Thursday, March 11, 2010

Yeast Wars!

Update 3/30 - Belgian FG 1.018, bottled.
Update 3/28 - American FG 1.011, bottled. Belgian SG 1.018, check back tomorrow.
Update 3/21 - Dry hopped late last night.
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I'm hop bursting the crap out of this. Expect an update with dry hops in a week or two. I also bought smaller carboys so I can split my brews into two batches for yeast and dry addition experiments. Today's lesson: Fermentis Safale US-05 vs Safbrew T-58.

Batch #55
Honey DIPA
--15lbs 2-row RAHR
--4oz Honey Malt
--6oz Melanoidin
--6oz Carafoam
--2.25lbs Mesquite Honey
--1/2 tsp gypsum (infusion water)
--1oz Cascade 6.7%AA (60min)
--1oz Cascade 6.7%AA (30m)
--11oz Cascade 6.7%AA (every 2m until knockout starting at 20m)
--3oz Cascade (dry hop, split evenly between carboys)
--Whirlfloc (15min)
--Split batch: Safale US-05 and Safbrew T-58, 11.5g dry (each)
OG: 1.089
FG: 1.011 | 1.018
ABV: 10.2% | 9.3%
IBU: ~85?

Mash in with 5gal at 152F (slightly higher than normal for my DIPAs to account for the honey), hold for 60m. I batch sparged with 4gal to collect 6.75gal total. I also immediately began heating the first batch while collecting the second. Hopefully this will add a slight caramel, but I don't expect much. Bring to a boil, and make sure to use a big hop sock or lots of bags to avoid cramping your pellets. Chill and pitch yeast. I plan to free ferment in 64F ambient for a couple days then limit at 68F in my chiller if needed.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What are you sexist? Why not use cargirls?

Love Dad

Dank brewer said...

i just did an experiment with Safbrew T-58 as well. It'll be interesting to here how yours turns out because Fermentis 05 will be nice and clean right? My experiment is in a Saison and I used Wyeast 3711, and Safbrew t-58. I'll be bottling this week and hopefully tasting in a month.

Jason said...

dank,

yeah, the 05 was real nice. dry, clean, with just a little honey flavor left. the 58 on the other hand finished really sweet and is being slow to carbonate. i think i'm just not patient enough for that one :)

3711 is a great strain. i don't think i kept the fermentation hot enough for enough time to get the really dry character i wanted in the saison i made last summer. just a heads up.

Dank brewer said...

I have an update on my Saison yeast experiment. Wyeast 3711 French Saison came all the way down to 1.002 after 3 weeks at 66 to 68 degrees! That yeast is a beast! Safbrew T-58 came down to 1.008 and had nice clove, peppery, spicy taste to it out of secondary.

Jason said...

looking over my notes, i think the issue i had with the 3711 is that i didn't carbonate enough. my records show that i went from 1.068 to 0.999 (but the hydrometer sample tube i was using at the time had some issues with getting stuck to the walls for gravities below 1.008 thanks to some weird curvature at the bottom.)

that reminds me...i'll have to check on my t58 batch of ipa when i get home tonight.