Mangrove Jacks Dry Yeast Line

[shine]

Anyone out there tried the Mangrove Jacks specialty yeast line? I'm curious to see what anyone thinks of them compared to similar strains of Wyeast/White Labs.

 

[gobsh]

Happy with their Belgian and REALLY happy with their Burton, but their M03 Dark Ale is pathetic. Used it several times under excellent conditions, but it never goes below 1.020. First couple of times I rescued the batch by pitching another English yeast like Gervin or S04, and later just mixed M03 with the other yeast in the starter to avoid the hassle, then pitched as normal.

Can't speak for the rest of their range yet.

 

[Rivenin]

used their yeasts twice.
Workhorse... got a 1.080 beer to 1.010. Said it ferments with good flavor upwards of 90, so i did just that, i don't think i'd do that again, i still have some bottles, but it tastes weird... like super weird. not terrible, but not flavors i'd want either.

their British ale yeast. Made a bitter with it, awesome...
However, the packaging lies with pitching rates... IIRC it's half the amount you'd normally want in any beer

there is a huge thread on it here

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/mangrove-jacks-yeast-410095/

The only complaint i remember hearing (like the above poster mentioned) is the dark ale yeast... everything else is good.

 

[RatsoRizzo]

The West Coast attenuated too far for me, the Burton never cleared and was a bit Belgiumy and the Wheat didn't have much of a wheat character and left two batches under carbed in the bottles. The British made a nice bitter and a fantastic mild.

 

[aeviaanah]

I did a side by side with west coast ale and us-05. Results were very similar.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[ong]

The Cider yeast is very good in cider. I found the Burton a bit tart for my taste (in a bitter, then repitched into a porter). I liked the British in an English IPA SMaSH I did recently.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've had nice results a few times with the Burton. Did a wheat with the Bavarian Wheat that worked out well. The Newcastle Dark did OK for what it's supposed to do. Just not a great attenuater.

 

[Justdrumin]

Ive used their Bohemian Lager twice now and I'm VERY impressed with it. It attenuated very well and is VERY flocculant. I used it for an IPL and a Vienna Lager that came out fantastic. Very clean, crisp, and clear. I'll be using it for my lagers now. I just made an APA with the West Coast Ale. I just legged it and it's still kinda green to tell, but so far it's very nice. I'm happy with both strains and plan to try more of them in the future.

 

[Lincs]

I tried the M79 Burton and was quite disappointed in the results with a long lag time after pitching although it did atttenuate OK in the end. However it took ages to properly clear down and I wasn't impressed at all with the flavour with some yeasty, Belgian phenolic notes which weren't wanted in an English style bitter. I certainly won't use this one again.

And I also used the M03 Newcastle in a 1.042 Dark Mild which was mashed at 65C and included 8% invert sugar. The 32L batch was split into two with the first half pitched with a 1L starter of Y1318 ( London 3 ) and the second half with a sachet of re-hydrated M03. There was little difference in attenuation with the Y1318 finishing at 1.010 and the M03 at 1.011 but the latter took far longer to clear down in the FV. Two members of my brewing group assisted me to evaluate the beers using a blind tasting and the Y1318 was a clear winner with good malt flavours and a nice overall balance. However the M03 had an perfectly acceptable flavour with no faults and perhaps substituting S04 for the latter would have been a fairer comparison.

I understand that it is only economically viable to manufacture dried yeast in large quantities so I'm guessing that the MJ strains are various blends of existing dried yeasts from Fermentis, Lallemand and Mauri. This could explain the long lag times and poor viablity that some brewers have found which may be due to re-packaging / handling /storage.

 

[cmoewes]

I was just looking at their line up yesterday after a conversation with a co-worker fellow brewer who was complaining about the variety of dry yeasts. Glad I saw this thread before ordering some. Might stick with what I can easily pick up at the LHBS.

 

[ong]

I understand that it is only economically viable to manufacture dried yeast in large quantities so I'm guessing that the MJ strains are various blends of existing dried yeasts from Fermentis, Lallemand and Mauri. This could explain the long lag times and poor viablity that some brewers have found which may be due to re-packaging / handling /storage.

I really doubt they're just mixing up yeasts from other manufacturers and selling it as their own. Do you have any reason to think that's the case? That seems kinda out of left field.

 

[Lincs]

From my own research it seems that the production of Active Dried Yeast is complex and requires expensive equipment / investment which I'm not sure a small company could justify. So yes I really do think that the MJ yeasts are either re-packaged existing strains which may or may not be blended. Two brewers who tasted my mild fermented with the M03 yeast noted similarities to Windsor, notably in taste, attenuation and aroma so it's really just a guess, however if you have any information that active dried yeast can be easily produced on a small scale then I'd be very interested to hear about it.

 

[ong]

From my own research it seems that the production of Active Dried Yeast is complex and requires expensive equipment / investment which I'm not sure a small company could justify. So yes I really do think that the MJ yeasts are either re-packaged existing strains which may or may not be blended. Two brewers who tasted my mild fermented with the M03 yeast noted similarities to Windsor, notably in taste, attenuation and aroma so it's really just a guess, however if you have any information that active dried yeast can be easily produced on a small scale then I'd be very interested to hear about it.

Mangrove Jack is owned by iMake Ltd., which also owns Still Spirits, Brewcraft, and Vintners Harvest, so maybe not that tiny a company. Most every chemical, flavoring, or additive at my LHBS is Brewcraft...

 

[trentm]

From my own research it seems that the production of Active Dried Yeast is complex and requires expensive equipment / investment which I'm not sure a small company could justify. So yes I really do think that the MJ yeasts are either re-packaged existing strains which may or may not be blended. Two brewers who tasted my mild fermented with the M03 yeast noted similarities to Windsor, notably in taste, attenuation and aroma so it's really just a guess, however if you have any information that active dried yeast can be easily produced on a small scale then I'd be very interested to hear about it.

I find this interesting. It does seem that it takes a huge company to produce dry yeast and the expense of the process limits the strain selection. Dry yeasts are traditionally produced under respiration which is a challenge due to the crabtree effect but also has a great effect on yeast vitality. Yeast produce several fold more biomass under respiration compared to fermentation so the big yeast companies gets much more bang for their big bucks. Due to the crabtree effect, yeast will only respire in sugar concentrations below 0.2% and lots of O2. The big boys start with a 1000 gallons of "seed yeast" in a fed batch system until the capacity of 40,000 gallons is reached.

I clipped this from the Fermentis website maybe this what Mangrove Jack is doing:

Toll Manufacturing

Fermentis also provides to their industrial partners the manufacturing and drying of their own strain using the Fermentis technology. This is done given sufficient volumes and under a confidentiality agreement. Contact us at [email protected] for more information on this service

 

[ong]

Just like how Yeast Bank uses White Labs for yeast culturing.

 

[melikidabeer]

I can't tell the difference between that and us05. But it certainly is cheaper.

 

[gjsumm]

I have used the workhorse and have had no problem, I just have put a Dogfish head 90 clone in the fermentor and used the Mangrove English ale yeast.
It is a very slow to start but when it goes it works well. I like the top fermenting because when it falls out it cleans the beer up nice.
My OG is 1.77 so I will keep you posted on the outcome.

 

[Dunkelbiertrinker]

I absolutely LOVE Mangrove Jack's yeast. I don't care how it's made, mixed, repackaged or not. I've used the Bohemian Lager yeast, the Belgian Tripel, the Empire Ale and now I'm gonna try the Bavarian Lager yeast. It is a workhorse, and I get high attenuation, between 88 and 93 %, and maybe because I don't follow the directions, I don't get a long lag time. 6-8 hours max from pitching to airlock burping. I hydrate in a half a liter water with some dme and or brown raw sugar for 6 to 12 hours. I have no off flavors now, as with other yeasts. I had a dead on arrival of the Wyeast smack pack, and now prefer dry yeast.