Wyeast Mount Adams Blend - What to Brew?

[Marktic]

Any suggestions for a recipe to go with this brand new Wyeast - Mount Adams Blend? It was brought back from Portland's Craft Brewers Conference by a member of our local homebrew club, and is now happily in my hands. All grain, 5 gallon batch.

Press Release

Yeast Description:

Mount Adams Blend (Klickitat): Klickitat, the totem-maker, was a skilled craftsman, able to create objects of beauty from natural materials – just like brewmasters do with malt, hops and yeast. This custom blend of farmhouse strains and Brettanomyces is great for Saisons and American-style Sour & Wild ales. Alcohol Tolerance: 12% ABV; Flocculation: low; Attenuation: 80-90%; Temperature Range: 65-80°F (18-27°C)

 

[tagz]

I want to go to there.

 

[Nesto]

I have some too. I'm going to do a Saison split batch - half with WLP568 and half with the Mt Adams Blend.



BeerSmith 2 Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Special Saison (2.2)
Brewer: Ernie, Pete and Keith
Asst Brewer:
Style: Saison
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)

Recipe Specifications
--------------------------
Boil Size: 27.00 l
Post Boil Volume: 23.20 l
Batch Size (fermenter): 20.31 l
Bottling Volume: 19.31 l
Estimated OG: 1.065 SG
Estimated Color: 8.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 23.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 75.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.7 %
Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
3.80 kg Pilsner (2 Row) Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 1 68.6 %
0.26 kg Munich Malt (7.8 SRM) Grain 2 4.7 %
0.23 kg Wheat Malt (1.8 SRM) Grain 3 4.1 %
0.11 kg CaraMunich 60 (60.0 SRM) Grain 4 2.1 %
0.45 kg Candi Sugar, Amber [Boil for 60 min](36. Extract 5 8.2 %
15.00 g Magnum [12.30 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 6 20.3 IBUs
10.00 g Cascade [5.90 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 7 3.2 IBUs
1.00 Items Servomyces (Boil 10.0 mins) Other 8 -
0.50 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 5.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.68 kg Honey (2 mins left in boil) [Boil for 2 Extract 10 12.3 %
10.00 g Hallertauer Mittelfruh [4.30 %] - Boil 1 Hop 11 0.2 IBUs
10.00 g Saaz [3.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min Hop 12 0.2 IBUs
1.0 pkg Belgian Saison Blend II (White Labs #WLP Yeast 13 -


Mash Schedule: 00_BM20, Full Body, No sparge, Saison
Total Grain Weight: 5.54 kg
----------------------------
Name Description Step Temperat Step Time
Initial rest Add 30.23 l of water and heat to 30.0 C 30.0 C 5 min
Ferulic Acid Rest Add -0.00 l of water and heat to 45.0 C 45.0 C 30 min
Protein Rest Add 0.00 l of water and heat to 56.0 C 56.0 C 15 min
Saccrification - Beta Add -0.00 l of water and heat to 62.0 C 62.0 C 30 min
Saccrificatin - alpha Add -0.00 l of water and heat to 68.0 C 68.0 C 15 min
Mash Out Add -0.00 l of water and heat to 77.0 C 77.0 C 20 min

Sparge: If steeping, remove grains, and prepare to boil wort
Notes:
------
Printed recipe with 80% efficiency, but actually got 72%. So changed the recipe to 72%

Created with BeerSmith 2 - http://www.beersmith.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[Marktic]

Looks good, I will be brewing something up with this yeast within a week. Right now, (very subject to change) I will be doing an amarillo farmhouse type ale. I don't have any pilsner malt though so will either pick some up, or just go with pale ale malt.

It will be interesting to see how your two yeasts compare. I would love to hear your opinion on the Mt Adams blend once this beer is finished.

 

[rupert130]

I have some too. I'm going to do a Saison split batch - half with WLP568 and half with the Mt Adams Blend.

Looks good, I will be brewing something up with this yeast within a week.

So, any results on your saisons? I am very interested as it seems that the "Mt. Adams" blend and the 3031-PC Saison-Brett Blend, available starting in July 2015, are the same blend.

From WYeast:

Thanks for your message. We’re also excited for this blend to hit the wider market - it had a limited sneak preview during this year’s Craft Brewers Conference as the “Mt. Adams Blend” and we gave out a couple hundred Activator packs to brewers at our booth.

I can’t detail the components (proprietary info), but it has a high enough % of Brett to be noticeable but not overpowering at a young age; higher levels of Brett character should be possible with extended cellaring (and/or building in some bigger sugars in the wort profile for it to chew on).

Cheers,

Michael
Wyeast Laboratories

Keep us all up to date!

 

[Nesto]

Mine went into the keg today. Had to use WLP565 for the "plain" batch. It tasted pretty decent - didn't take notes though, sorry! SG was 1.067 for both, FG for the 565 was 1.005, for Mt Adams was 1.007 - here in NorCal we had unseasonably cool weather until 2 days ago and I wasn't able to heat up the Mt Adams as much as I wanted to as fermentation got near FG. Only got it to 22C (72F). But they both finished below Beersmith prediction of 1.009.

The Mt Adams batch was much more interesting. From what I remember, spicy phenolics and a little citrus. The Brett character seems to be toward Brux - barnyard, mossy. I didn't really taste much sourness; the info didn't mention lacto or pedio, so no surprise there. I will likely force carb soon, cellar a few bottles, and drink the rest over the hot summer

 

[Marktic]

I brewed this up (recipe below) on May 12th, so it has been almost a month in primary. I was thinking of letting this one go at least 6 weeks before bottling, at which point I will bottle in my 750ml flip tops with about 1/2 the usual priming sugar. My understanding is that this one will keep dropping FG over time because of the brett. I mashed at 151 so there will be lots for the brett to eat up. Fermented at 70 with a rise to about 76 towards the end.

I also tried the Mt Hood yeast, which was released at the same time. We split an IPA with it using Mandarina Bavaria, Huell Melon, and Hallertau Blanc...one batch got the Mt Hood yeast, the other WLP001-California Ale. We have yet to get together to compare the batches, but my Mt Hood batch turned out fantastic. I imagine I will be using these yeasts again in the future, now that they are to be officially released in July. Great news, thank you for that rupert.

Mark's Farmhouse Ale
--------------------------
Boil Size: 6.98 gal
Post Boil Volume: 5.72 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.00 gal
Bottling Volume: 4.50 gal
Estimated OG: 1.041 SG
Estimated Color: 5.6 SRM
Estimated IBU: 27.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 77.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 84.7 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
4 lbs 14.0 oz Pale Ale Malt 2-Row (Briess) (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 68.4 %
1.00 oz Amarillo [8.50 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 6 17.1 IBUs
0.50 oz Amarillo [8.50 %] - Boil 20.0 min Hop 5 10.4 IBUs
1.0 pkg Mt. Adams Blend (Wyeast Labs #) [124.21 Yeast 7 -
4.0 oz Melanoiden Malt (20.0 SRM) Grain 4 3.5 %
8.0 oz Honey Malt (25.0 SRM) Grain 3 7.0 %
1 lbs 8.0 oz Wheat Malt, Pale (Weyermann) (2.0 SRM) Grain 2 21.1 %

 

[rupert130]

I brewed this up (recipe below) on May 12th, so it has been almost a month in primary. I was thinking of letting this one go at least 6 weeks before bottling, at which point I will bottle in my 750ml flip tops with about 1/2 the usual priming sugar.

The Mt Adams batch was much more interesting. From what I remember, spicy phenolics and a little citrus. The Brett character seems to be toward Brux - barnyard, mossy. I didn't really taste much sourness; the info didn't mention lacto or pedio, so no surprise there. I will likely force carb soon, cellar a few bottles, and drink the rest over the hot summer

Any more tasting notes from either of you. The blend is officially on the market and I am on the fence as to whether I want to purchase it or not.

Thanks!

 

[Marktic]

Still in the fermenter...I have not even so much as opened it up to take a peek, or a sample. Soon though.

 

[Nesto]

I give Mt Adams a thumbs up. It's been lagering for 3 weeks now and fully carbed. It continues to be more interesting than the WLP565 - lemon and orange citrus, some peppery phenolics, and a nice barnyard funk. The funk isn't strong right now, but my experience with Brett B (my guess for the strain) is it will continue to get stronger over time. Since the 565 doesn't have the funk and the citrus, you get a heavier phenolic balance with it - still nice, but I like the Mt Adams better.

I started with the same wort, but filled the Mt. Adams fermenter (a Speidel 30l) first and then filled the WLP565 fermenter (a MoreBeer 7.5gal conical) with the rest of the wort. You can see the two in the pic I posted - the Mt Adams is on the right. Haven't used finings on either beer. You can see that the Mt Adams is still somewhat cloudy even though it got the clearest wort (thanks Brulosophy). The WLP565 is pretty clear.

I actually harvested the yeast from primary for the Mt. Adams. I know it will change, but hearing Chris White talk about yeast blending at NHC this year made me just go ahead and see what happens to the next beer to get it!

 

[rupert130]

Great info Nesto!

I eagerly await tasting notes from Marktic...

 

[Marktic]

OK, bottled today after 75 days in primary. FG is at 1.003, nice and dry. I bottled this batch into 20 750ml flip tops, priming to 2.7 volumes with corn sugar. I will wait another month before I give more descriptive tasting notes, but judging from the hydrometer sample, definite barnyard funk, lots of it. This is going to be a good farmhouse beer.

 

[drives_a_bike]

I have a black saison recipe that I've made a few times now and turns out great with 3711. I'm Thinking about picking This stuff up and putting an interesting spin on that recipe.
I'd probably make it in the next few weeks and plan to age it until next fall or winter. Thoughts?