the place. Clearly, it's throwing a big, active krausen. I think the gravity is actually lower than the data that I've presented, but I won't know that until high krausen has passed and the gravity, as I suspect, plummets as the raucous krausen subsides. It's a
very active,
very vigorous fermentation.
Provided Jasper has the resources available to push into the retail business, I think the legacy yeast companies are going to have to up their pitch volume, or drop their prices.
Jasper is one of the few no BS values in homebrewing right now...and a shot at White Lab's, ever less and less economical, heart. Fortunately for White Labs and, as evidenced by the handwriting on my pouch, Jasper is still a small operation in the homebrew market. That could and should change quickly.
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