Yeast Harvest - Bell's Amber

[pabloj13]

Wow. This beer dropped pretty darned clear during the dry hop. I like this yeast a lot. It tastes great already.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Wow. This beer dropped pretty darned clear during the dry hop. I like this yeast a lot. It tastes great already.

the few gallons i racked to secondary did the same thing, dropped bright within a couple days and was very clear at bottling after a weeks in secondary.
i decided to try one of the bottles of the 2 gal i didn't rack to secondary. it conditioned for 2 weeks and was in the fridge for 3+ days. still a bit green, but man, is it coming along nicely. i think i'm quickly becoming a fan of this yeast.

 

[pabloj13]

the few gallons i racked to secondary did the same thing, dropped bright within a couple days and was very clear at bottling after a weeks in secondary.
i decided to try one of the bottles of the 2 gal i didn't rack to secondary. it conditioned for 2 weeks and was in the fridge for 3+ days. still a bit green, but man, is it coming along nicely. i think i'm quickly becoming a fan of this yeast.

I was surprised since a lot of the threads I read about this yeast talked about it not floccing well until cold crash, but this flocced better than 1056 for me.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

I was surprised since a lot of the threads I read about this yeast talked about it not floccing well until cold crash, but this flocced better than 1056 for me.

it didn't want to drop out for me until i racked it. after racking it flocced fairly fast.

 

[pabloj13]

it didn't want to drop out for me until i racked it. after racking it flocced fairly fast.

Same here.

 

[solbes]

Maybe that was my issue then. I tried a 3 week primary & cold crash prior to bottling. I just try to avoid secondaries most of the time now.

 

[pabloj13]

Maybe that was my issue then. I tried a 3 week primary & cold crash prior to bottling. I just try to avoid secondaries most of the time now.

I was planning on dry hopping in the primary, but I wanted to wash/harvest this yeast since it was my first shot at it. It really made an amazing difference after racking.

 

[pabloj13]

Cracked the first couple tonight. This yeast is WAY fruitier than 1056. It's hard to directly compare since I used Falconer's Flight on my last 1056 IPA and Centennial on this batch, but it is delicious. More complex than 1056 for sure. Me gusta.

 

[NordeastBrewer77]

Cracked the first couple tonight. This yeast is WAY fruitier than 1056. It's hard to directly compare since I used Falconer's Flight on my last 1056 IPA and Centennial on this batch, but it is delicious. More complex than 1056 for sure. Me gusta.

dude, we must be on the same schedule with these beers! we cracked a couple last night, man were they good! and i agree, noticeable fruitier that 1056/05, very similar to 1272, IMO. the beer was delish, the hops really came through (i used simcoe, centennial and amarillo. cascade for dry hop), still a solid malt backbone, but nothing to overshadow the hops. very nice, i'll definitely be using this yeast again!

 

[rtb178]

Hi everyone,

Reposting from a different thread...

So after 8 days (with the beer between 62-68), I checked the gravity. 1.020 is where I'm at right now, and I'm getting some strong banana ester aroma. I can't tell if I should increase the temperature to let the beer (hopefully) finish the fermentation, or if I should keep it low and wait, hoping to not increase esters further.

Thanks.

 

[periwinkle1239]

So after 8 days (with the beer between 62-68), I checked the gravity. 1.020 is where I'm at right now, and I'm getting some strong banana ester aroma. I can't tell if I should increase the temperature to let the beer (hopefully) finish the fermentation, or if I should keep it low and wait, hoping to not increase esters further.

I think you should let it come up to room temp to see if it can finish out strong. After 8 days of fermentation the flavor profile is pretty much set so I wouldn't expect you to get any more esters. Although if you stayed in the mid-60's I'm surprised to hear about them. You are basing this on aroma? Normally my beers smell so yeasty at just a week old and I can't pick up on much, but maybe your nose is better than mine.

 

[rtb178]

I think you should let it come up to room temp to see if it can finish out strong. After 8 days of fermentation the flavor profile is pretty much set so I wouldn't expect you to get any more esters. Although if you stayed in the mid-60's I'm surprised to hear about them. You are basing this on aroma? Normally my beers smell so yeasty at just a week old and I can't pick up on much, but maybe your nose is better than mine.

Definitely a strong banana aroma. Freaked me out; reminded me of a Belgian Strong that I had recently brewed. It took FOREVER to get the beer down to pitching temps, but I don't believe I pitched it too high of a temperature.

I think that next time I brew with this yeast I'll keep it at 65-68.

Quick Q: if I wanted to wash this yeast, would that be a terrible idea? It's a 6.5% IPA. I wasn't sure if this long fermentation means that the yeast will be troubled/difficult to use again.

 

[periwinkle1239]

Quick Q: if I wanted to wash this yeast, would that be a terrible idea? It's a 6.5% IPA. I wasn't sure if this long fermentation means that the yeast will be troubled/difficult to use again.

Yes you can definitely wash it, I've left beers in the primary for almost month and then washed my yeast.

 

[rtb178]

Yes you can definitely wash it, I've left beers in the primary for almost month and then washed my yeast.

Thanks. I tend to like a lot of American ale styles, so it'd be nice to have yeast around.

 

[rtb178]

I'm glad I brought the temp up; gravity reading has me at 1.014-1.015. I'm going to give it another day, take a reading, then secondary, dry hop, and wash the yeast.

 

[solbes]

I'm thinking about buying some more Bells soon to start a new yeast harvest. I would use it for my upcoming APA and IPA.

Between last spring and early this summer I fermented 7 batches with yeast from 3 bottles of Best Brown (APA, two hearted IPA, Irish Red, Porter, RIS, Bitter, and APA). I really liked the yeast character (or lack thereof) in all of them. You can get light fruity taste for the APA and Two Hearted by fermenting in the upper 60's and really low esters by fermenting in the low to mid 60's (Irish Red, Porter). Also has awesome alcohol tolerance, the RIS was 12%.