Not much really. I’m changing our house yeast strain, which is what passes for exciting in the commercial brewing world. When the culture got here I did a bit of a double-take at its size.
The walk-in/bright room stays pretty humid and I haven’t found anything else that will keep the linoleum attached to the wall. If there was a gap I’d worry about condensation rolling down and collecting under the floor, and I don’t even want to THINK about what would be involved in getting down there to clean it.
I was always on the fence about US-05 as a home brewer, but in a commercial setting it’s absolutely worthless. I have three main criteria for a house yeast:
Fermentability can be controlled with mash temperature.
Flavor can be controlled with fermentation temperature.
I switched from WLP001 to US-05 for my IPA a few months ago and am ready to switch back. It is convenient to use but I can see why you have issues with it, sean. I just now started using WY1007 for my Alt and am going to try a few IPAs with it on the side to see how I like it.
That was actually my first thought, since it’s what I use for English styles at home, but I wasn’t sure I could get the attenuation I need for certain styles (IIPA on deck as a fall seasonal). From my limited experience with it, 1318 seems to give a similar overall flavor, but with the potential for higher attenuation.
It’s definitely convenient. The biggest problem I’ve had is that we have a mix of conicals and Grundies, and harvesting from a dish bottom with it just isn’t possible. There were several times I couldn’t even get enough in a 5 gal Corny to pitch the next batch, and that’s after a week of cold crashing.
I’ll be interested to hear how the 1007 works out for your IPA. Seems like it could be a good choice for preserving a little malt character, even with a low FG.
IME, a big difference between 1968 and 1318. And I haven’t had much luck with 1318 clearing, not that I expect it to clear like 1968 but I mean just not wanting to clear at all. I also get a stone fruit flavor (like peaches) with 1318 that I didn’t like until I brewed an APA with it, somehow it worked with that but I didn’t like it in English styles. But this was only two different smack packs of 1318 plus a few washed-yeast batches from each, I’ve used 1968 way more. Big Sky brewery uses 1968 as their house strain.
Regarding S-05, some people (me for one) have such different results from S-05 vs. Wyeast 1056 that we, for all practical purposes, consider them different yeasts (i.e. I won’t even use S-05). Don’t think I’ve ever used White WLP001. I really need to try 1272, heard good things about it as an ‘upgrade’ from 1056.
Interesting. I only brewed three test batches with 1318, but had pretty much the opposite experience. I guess I’ll know a whole lot about it in a few weeks.
Definitely do; it’s my all-around favorite ale yeast.
Yeast as a new toy. I guess I am a little slow here. :-[
So is the Icepick the first to go? I was pretty excited to hear AIPA is your favorite style.
Any plans to head north for a few sacks of fresh hops in August, or is a wethopped sesonal too much of a PITA.
I expected it to be very flocculant because their website says so but I just didn’t have that experience, but I don’t find S-05 to flocculate that well either. So relative to S-05 it might be more flocculant but I don’t consider that ‘highly flocculant’. Maybe it was something else…like using some ‘hazy’ Maris Otter or something (I was making mostly ESBs and Ord Bitters with it).
The Ice Pick recipe has been heavily modified; it’s basically my take on what a prototypical AIPA would be. 6.4% ABV, dry finish, Cascade-dominated, and heavily dry-hopped. It and the new Red (not so heavily modified, but much improved) are on tap now, and should be in cans by mid-August.
I’d love to do a wet hop beer, but I just don’t think our kettle design would allow it. I have to use bags to keep the hops off the element, and the kettle’s tall and narrow enough that wouldn’t even be able to get all the hops into the wort. Whole hops in general are right out.
If time allows I’d love to come up and get some to use at home though.
My first homebrew used a packet of 1272. Now that the age of extremely-cheap-by-comparison dry yeast seems to be drawing to a close (6 bucks for a packet of dry yeast?!), I may start tinkering more with 1272 again. I liked S-04 for English ales because of the amazing flocculation, but the 1272 flavor seemed more to my taste.
Sounds dreamy, but man, the growing season in that valley will keep me out forever.
I do have a few survey plots down that way, up river and at treeline, and I will stop in to sample your product.
Might have to make a special trip in October though. ;) Yehaw on the double.
Best of luck with your new toy.
I saw an old arse Toyota up here today with a Colorado style bumper sticker that read
Silverton Brewery.