Marmite

[Brew_DD2]

Marmite XO is the best - it's not available anywhere in Scotland so my mum sends me up jars from her local Tesco when she can get it.
https://www.marmite.co.uk/marmite-xo-is-back/store-list.html
Anna

I got some in Morrison's a couple of weeks ago. Tesco sells it too, I believe.

 

[Uist Brewer]

That's the classic taste of autolysis, literally "self-splitting", it's the corpses of dead yeast decomposing from attack by their own enzymes. Usually because either the yeast has been stressed too much during fermentation or because the beer has been left on the yeast too long.

Big fan of Marmite - it's meant to have double the glutamates (and hence umami) of just about anything else (even soy sauce or beef stock), I often use it as a stockcube replacement. Handy when you're cooking for vegetarians as it's vegan but gives a good meaty taste.

Also Marmite cashew nuts are a winner, although I struggle with most of the other branded products, the crisps aren't half as good as Twiglets and I can see why Marmite cheddar never took off...

Aha - thanks. We had some very warm days after I brewed it so it sounds like too warm a fermentation, then - the FG was very high when I bottled it (some 18 days after brewing) so it sounds as though the yeast (MJ M-42) just gave up. The day after brewday, I came back from being out all day to see the temp gauge on the fermenter sat at 23C, which is a little above its comfort zone.

Have been thinking for a time I should sit the fermenter in a cool bath at least for the initial 48 hours or so, and this just prompts me a little further down the road. Thanks again

 

[Cestrian]

I remember back in the 80's, I asked my future mother-in-law, who was unfamiliar with beefy drinks at the time, to make me a bovril, and she put milk and two sugars in it. It didn't taste too bad actually!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Aha - thanks. We had some very warm days after I brewed it so it sounds like too warm a fermentation, then - the FG was very high when I bottled it (some 18 days after brewing) so it sounds as though the yeast (MJ M-42) just gave up. The day after brewday, I came back from being out all day to see the temp gauge on the fermenter sat at 23C, which is a little above its comfort zone.

Have been thinking for a time I should sit the fermenter in a cool bath at least for the initial 48 hours or so, and this just prompts me a little further down the road. Thanks again

You often hear people complain that Uist is just too hot...

(don't get me wrong, I had many a Highlands sun tan in my time, I know what it can be like. And some great beaches up your way too)

In fact I doubt that's the problem in this case - ale yeast typically grow best at 28-30°C and won't die until the temperature gets over 40°C or so, we only ferment at lower temperatures to reduce off-flavours. So I'd look at other factors that might have stressed the yeast - pitching too little, too high a starting gravity, that kind of thing.

 

[Uist Brewer]

And there was me thinking my higher-than-target OG was a testament to the super efficiency of my mashing and sparging regime!

Actually, I do quite usually get an OG higher than target (here, it was twelve points). If anything, however, I over-pitch the yeast and both this one and the one now in the FV have followed the same typically over-pitched lines of a short lag, thunderous activity for the next 48 hours and very little thereafter. Perhaps therefore I need to rein back on the amount of yeast a little - though I have been going by Brewer's Friend, which works on the (rather low) basis of a 10bn cells/gram so, for my volume (4.5L), 5g is about right.

Today on Uist - well, it's a day of rust.