Yeast Woes

[Mark]

Hi All,

Made a beer today with the intention of pitching Mangrove Jack's M27 Belgian Ale yeast. Opened the packet and was surprised the yeast was a bit darker than you'd normally expect, and slightly clumpy. Rehydrated as I normally do and it spent very little time on top of the water before sinking to the bottom, and didn't really "cream".

Is this normal for this yeast? I'm really worried it's a dud. It's well within the use by date, but it doesn't feel at all right. Anyone had any experience with the dry saison yeast?

[Paul Fraser]

I had a packet of cask/ bottle conditioning yeast for using to add yeast to help carb a lager. I used just under half a pack then rolled the packet back up and sticky taped it. Next lager I went to rehydrate the second half and it did just like you said so I just dumped it. Maybe I was wrong but not worth ruining a brew over I thought.

[jt]

I've no idea about Belgians or Mangrove Jacks sorry Mark, this is really when you want Andrew to pop up with some help

[Paul Finney]

Andrew is prob busy judging at the homebrew comp!

I have used it a few times and not had that issue. It could just be a dud pack, which is odd. But by the sounds of what you are describing the pack has lost its sealedness (I couldn't think of the actual word so made one up!) as they are like you would normally expect, small balls of yeasty goodness.

[Mark]

Against all expectations it's formed a krausen and is fermenting away this morning, well less than the suggested lag time of up to 24 hours. Was I just being paranoid? I've done loads of re-hydrations and it definitely performed differently. I wonder, should I add another pack??

[Karl Hayes]

No, don't bother. If it's off, it's already too late and your beer is toast regardless of how much extra you toss in. Chances are though it'll ferment properly if it starts this quickly.

[Peter Smith]

While doing a liquid starter is more work, I always seem to have a fermentation running 12hrs later, better STILL is to develope a few inhouse yeasts and scoop it into 300ml jars for repitch,  my current brewplan is all around 3rd/4th gen happy us05 little critters and 1084 irish dry critters.  I mash/boil while I bottle so they never get into a jar, just scoop them out of the carboy measure pure mr malty and straight into fresh cooled wort.    just had a 3rd  gen us05 go 1.065 to 1.015 in 4 days at 20C tho I mashed at 66.., pretty sure it will chew another few points over then next week before I dry hop and cold crash.

[Mark]

Seems there was no need to panic - it fermented like a rocket and within 3 days it's pretty much finished (I kept the temperature pretty high as per the yeast instructions).

Clearly I was being paranoid, but the yeast did behave differently when re-hydrating. In any event it smells incredible, so I've got high hopes for this beer!

[MrC]

I'm intereseted  in your thought's on this yeast in the finished product.  Have you tried T-58?  If so, I would intereseted to know how you think they compare.

[Mark]

Will let you know Mr C. I've used T-58, with mixed results. The last time I used it the beer was very fruity, tasted a bit like apple juice, but wasn't completely unpleasant. This one's a fairly hefty beer (OG 1.074, FG 1.008) so I'm going to condition and possibly lager it for a bit.