What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[Stu H]

Heh, others on the forum have probably experimented with it more than me. I didn't find it hugely different. I did a side-by side with it and US05 in a Hallertau Maximus clone, and it seemed to soften the harsher hop aromas a little, compared to the US05. It was pretty damn subtle though.

 

I was fermenting at 17degrees though, I bet if you bumped it up a bit higher it might be a bit more estery... I might try it with a US brown or something.

 

I love how fast it is, bloody brilliant.

[Soren]

Am Ale II is kinda my house yeast. It's clean, like US-05 but does have a bit more character. I find it gives a bit more body and mouthfeel, probably from increased ester production. But the side by side experiments I have done with us-05 have always shown the exact same attenuation. I also feel it accentuates roastiness more, makes it more astringent, so I adjust my grains accordingly when making a dark beer, using smoother tasting roasted malts.

Its also more flocculent which is a huge bonus when repitching multiple times.

I probably overpitch most of my beers but fermentation is usually done in 2-3 days. Very explosive but doesn't seem to produce a ton of foam out the airlock like other yeasts can.

This yeast also seems to cope very well with my recent substitution of oxygen for olive oil. The fermentation seems smoother and perhaps slightly more attenutive. But haven't done the final taste test yet.

[jt]

I kinda recall previous forum discussions likening '05 to Am Ale II more than Am Ale I
So I'm wondering if '05 to Am Ale II is a worthwhile change ?

It does read up as more characterful than I, but I wonder if Denny's Fav 50 would also be worth a shot ?

[Stu McKinlay]

 

This yeast also seems to cope very well with my recent substitution of oxygen for olive oil.

 

What the...?????

 

Is that only in your trial/home brews or are you doing it at Renaissance too... you know everyone's going to start picking up "oily" characteristics in your beer now!! ;-)

[Ralph]

This yeast also seems to cope very well with my recent substitution of oxygen for olive oil

 

Interested in this comment too!

[Soren]

Full scale production Stu.

 

I came across the thesis by Hull, read it and got interested. All sounds too good to be true, the only issue that struck me was that New belgium did the experiments, showed it worked better than oxygen but still didn't do the conversion of full scale...

I then found out that Randers Bryghus back in Denmark does it, made contact and confirmed that they have done it for 500+ batches with no problems.

Apperently De Struise in Belgium does it too, but that is unconfirmed.

I add 1 ml per 1000 L so I don't think anybody will be able to pick the oil in the flavour, although I do use some potent stuff (flavourwise), grown and pressed just down the road. Craft Oil you might call it:)

I add it to the whirlpool, not the yeast in storage, which is how Hull did it at New Belgium. Olive oil is apparently chuck full of bacteria so I want to make sure it is sterilized.

I have done it for a few weeks now, first batch of HopWired to come out of ferment tomorrow, interesting to see how it tastes:)

My hope is that it will add some flavour stability to the beer. Hopwired goes way hazy, way too quick. Eliminating the oxygen should in theory help with this.

I do still add a little oxygen, to push out the lines etc, but it will be less than 1/10th of the usual amounts.

 

[Druid]

I had read about olive too - the theory is that by adding olive oil, you are providing the yeast with the fatty acids instead of getting it to produce them itself - which requires sufficient wort oxygenation. 

I believe the thrust of the technique is to avoid any risk of oxidation by eliminating the requirement for oxygenation of the wort.

 

The volumes indicated are minuscule - something like a toothpick dipped in olive oil then in your wort...

 

There's a page on it here:

http://www.winning-homebrew.com/olive-oil.html

 

And a thesis on it here:

http://www.brewcrazy.com/hull-olive-oil-thesis.pdf

 

[Edit] Actually on reading further, it sounds like you add it to a starter?

[Ralph]

Interesting, thanks for the links. Yes and reading that it sounds like you add it to the yeast/starter.

[Martin Bridges]

I put a drop of olive oil in my starters.

 

My understanding is that the theory is that the need for oxygenation is reduced, not removed. Cleaning of the brew vessels is put forward as a reason not to use it on a commercial scale.

[Soren]

"Cleaning of the brew vessels is put forward as a reason not to use it on a commercial scale"

 

Will they get harder to clean?

[Druid]

Surely if you're only adding 1ml per 1000 litres, from a cleaning point of view it must must be minuscule compared with the amount of hop oils in the wort.

Presumably it will be pretty well isomerised with being added at the boil pot temp, just like the other oils in solution.

[Reviled]

Youre a brave man Soren, good on you tho for trying something different!