I brewed a pale ale (OG 1.045) last weekend with the yeast from the conan group buy. My observations are that it's more flocculent and less attenuation than expected.
I fermented at 17C by the way.
Curious to hear other peoples experiences with it.
Bumped temp up to 18.5 for a week and it has fully attenuated and pretty much floc'd out. Not off flavours that I can detect.
I didn't make a starter for this brew so perhaps that is a factor (although the yeast viability should have been very high.
Perhaps my STC-1000 isn't very accurate. If it's a couple of degrees off it could also explain things.
I found it very slow to ferment, was going for two weeks.
TT
Ah...good to hear you had similar experience with it. Did you use a starter? What temperature did you ferment at?
Im gona do a 10 gallon batch & ferment one high & one low. Will do a starter for both. Same everything just different ferm temps. Excited to taste what fruity esters this beast adds to IPA.
It definitely has a peachy note. I didn't use any hops that would account for this flavour in the pale ale I brewed.
I directly pitched the bag and fermented at approximately 20 degree, it is a bit cooler now.
Bottled my current conan batch and its extremely fruity in both aroma and flavour. I did use Amarillo hops but cant all be attributed to them alone. I also found the krausen ring very difficult to remove, could be useful info for those using carboy's. Also attenuated very well down to 1.012 which was reassuring as it was slow to ferment and I was worried it would finish high.
I pitched yesterday and have no krausen after 24 hours. That is not normal right?
I pitched directly into well aerated wort at 22oC but it's been a bit cool overnight.
Should I give it a shake and warm it up or just leave it?
I'd say leave it another day before doing anything, but yeah its not normal, it should be showing some sort of activity after 24 hours. Was your yeast at room temperature when you pitched it or was it straight out of the fridge?
It was out of the fridge for a few hours but probably still a bit cooler than the wort it was added to. If it's shocked, will it just take it longer to get going?
If the yeast was colder than the wort that should have helped it to warm up and kick in.
Mine is also very slow. 5 days in and really I thought there would be more movement. Gravity check tomorrow.
So it seems like the slow fermentation isn't directly related to the low temperature.
Slow fermentation seems contrary to what I'd read on conan. Interesting.
thats the yeast thats used in heady topper right? i take it u got it from the states how much did that set ya back? would love to get my hands on some
thats amazing, i just read through the group buy thread there fair play to yous for organizing it. raging i missed out. is anyone dishing it out now any chance i could get my hands on some?
Watch the yeast bank threads...you might see some come available shortly.
Ok ill keep me eye out, thanks. if anyone here is planning on making some available keep me in mind and drop me a message.
cheers
Ha ha I'm planning on joining very soon need to set up a pay pal wish I could just hand someone a tenor?
Quote from: irishrover32 on October 28, 2013, 06:03:27 PM
Ha ha I'm planning on joining very soon need to set up a pay pal wish I could just hand someone a tenor?
You can pay someone tomorrow night at the Capital Brewer's meetup if it's handier. But you'll realistically need a paypal account to take part in group buys anyway.
Quote from: irish_goat on October 28, 2013, 06:07:54 PM
Quote from: irishrover32 on October 28, 2013, 06:03:27 PM
Ha ha I'm planning on joining very soon need to set up a pay pal wish I could just hand someone a tenor?
You can pay someone tomorrow night at the Capital Brewer's meetup if it's handier. But you'll realistically need a paypal account to take part in group buys anyway.
Yeah it makes sense to just get a paypal account, it takes a few minutes to get set up. If you bring the tenner on the night it will just result in one of us paying from our paypal anyway, so it might as well be yours.
Woo member 200 8) ha ha. But ok I'll just set one up I tried before but failed but that was years ago I'll see ya tomorrow in kavanaghs
I brewed a 40 litre + batch with this, started at1.059, down to 1.020 after 3 days , because of the size of the brew I made a 3.5 litre starter and pitched after krausen had dropped out., seems to be flying away , definite smell of peach and mango from sample, which was pretty murky, this could be due to the yeast and also had a bit of cold break and pellt resin in the fv,
Mine is also extremely murky but I had forgotten to use Irish moss at the end of the boil so had assumed it was that.
I was considering dry hopping towards the end of fermenting, presume its leaf, in hop bags in order to reuse the yeast ?
If I intend to reuse the yeast I move it to secondary to dry hop and collect yeast from primary. I still always bag the leaf hops in secondary for easy removal.
Hmmm, I think a lot of pellet hop debris might have come across, my filter got clogged so I syphon the rest of the wort through a sieve ,
Mine started at 1.063 and in two weeks it's only down to 1.018. I haven't been able to add the dry hops yet. Not happy.
Should I give it a stir?
The reason everyone is going nuts over this strain is because it doesnt strip out any of your hop aroma. That attribute comes at a price -> A slow ferment. A lot of posts on HBT say 2 & half weeks for a ferment. All report incredible aroma though.
Given the peachy notes coming off the yeast does anyone suggest a good hop balance to compliment this. :)
After 2+ weeks my 1066 beer was also only down to only 1018. The beer is a Black IPA but when I took the sample to test the gravity I found out that the colour wasn't nearly black. Decided to add some more "black" with some simple sugar to try to darken it up and dry it out a little. Still chugging along. But so slow... Will dry hop soon. But it's almost 3 weeks in.... I've sort of lost hope with this beer and feel a bit like Father Ted trying to knock the dent out of the car.
Did you taste a sample?
Quote from: Hop Bomb on November 10, 2013, 11:34:35 AM
The reason everyone is going nuts over this strain is because it doesnt strip out any of your hop aroma. That attribute comes at a price -> A slow ferment. A lot of posts on HBT say 2 & half weeks for a ferment. All report incredible aroma though.
It's not that it doesn't "strip out aroma"; hop oils stick to cells and get pulled out of solution when the yeast flocculate. The fact that it's a very slow / low flocculating strain means that if the yeast is still in solution, so are those hop oils.
I don't believe for a minute that this alone accounts for the difference in flavors; it's been proven that yeast bio-transform hop oils into new hop oils (that's how you get citronello mangoy / peachy flavors out of citra), but this requires the yeast to still be in solution and working. -You can get those awesome "kettle hop flavors" by simply late hopping / hop bursting / whirlpool hopping and NOT dry hopping but then you don't get as much oils; typical IPA hop schedules include massive dry hop additions, which normally would occur after yeast have flocculated so you will get lots of oil in solution but you won't get biotransformation of those oils; you'll instead get "dry hop flavors". These crazy New World varieties almost all shine with late additions and biotranformation producing awesome and unexpected flavors. My theory is that the magic of Conan is that it gives dry hop additions kettle hop flavors because it is so low flocculating and appears to be so good at bioconverting those hop oils. -You can pump in more oil via the dry hopping technique AND get those awesome kettle hop / late hop flavors.
It really IS like the yeast strain is designed for really hoppy IPAs made with new age proprietary hops...
--This is the theory I plan on experimenting with a lot this winter. (Saturday I'm brewing a coconut porter but then I plan on putting Conan through the paces with a bunch of experimental batches.)
Adam
So no need/less need for dry hopping then?
Conan yeast wouldn't exactly make for a good BJCP comp beer would it? If the beer is cloudy (IPA) it would surely score 0/3 for appearance?
Although it might make those points back up in terms of aroma I suppose
Quote from: delzep on November 11, 2013, 10:02:50 PM
If the beer is cloudy (IPA) it would surely score 0/3 for appearance?
www.youtube.com/embed/amgfgU5-lhs
Quote from: delzep on November 11, 2013, 09:35:02 PM
So no need/less need for dry hopping then?
No, you need the dry hopping to get more oils into solution unless you go really big with the late hop additions but then with typical homebrewer processes of chilling as fast as possible you get TERRIBLE hop oil extraction; this is probably why "hop resting" / whirlpool additions in homebrewing are becoming more popular -get more oils into solution for those late hop additions.
Adam
Quote from: delzep on November 11, 2013, 10:02:50 PM
Conan yeast wouldn't exactly make for a good BJCP comp beer would it? If the beer is cloudy (IPA) it would surely score 0/3 for appearance?
Although it might make those points back up in terms of aroma I suppose
True. But they have the highest rated IPA in the world according to the beersnob sights and have an incredibly successful business so do they really care?
Adam
I suppose that brown beer Kimmich is holding up in the video is El Jefe (Alchemist's all Simcoe BIPA)?
Does anyone want to go splits with me on a 4 pack of Heady? There is a guy online that will sell & ship it. Havent asked for a price yet as Im skint but would like to get a can for xmas to see what the fuss is about.
Quote from: mr happy on November 11, 2013, 10:51:28 PM
I suppose that brown beer Kimmich is holding up in the video is El Jefe (Alchemist's all Simcoe BIPA)?
No the yellowish hazy glass on the table is a can of heady straight off the canning line. The amber colour beer on the table is a can of heady thats been in the fridge for a few months.
& the glass he is holding up is the dregs from that can.
The stewards at the next NHC nationals will have a lot of pressure on them ;D
Who is selling it online? Heady Topper I mean
Really? I don't know one way or the other but I've left beers lying around for months and never seen that kind of colour change. Also, I've been thinking about using my Conan yeast to do the El Jefe recipe from Mitch Steele's book and he talks about how it's brown not black because Kimmich didn't want it to be too roasty and also didn't want to use Sinnamar.
Very curious about an all Simcoe "black" IPA.
Quote from: Hop Bomb on November 11, 2013, 10:52:17 PM
Does anyone want to go splits with me on a 4 pack of Heady? There is a guy online that will sell & ship it. Havent asked for a price yet as Im skint but would like to get a can for xmas to see what the fuss is about.
$20 a can to get it to the US West Coast...
A guy on a well known auction site that cant be named as its illegal to sell alcohol on it. All those empty cans of heady up for sale there are just to lure you in haha.
Quote from: biertourist on November 11, 2013, 10:58:42 PM
Quote from: Hop Bomb on November 11, 2013, 10:52:17 PM
Does anyone want to go splits with me on a 4 pack of Heady? There is a guy online that will sell & ship it. Havent asked for a price yet as Im skint but would like to get a can for xmas to see what the fuss is about.
$20 a can to get it to the US West Coast...
I payed a 10er for a 33cl gueuze in Salthouse. 20 USD sounds alright to me haha.
Quote from: Hop Bomb on November 11, 2013, 10:58:51 PM
A guy on a well known auction site that cant be named as its illegal to sell alcohol on it. All those empty cans of heady up for sale there are just to lure you in haha.
ebay? can't find it >:(
Quote from: mr happy on November 11, 2013, 10:58:16 PM
Really? I don't know one way or the other but I've left beers lying around for months and never seen that kind of colour change. Also, I've been thinking about using my Conan yeast to do the El Jefe recipe from Mitch Steele's book and he talks about how it's brown not black because Kimmich didn't want it to be too roasty and also didn't want to use Sinnamar.
Very curious about an all Simcoe "black" IPA.
It's possible that they changed the recipe, BUT... Then again maybe they didn't have their canning line dialed in back then; oxidation over time causes an increase in beer color. -Having said that I had a 30 year old Westmalle Tripel and it had only just turned honey-coloured... The beer is also can-conditioned so the yeast should take up any O2 introduced during canning (and canning only introduces a TEENY TINY bit of O2; it's better than double evacuation purging if they have a state-of-the-art modern canning line) so I'm betting that they slowly changed the recipe's grist to be lighter and more California IPA-like.
Adam
Seems I'll just have to brew it to find out.
I tried a semi-allgrain beer with simcoe and galaxy. I used 500g vienna, 500 pils, 500 carapils and 500 crystal 40, then added 2 cans LME, using a mashing bag in a ferenter. There's a huge mass of debris (about 2 finhgers) at the bottom, that i assume is from the grain not being filtered enough. But I remember the same haooened with a wheat beer and it turned out fine so not too sure...
No smells yet but its began to bubble this morning, gonna ferment at 24 i think...
Yeah mine there was a huge amount of debris when i took any samples in last week - It is currently down to 1.012 so its about 80% attenuated by my reckoning, sample took last night compared to previous in the week - the bitterness is really shining through, peach & mango fuitiness still there on the nose , it has cleared very well and seems to have flocullated pretty well, I am surprised at the ferment as its only on day 8/9 and it kinda contras others experiences with it, at the moment i think dry hopping it would over complicate it. I probably ferment it a little hi 18 to finish at 20, more aroma hop flavours i think at lower temps
What hops did you use barkar? I used Citra and Galaxy at 1.050. Mine is at a steady 18, didn't want to go higher in case esters overpower the hops. Will experiment with future batches. I'll have a look at debris when I get home to it tomorrow.
40 litre batch , quite a few bits and bobs
40 Summit 60
70 Zeus 25
10 Mosaic 0
40 Cascade 0
60 Simcoe 0
70 Zeus 0
Whirlpool etc
Pitched 2 days ago. Admittedly had some temperature issues but moved it to a warm (18 - 20 degrees) place last night. Seems to have been some build up of CO2 in the fermenter, but no bubbling and nothing really to suggest krausen.
Until I read this thread just now I was assuming the yeast was knackered - will leave it overnight before pitching the US-05.
Did anyone do a starter with this?
Didn't start at all. Woke up on Christmas morning to a slightly dodgy whiff. Pitched US-05 which took off within hours. The dodgy smell developed into a smell of parsnips, yes parsnip - on Christmas Day: seems to be a Hafnia infection.
Interestingly enough, per New Lager Brewing by Greg Noonan (from whose brewery Conan is supposed to originate) hafnia is an infection which affects fermenting beer during the lags phase and which originates in the pitched yeast rather than the wort. Apparently hafnia is a pitching yeast contaminant which is fairly harmless provided you have a quick start as it can't survive pHs below 4.2. However, if the lag period is longer it can be a real issue as the off-tastes / odours it produces have a very low detection threshold.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1974.tb03631.x/asset/j.2050-0416.1974.tb03631.x.pdf?v=1&t=hpo8qb8s&s=a351bfe1e096a17cdee13e23f3b8997c0e0fd6ab
I think this is likely to be my first dumper in 5 years of brewing.
Lesson: if you're planning on giving Conan from the group buy a first outing at some point in the future, and particularly if it's not a low gravity beer, do a starter - regardless of what it says on the packaging - and be ready to repitch if it doesn't do the business in 24 - 48 hours. Obviously, make sure it's well oxygenated as well.
Funnily enough the bacterium now know as Hafnia Protea was first isolated by J.L Shimwell in 1936, in none other than Beamish & Crawfords in Cork.!
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/store/10.1002/j.2050-0416.1964.tb01988.x/asset/j.2050-0416.1964.tb01988.x.pdf?v=1&t=hpoldoj2&s=c1ea86ee7ae530724eb2a20e72efbdfe200a869c
A Wild local yeast then. (I didn't read the article)
Interesting re the hafnia and +1 on the starter here.
Nope, not yeast at all.
It's bacteria. Apparently until the 80s it was found in virtually all UK ales, albeit at very low concentrations in most cases.
Mine is still in the Fridge. It was kept chilled when I transited it from Dub.
Make sure you do a starter and aerate sufficiently when you do use it then.
Tasted this and while I'm not sure about it I'm feeling a bit more positive than before. The missus didn't find it actively offensive either.
It had dropped down to 1018 from 1070 5 days after visible signs of fermentation. Ten days in and the krausen has finally dropped and it's down to 1012. It's fruity (almost like Ribena) and there's other strong flavours which tally more with what I've read about Simcoe (leathery, tobacco) than what I'd expected from an infection (sour, dactyl, DMS / cooked veggies).
I'm wondering if the smell I got from the primary was a mix of the fruitiness from the Conan and sulphur from the US-05? I think I'll have to dry hop, package and bring along to a meet up for second opinions.
What are you tasting though? It's a blend of US05, hafnia and GY054 right? If it's good you may have a distinct house culture! 8)
I don't know what I'm tasting. :D
While the off gas in the primary set alarm bells ringing, at the moment I'm not seeing the kind of follow on tastes I was expecting based on that. We'll see, could well be in infection denial at this stage - but assuming the GY054 was a pure culture hopefully not.
Just put my yeast in a 1 litre starter today. I will see how it progresses and report back.
I decanted my pack of Conan into an erlenmeyer flask & chilled it down so I could separate out the yeast for slanting. There is only 20 ml of yeast in a pack by the looks of it. Compared with 35ml of yeast in a white labs vile. That's about 100 billion cells less so this might explain the slow starts some of you got if you pitched the pack without doing a starter.
Under pitching leads to funky beer right?
James Brown Beer
Leads to spontaneous outbursts of Getta up offa that thing
Looking at this yeast starter which is running 24 hours the yeast looks pretty dead. Stopped the gently stirring on the stir plate and let it settle. Not a gimp out of it. Nothing on the head so am wondering is this a bottom fermenting yeast. :-\
Were we sold a pup?
I have mine unopened in the fridge still.
I took a chance, and pitched mine last night without a starter. Checked this morning, when I would normally see decent krausen, and there was somthing there, but not much of it. Hopefully I will see something more substantial when I check again this evening. The temp was at 22c when I pitched, but the fridge is set at 18c, so I might ramp it up a bit if I don't see anything tonight. Fingers crossed!
I used mine on Dec. Pitched direct. Never usually do and it stalled. Took heat and a few rousings to get it done. Finished a little high but still very tasty.
Requires higher temps and flocs harder than what I'd read about conan. Does what it's supposed to in temrs of the hops though.
Big pitch of third generation fermenting at the moment at room temp at the moment to see if it fully attenuates.
Just checked mine, and minuscule activity if anything at all. Have upper the temp to 22.5c, so fingers crossed, or I will be pitching notty in the morning.
Interesting to hear what other people have to say.
I think the question of whether Conan is a lager yeast, saison yeast or some other exotic has been debated quite a bit in the US and the consensus is it's an English ale yeast. Also, as I understand it HT is canned with the primary yeast because it isn't floculant - so that it shouldn't be a bottling strain.
There's also some discussion about how people have had issues with the ECY (not Giga) version which was cultured from higher generation (11) source yeast - and that higher generations of Conan yeast (11+) tend to exhibit some of the characteristics people have seen here: poor attenuation, too much flocculation etc. Interestingly enough, it seems even the brewery have had some issues in recent years with the yeast.
I do wonder though, if the statement on the yeast pack that it's got 200 Billion cells so there's no need for a starter needs to be taken with a hearty pinch of salt - 200 B is enough for a normal beer - but that's 200 B when it's produced, not 3 months later when viability could be down to 32% (http://www.beersmith.com/forum/index.php?topic=7584.0). I mean, the White Labs vials all say that you don't need to do a starter but I always do.
I held back on pitching more yeast as I was hoping to get the famous Conan profile, but thinking about it again - once it's had a decent lag time you should have a lot of that, even if you do have to repitch. I did another taste test, I'm definitely handicapped by my lack of familiarity with Simcoe - but I get less DMS than Spaten and less (same?) diacetyl as Pilsner Urquell at the moment, so I'm hopeful.
Well I have just observed mine in the 2L flask sitting in the kitchen and it is showing no signs of life. :(
Charging 30, Clear!
Again! Charging 50...
Still nothing this morning from what I could tell. Gave it a good rouse, and if nothing this evening will hit it with the nottingham.
Did you take a reading?
Quote from: irish_goat on January 07, 2014, 10:10:19 AM
Did you take a reading?
No, do you think it might actually be slowly away, with little or no visible signs? I'll take a reading this evening, before I decide whether or not to pitch an additional yeast.
Checked my starter this morning and as before absolutely no Krausen at all. Had stopped the stir bar for a few hours to let the dirty looking liquid settle and can not see any co2 or movement but instead a reasonable amount of thick dust at the bottom of the flask. Have switched back on the stir bar to rouse it but not looking good. :(.
80 Clear...
Is he gone doc?
This is a like an episode of ER, there will be more tears if Conan doesn't make it tho.
Quote from: johnrm on January 06, 2014, 03:43:03 PM
Were we sold a pup?
I have mine unopened in the fridge still.
I beginning ti think we were >:(
Very strange that some of you are doing fine with it.
Reading on Homebrew Talk it seems to also have mixed speeds there too.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slow-start-conan-416011/
Quote from: Taf on January 07, 2014, 10:21:50 AM
Quote from: irish_goat on January 07, 2014, 10:10:19 AM
Did you take a reading?
No, do you think it might actually be slowly away, with little or no visible signs? I'll take a reading this evening, before I decide whether or not to pitch an additional yeast.
Definitely, in that the ester profile is set during the lag phase, but I'd pitch the extra yeast to kick start the main fermentation.
Quote from: irish_goat on January 07, 2014, 11:36:48 AM
Very strange that some of you are doing fine with it.
Reading on Homebrew Talk it seems to also have mixed speeds there too.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/slow-start-conan-416011/
Is there correlation between age of the packs and success? Can't recall what they advised shelf life on the packs we got. Mine was used within a week of getting it and initially fermented at 15C quite vigorously til it needed a bit of a warm up to attenuate fully.
My current room temp ferment is flying along.
Yeah defo a bit weird that some got on great & others havent. Is it a safe assumption that the only people that had problems were those who didnt make a starter or those who are just using theirs now after 3/4 months of storage?
Im slanting this strain & will hopefully be able to isolate a pure colony & grow from there. Fingers crossed some of the slants take over the next week.
Looking back at the start of this thread the folks who pitched back in October had difficulty as well in some cases.
Sorry must have been one of the luckier ones with this one,Initially i made a big starter circa 3.5 - 4 litres, it went off like the clappers in a 42 litre brew @ 20 c, i saved the majority of the trub and made 2*2.5 litre starters this time for 2*40 litre batches which started low and seems to have kick in both cases in less than 8 hours temp is shed temp currently about 15 - 16c dont know if it will fart out half way through in the second generation sure will see , the mango and peach flavours dont seem as strong as previous - might be due to dead yeast/crud in from the original brew
Still nothing last night, or this morning, so hit it with the Notty. Will be interesting to see how it turns out.
Not a kick out of my starter but some of the slants are showing signs of growth.
Starter I made 6 days ago is moving very slowly.
Fermented my current one at 18C and it's dropped 50pts in 7 days. only a few more points to go. This was third generation by the way.
Quote from: iTube on January 10, 2014, 09:57:09 PM
You can have trub from my brew. It took off like a rocket. Made sure it was kept warm though.
Trade you a vial of sourdough starter for a vial of Conan trub?
The beer I made with Conan was a citra fuggles mix. Does taste great.
Quote from: iTube on January 10, 2014, 09:57:09 PM
You can have trub from my brew. It took off like a rocket. Made sure it was kept warm though.
What that from my yeast?
Ive dont two brews with this yeast now: a 'C' hop IPA and a 'simcoe' BIPA. I just poured the BIPA wort onto the trub from IPA. Both had no problems and took off fairly fast (10days estimate). No starter for IPA, and Ive now harcested the yeast from the BIPA and have it in the fridge.
I was getting peachy notes from the fermenter but not so much in the beer. Im thinking I shoulda cold crashed it to stop it cleaning up any esters, or maybe shoulda underpitched like people were saying.
It made lovely beer, just coulda had a stronger character.
@DM, Did you have one of the original packs?
When did you first use it?
Maybe its a timing thing.
I did a black ipa with the Conan yeast. Took about a month to finish fermenting out. Down to 1.012 I think it was. Not happy with it at all. So we very strange tastes. I have it sitting back in a fermenter off all yeast and hops and hopefully it will clean up. Will take a sample later and report the flavors a little better. I can see this batch being ditched unfortunitatly unless there is some serious cleanup. Might drop in some isinglass and see if it helps.
Quote from: nigel_c on January 13, 2014, 09:41:56 AM
I did a black ipa with the Conan yeast. Took about a month to finish fermenting out. Down to 1.012 I think it was. Not happy with it at all. So we very strange tastes. I have it sitting back in a fermenter off all yeast and hops and hopefully it will clean up. Will take a sample later and report the flavors a little better. I can see this batch being ditched unfortunitatly unless there is some serious cleanup. Might drop in some isinglass and see if it helps.
Save a bottle or two for tastings at least.
Haven't completely given up on it yet. After a month im commuted to getting something out of it.
@john rm - One o the original ones, yea. I had it in the fridge about a month before i used it, just pitched straight from the pack. Just lucky with the pack I suppose. I had a brewbelt halfway up the fermenter as I dont think we'd got heating at that stage so was probably fermented around 19/20ish?
ITS ALIVE!!!
(http://i.imgur.com/iG2Xwwnl.jpg?1)
6 days after I pitched 1/4 of my pack to a starter its chugging along. Nothing for the first two days at room temp 12c. I threw the stir plate into the ferm fridge with the slants at 24c for a couple of days & both took off. So I guess my very slow start was down to temp being too low. Its out of the ferm fridge now as Ive no room but its still chugging away.
All but 1 of my slants grew & two of them have isolated colonies well away from the streaks so Il be able to slant a pure strain from there. Gimme a few weeks & Il have a bunch of these ready for people who missed out or had a false start with their pack.
(http://i.imgur.com/Wwnu7Pil.jpg)
Slightly OT but is that a sign of a good slant HB? Only did my first one the other day and I thought a clean zig-zag line of creamy yeast was the desired outcome?
A pure colony is one that grows away from the crowd. Those are the lads you want to culture more slants from. Its all in the yeast book by Chris White
.
Two weeks in sub zero conditions out in the shed have really made a difference. This actually tastes like beer now. The fruity / berry flavours remind a lot of Rochefort, and I see someone on brewtoad actually did a R10 clone with Conan, but it only got down to 1034.
Seems obvious now, Rochefort is the ultimate BIPA / DIPA yeast. All hail the new king!
My next Conan will be a dip a alright.
Wildly off topic, but I'm harvesting the dregs from every bottle of gueuze and kriek I got the missus off that belgianbeerz site with the vials. Should get a decent starter of lambic badness going soon!
Have a similar project on the go. We'll need a new thread for that one :-)
Just moved mine to secondary, and not very impressed with it at the moment, no real fruitiness, although I used a lot of fruity hops, and just doesn't taste good. I think the delay was too long. I've dryhopped it, and will try it again in a week, but not hopeful.
Ive mailed Jim at Gigayeast & linked him to this thread. Hopefully he can shed some light on the irregular performance of the yeast.
Quote from: Hop Bomb on January 22, 2014, 03:01:12 PM
Ive mailed Jim at Gigayeast & linked him to this thread. Hopefully he can shed some light on the irregular performance of the yeast.
hi tom,
good to hear from you. i looked over the forum. it looks like there are some things in line with what we expect and some things that aren't. here's what makes sense-- gy054 consistently finishes 2-5 points higher than a typical ale yeast like nottingham. many find this extra body really appealing in hoppy styles but if you want a dry beer maybe not so much... the fruity esters are also typical-- often described as "tropical" pinapple or mango depending on the hop bill. again, many like this but some might not.
what's not typical are 2 week fermentations. i'm not sure what to make of this. starting at low ale temps like 17˚C i would expect 2 week fermentations out of GY054 but the brewers pitching at 20˚C and above would usually see a shorter fermentation (on the order of 6-8 days for a 15-17˚P wort). we've been selling a lot of this yeast to commercial and home brewers and haven't heard any complaints about slow or stuck ferms so it's kind of a head scratcher... maybe brewers used to working with ale strains that finish dry are waiting a long time for that last few points? not sure.
on another note-- how did the beers taste?
Are pitching rates correct on all of those longer ferments?
Probably not Eoin - a lot of us naively didn't make a starter which I think is your answer right there.
Tasted mine again tonight.
I'm not very good at diacetyl but despite aggressive dry hopping I got a very slick mouthfeel and to be honest I think I got butterscotch on the nose as well. I also got a burnt match taste that I suspect is heavy DMS. I'd be interested in a second opinion but I reckon my initial hunch wasn't too far off the mark.
Having said that I can see what a fruity yeast with fruity hops might work but next time I think I'll reculture some Rochefort 6.
It takes big liathroidi to admit that you didn't make a starter, now please stand against the wall there to be stoned ;)
Quote from: CH on January 31, 2014, 12:20:48 AM
It takes big liathroidi to admit that you didn't make a starter, now please stand against the wall there to be stoned ;)
I would have but I was lulled into a false sense of security by the blurb on the package and how recently it was produced.
Quote from: Tubomyces on January 31, 2014, 12:22:12 AM
For me conan hasn't been worth the effort. It doesn't do anything that 50g of Amarillo and a stalled US-05 doesn't do.
I won't be bothered with it again.
Especially when you hear about people getting peach flavours off US05
Quote from: Tubomyces on January 31, 2014, 12:22:12 AM
For me conan hasn't been worth the effort. It doesn't do anything that 50g of Amarillo and a stalled US-05 doesn't do.
I won't be bothered with it again.
Lets see what the two upcoming competitions say about that
Yeah, didn't make a starter either, so probably my own fault as well. Lesson learnt re starters and liquid least anyway.
Thinking about pitching some brett to clean up the diacetyl, any ideas how to get rid of DMS? :'(
Just tried again, and a triple dry hop with 100g of Simcoe seems to have got me to the point where i can just about drink this. But, as that charming man Kirsten England said (more or less paraphrasing Keynes's "in the long run we're all dead) " time smooths out of flavours - and mountains - get it right first time.
'just about'? Sounds like you're forcing yourself.
I hope mine is still alive.
I will defo do a starter.
I find it strange myself i.e. When I did kits a 7g pack of dried yeast was always enough to ferment a brew out. I move into AG and all of a sudden beer is very susceptible to underpitching, I've no idea why, although with AG I use all liquid yeasts.
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Quote from: mr happy on February 01, 2014, 01:11:55 AM
Thinking about pitching some brett to clean up the diacetyl, any ideas how to get rid of DMS? :'(
I think you're best not to get DMS in the first place.....
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Burnt match is more like infection often also described as burnt rubber. Either that or sulphur.... DMS is always described as vegetal, like cooked corn or cabbage.
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If your getting rubber it could be autolysis. The extra time on the yeast due to slow fermentation could explain it.
I've been sneaking glasses of this from the keg with increasing frequency. There's definitely diacetyl, but sustained aggressive dry hopping and a couple of weeks in the fridge have worked wonders. In the absence of more Conan yeast I might rebrew with Rochefort yeast, as I've a feeling the end result might not be so different.
On my 3rd generation of this stuff , i brewed a simcoe /citra pale - 2 days in the fermenter , its throwing off some serious clove , unlike any of the previous . Any one else have experiences of this ? previously i got mango and peach from anything else i brewed. Fermenting at 17 - 18 c
Did 4 generations but didn't get any clove on mine. Stressed yeast can lead to increased phenols which could explain the clove aroma. If it was underpitched or not in good shape you might want to consider that.
Or chlorine apparently is another possible cause.
Dont think it was stressed , i made a 3 litre starter adn it took off fairly quickly as did the main, i have noticed that our water is not as natural as previous - i used ph stabiliser which i though would have corrected this.
Quote from: barkar on March 18, 2014, 09:17:34 AM
Dont think it was stressed , i made a 3 litre starter adn it took off fairly quickly as did the main, i have noticed that our water is not as natural as previous - i used ph stabiliser which i though would have corrected this.
For chorine or chloramines you need to add a half a campden tablet per 5 gallons approximately to neutralise the chlorine.
pH stabliser is not really worth the money, it doesn't really work that well at all. You're almost better with plain tap water to be honest, cos it's cheaper.
If you're interested in water treatment on the cheap, go with an aquarium test kit and then CRS and DLS, to do the most basic of hardness treatment and salt additions.
Quote from: Eoin on March 18, 2014, 04:07:23 PM
For chorine or chloramines you need to add a half a campden tablet per 5 gallons approximately to neutralise the chlorine.
pH stabliser is not really worth the money, it doesn't really work that well at all. You're almost better with plain tap water to be honest, cos it's cheaper.
If you're interested in water treatment on the cheap, go with an aquarium test kit and then CRS and DLS, to do the most basic of hardness treatment and salt additions.
Any point in throwing them in now ?
Nope it's about getting mash pH correct for maximum efficiency, but no worries always at least treat with campden to fix that basic issue.
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Lots of people have reported clove from Conan yeast. Just search your favorite search engine for "Conan yeast clove".
Don't freak; it's a weird yeast strain...
Adam
Does anybody have some of this left that they'd be prepared to part with?
Hope spring eternal and I'd not mind giving it another try.
I know someone in Midleton that has it...
I don't think id waste my time brewing with this yeast again. With the extra time needed and unpredictability of the yeast I would much rather ferment Notty or us-05 at a lower temp.
Wouldn't be arsed meself either
I found the esters it produced seem to dissipate fairly quickly. Beer was delicious for a couple of weeks differences from a beer fermented on notty were indiscernible after about 6 weeks.
Saw this post earlier and was wondering, did the drop off in esters (and the esters are the only reason I'm tempted to try this one again) have anything to do with yeast flocculation?
In other words, would the berry taste come back if you shook the bottle?
Sorry, johnrm, tsp of yeast nutrient and a drop of olive oil and I'd say this yeast STILL SUCKS BIG TIME.
Here's hoping it cheers up.
If it doesn't wake up there are slants floating about.
If it doesn't work I'll go with the back up US-05 I got in the HBC last week. I know garry's still reeling from the horror of having me rolling up on his doorstep on Christmas Eve!