Yakima Monster

[JoKing]

Well, I have been talking a bit about it on the forum - so I thought (spur of the moment) that I'd finally brew an American style Pale Ale. I had a packet of US-05 in the fridge that was due to expire... the dreaded 03-09 batch! I did a brew with another 03-09 packet 3 or 4 weeks ago: it was my GP Simcoe SMaSH. The beer is incredible - so I thought bugger it, I'll just use the same yeast... it's fermenting quite happily now at 18 degrees. What I thought I'd talk about this week is beer clarity, and what I do (be it supersticious probably) to try and get clear beer. I will disclaim now - that this is not a "How To" or me proclaiming to be a great home brewer. I don't even claim that my home brew is any good. The following is just a "this is what I do" for anyone to read. I will state though, that when I want clear beer, my beer is clear. I made a brew yesterday that has to flavour it two Yakima proprietry hop varieties: Simcoe and Amarillo. In my opinion. Yakima Chief is leading the way in producing unbelieveable flavour and aroma hops with incridible smoothness. I used the generic cultivar "Nugget" to bitter this batch - however the main theme here is "Late Hopping". To me, I'd say that if you want clear beer - you need clear wort. Before I rigged up my recirculating mash setup, I used to do the "pitcher then pitcher" technique: i.e. I'd fill a 2 litre pitcher then move the hose to the next while tipping the previous back into the top. Now, I just turn the pump on (at the same flow rate) and just leave it to recirculate. This is handy in 2 respects. The first is that the wort becomes very clear with minimal effort: I recirculate what I calculated to be 30 Litres. That is 15 pitchers. Normally I'd get bored after 5 pitchers or so, and make do. The second is mashing out. Because there is a constant flow in the mash tun, mashing out can be completed without even disturbing the grain bed. This is a major plus as disturbing the grain bed will unclog all the shit you just filtered out over the last 15 minutes. This is a photo of the wort once the mash was complete, after 15 minutes of reculation.

After the sparge and I have my full volume in the kettle, I'll have a look at a sample of the wort. This takes a bit of judgement, and it all depends on if you want a clear beer - or one with a bit of haze. If there is visible haze in the sample, I'll think about upping my regular dose of carageenan. Normally, the dose for this stuff is 4 grams per hectolitre. If my wort is as clear as, I'll stick to about 75% of this: I use 0.6 grams. Below is the level of clarity for the Yakima Monster.

For the Yakima Monster, I wanted a clear beer (as opposed to my Simce SMaSH) so I threw in 0.8 grams with 15 minutes to go in the boil. This stuff needs to be thoroughly mixed into the wort. I use a paint strirer being careful not to aerate. After it's mixed in, I start the whirlpool to a: steralise the pump and hoses, and b: keep the carageenan in contact with all the wort. It drops out very fast - so the motion of the boil alone may not ensure that all the protein will coagulate. Lately I have been incorperating a 90min boil into my brew day. I believe (amongst other things) that this too aids in clarity. Below is a photo with the whirlpool running after I have thrown in the "Flameout" addition.

Finally is the waiting game. I've heard a lot of people will finish the boil, cool the wort and chuck it into the fermenter - which is fine: 1,000,000 brewers in the world; 1,000,000 ways to brew beer. What I do is whirlpool for 30mins while cooling. Then I'll leave the chiller running for another hour to let everything settle in the bottom of the kettle. Regardless if the wort is at pitching temp after 15mins of whirlpooling: I still do 30min whirlpool and 1 hour for settling. Lately, with the new setup - I'll be able to see the "cone" at the bottom of the kettle with about 5 litres to go when transferring to the fermenter. Below is a photo of the kettle at the same level as before (80mm) with all the crud below the surface of the wort.

And that's pretty much it really. I tasted the wort, and went to smile in the mirror. I was shocked when I realised that my teeth had completely dissolved. The brewday didn't bring as many Dramas as it did last week. I found out that my online friend was right when he told me that "Baby sitting and Home Brewing go hand in hand". One of Christinas friends came down from Auckland along with her Husband and 2 daughters. The Women ditched us for the whole day - and we turned this batch out without any injury to the infants. We hit the home brew last night - and he was quite fond of the Simcoe Smash (US Blonde), and my German Pilsner. He liked the flavor of the Blonde, but said he could drink more of the Pilsner - he has a regular blokes pallate. Watch out you Westie Boys - looks like I have a contender in my fridge... now the only challenge is keeping enough stock in hand before thr 28th arrives. Cheers.

[Stu McKinlay]

1272 is more commonly used by commercial brewers here (from what I've heard). Sounds more interesting to me but some people like their beer clean.

[jt]

Clean would be 1272 to me - or ferment cool for clean, light citrus character

[Stu McKinlay]

1272 would be less clean to me - Fruitier and more flocculent than Wyeast 1056

My [very limited] experience, and this certainly isn't meant to come across as a general rule, is that the more flocculant English and American yeasts tend to be more fruity and slightly sweeter in the finish. Less flocculant ones tend to be cleaner and drier finishing, though they do taste quite "yeasty" until they've cleared out.

[JoKing]

I liked how 1272 looked on paper, however - the flavour contributions are so minor that it was hard to notice over all the hops! I think for anchor liberty - it's fine: not much hops compared to what I've been brewing. Hoppy beer though, I prefer wy1056 / wlp001 - these are just my preferences though: other people may disagree. The fruity side of wy1272 reminded me a lot of an english yeast characteristic that didn't stand well in blonde ales or IPAs - wlp001 was better for me, and for that matter so is us-05. Just my opinion though!

[JoKing]

This is a serious beer. I just tasted some out of the fermenter after a day of dry hopping, and the oil was in my mouth for a whole half hour after the taste. I would have had 50mls. I think it is going to be great - the FG is 1.008 from 1.053. Thats 85% attenuation - it sort of accentuates the bitterness in a way. It's pretty crisp and sharp too. There was a fair amount of vegetation floating in the sample jar. The range of hop flavours are plentyful - I'm getting a lot of citrus, some pine a fair amount of passionfruit. Not a hell of a lot of Malt though, which is what I was after. The hops dont seem to be covering up any sins - it is just clean, dry and bitter.

I'm happy.

[JoKing]

Well, I kegged the monster before work on Tuesday night. I got home yesterday had a bit of a sleep, and when I woke at 2pm I decided to see if the beast had indeed been unleashed - keeping in mind that the beer had only been a pile of dry stock 2 and a half weeks ago. The news was pretty good.

I fined this one - so the clarity was good. There was a fair amount of vegetation floating around in the glass - something I always appreciate. To be honest, the beer reminded me of a fizzy Twisted Hop IPA. I realise that the only similarity to that beer would be the citrussyness of the Amarillo, (twisted hop had US Cascade) but it was equally attenuated and equally neutral in malt flavour. There's a bit there - but the beer is all about the hop.

It is clean, I'll get that one out of the way. You can smell it while the pour is occuring infront of you... even though your nose is a foot or so away from the glass. I wont say the aroma is OTT, just nicely showcasing the beauty of the hops selected. Predominant citrus with hints of black currant and passionfruit. Taste is just the same - but seems more satisfying with a dry finish that is quite piney and resinous. The bitterness starts the flavour response and ends it. A smacking of the toungue against the roof of the mouth even 5 minutes after the last sup regenerates oily herbal flavours.

I'll give this one the tick of success now. If it lasts until the period when it is supposed to be perfectly conditioned, I'm sure it would be awesome.

[JoKing]

[Peter Smith]

and here

[Peter Smith]

Thats the intersting observation - when you pitch dry US-05 into the fermenter, it behaves like 1272... (I have used 1272 in 5 brews this year). But when you repitch (jamils pitching rate calculator) US-05 for 2nd gen fermentation it bahaves more like wlp001 / wy1056.

Yeah... I believe this so much, that I brewed the blonde ale specifically to reuse the yeast in a hoppy brew aka Yakima Monster. Someone should do a scientific analysis on this methodology... cough (MrCherry)...

Anyone else noticed how us-05 is different on repitch vs dry?  is it just pitch rates?

[Mark Weusten]

Im not familiar with 1272 or 1056. What characteristics do you think the US-05 gains with repitch?