Tech Meeting discussion: Belgian yeasts comparison

[andrewmaixner]

Event Info:
See official event thread.
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Original post:

I'm planning to do a yeast comparison in the near future, using my Belgian dark ale recipe. It's kind of a drier dubbel which I've made several times now, which is fairly popular with my friends.

Thinking of using Chico yeast @66F as a baseline, then comparing against common belgian ale strains in a standard ramped temperature profile: chimay, duval, westmalle, dry T58, dry Abbaye (same name, two strains from two yeast vendors), ardenens, etc... ?

I have only two 3-gal fermenters, and two 1-gal jugs (which might be a blow-off mess with belgian yeasts unless they were left very un-full).

I've heard that tech meeting stuff can be club-funded, how does that process work? Would the club be interested in funding a set of small fermentation vessels for experiments like this, yeast strains (I have a few that I keep, but have been used several times), etc?

I'll be doing some variant of this experiment for myself regardless, but making it formal and more controlled would be nice.

[carrisr]

I have four 3 gallon better bottles you can use.

Sent from my XT1093 using Tapatalk

[czubak]

I have 2 3 gallon better bottles you can use as well. Also have a some Wyeast 3787 You can have that I won't be using anytime soon

[andrewmaixner]

Awesome, I'll have to measure and see if I can fit 6x or 8x 3gal BetterBottles into my temperature chamber.

Chris: I should try to account for estimated cell counts, which would be easiest with all fresh OEM yeast...
I have a westmalle already that I could ramp up again, but if yours is all ready to go in the packaging, that would be handier.

[czubak]

I have used the 3787 twice, have the 3rd generation in a sealed canning jar. I overbuild my starters and save a pint or so to build a start with next time. It was last used 2-3 weeks ago, so it's very viable.

Depending on your ABV, you may not even need to make much of a starter. It's handled 2 9% batches with ease.

[andrewmaixner]

If you guys aren't using the 6 3-gal BBs currently, I could get them at the.. um.. is there a meeting (official or unofficial?) tomorrow night?

[Matt F]

No official meeting in December.

[czubak]

If you guys aren't using the 6 3-gal BBs currently, I could get them at the.. um.. is there a meeting (official or unofficial?) tomorrow night?

You can borrow mine anytime. I don't foresee needing them anytime soon

[andrewmaixner]

It's all going now. All of the common Trappist and Belgian ale strains except rochefort.

[czubak]

Should have grabbed my 3887 Trappist high Gravity to use also.

Looks like a lot of work

[andrewmaixner]

Should have grabbed my 3887 Trappist high Gravity to use also.

Looks like a lot of work

I'm presuming that you mean Wy3787, that is westmalle, which I have (WPL530)

Experiment contains:
chimay, duval, westmalle, ardenens, dry T58, dry Abbaye x2 (same name, two strains from the two major dry yeast vendors), and US-05 (Chico) as a control.

Here's a chart to get around the intentionally confusing marketing terms and numbers:
http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

[carrisr]

I seem to recall that a date had been set for this meeting. What was it again?

[daryl]

Thursday, April 7 - location TBD.

I do not have my calendar with me, but I am pretty sure that is the correct date....I will repost if I find out otherwise.

[andrewmaixner]

Started bottling this weekend, 38 down, estimated 84 to go
Using Brewers Best Carbonation Drops http://www.biyhomebrewsupply.com/produc ... ationdrops to avoid extra complication in weighing beer and sugar before bottling. IME they may slightly over-carb compared to most american ale levels, but at least they are standardized, don't add sediment like the "carb drops", and you can swirl away some carbonation at pour time. And the beer lost a a couple tenths of volumes already as it fermented up to 75F.

[andrewmaixner]

aaaand, well over a hundred finished bottles, one semi-broken autosiphon, 8 full cycles of clean/sanitize/bottle/clean, and I'm looking forward to my next brew just being "brew once keg once"