is this yeast heaven?

[Hawks]

I always thought that Hopback used a multi-strain yeast for the primary fermentation, and reseeded with a different strain for bottling :hmm:

Not according to the brewery. They tell me that its the primary strain and that is their own..

I emailed them and got this reply.
We are very lucky in having a yeast which ferments in FV and in bottle but more particularly compacts firmly once it has performed its’ work! Happy brewing!
Kind regards,
Steve Wright.
Head brewer.

Well done Hopback for that :hat:

 

[morethanworts]

Anyone any ideas why some brews "stick" at around 1020? :wha: I've had two of three this year that have done that - wort nicely airated into FV, active yeast every time, I'm wondering if I need to add nutrient at same time as pitching?

Are you using the same yeast each time?

Hmmm, looking back, the stickers were all brewery harvest yeasts - not LHBS packet ones. I have been using yeast from the dregs of a Skinners polypin, third generation from that was sticky on a couple of brews, and the current sticky brew is with the thumbnail of yeast harvested from a Hopback Summer Lightening. So maybe, I'm not treating them right and getting them to prime yeastiness before pitching.

Trouble is, you have to pitch when you have to pitch (when the wort's ready). So it's my starters perhaps, not vibrant enough, I suspect. So, yeast nutrient during the starter phase perhaps that seems to say.

I'd say get the starters going earlier, stepped up as needed, the last one settled and chilled, ready to pour off the spent wort on brewday. They'll sit in the fridge happily for a few days, so better to be early than late with them, up to a point I'd say.

You may want to get it going again first with some cooled wort from the middle of the boil, or otherwise just get up to temperature, resuspend and pitch.

I've pushed it a bit late with both my starters so far, but I won't make the same mistake next time!

 

[back_to_brewing]

better to be early than late with them

Thanks mtw, that makes sense, it would have benefited from more time when I pitched it. Well, it's going mad now after the stir on Friday, chuffing like a train from the blow off pipe. The (very yeasty) sample is full of Galaxy goodness, too.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

I should be racking this out into kegs tomorrow as its been on chill for a few days...Lets see how it shapes up..

 

[back_to_brewing]

Well after 14 days I've moved it into FV2 for a week with 100g Galaxy and 30g Cascade pellet dry hop.

OG was 1047 down to 1007 so 85% attenuation as noted by others, 5.3% alc a bit more than I had planned for. It tastes great, a much bigger beer than its little brother (same recipe, but 4% and with S04).

There was a LOT of sediment - 1 gal out of 13 - which is now settling out in a 5l water bottle - plan to use this in my between Xmas and New Year brew. Should keep ok in garage at these temps I think.

One thing I noticed was the slurry was quite fine - not like S04 which looks like a lunar landscape at the bottom of the FV. Not sure if this means anything!

Plan is to barrel 5gal next weekend (hopefully clear enough not to need fining), then put rest into 10l polypins as 3 x Christmas pressies for brothers/father-in-law. As it's meant to be a Galaxy hop monster, it looks like I could be cracking it open on Christmas Eve, just in time.

 

[Antony]

I found a very.nice yeast, however I have forgotten which beer it's from, and on top of that, I've ran out of bottles. However it was a bottle conditioned stout from a supermarket. I'll do some research to try and find it again :)

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

My BGdronx is now a hop monster with this yeast...much more pronounced than with S04...its conditioned really well and dropped as bright as a button...needed a bit of fininings but not much