Milestone Kits - Gervin Yeast

[Parp]

Hello all,

A couple of dried yeasty questions ;

The pack of yeast in Milestone Kits says that its Gervin Ale Yeast.

Is this a half decent yeast?
I've never used it in my HB history.

So far on my return to brewing, I've used whatever yeast is packaged with the Woodforde's kits and some Safale S-04.

The performance of the Safale is great, I've used that before. The only thing is, it seems way too bland, with little other contribution to the beer other than the desired alcohol and CO2.

I'm starting a kit tomorrow;
Brupaks Microbrewery - Almondbury old

Any idea what this yeast is ?

I'm splitting it into two fermentations and its eventually going into two 2-Gal kegs.

I'm planning to do one with Safale US-05, and the other with either the Milestone Gervin stuff or whatever came with the brupaks one.

Any help greatly appreciated.

Cheers

[Jim]

I used Gervin in my all grain brews for years (until I switched to liquid yeast, in fact) and I still keep a couple of packs in the fridge in case of emergencies. It's the same strain as Nottingham yeast, which is used by many commercial breweries.

It'll be fine.

[Parp]

Ah! Nottingham!

Cheers for the reply.

Nottingham as in the good floccing clean and dry nottingham?
The same as Danstar etc?

Cheers

[steve_flack]

If you think S-04's bland wait til you try Nottingham or US-05

[Parp]

Oh Dear

I'll ring Hadrian and Border tomorrow and see if they'll be kind to me.

Cheers for the advice.

US-05 is supposed to be a bugger to clear as well ?

Cheers

[oblivious]

So far on my return to brewing, I've used whatever yeast is packaged with the Woodforde's kits and some Safale S-04.

The performance of the Safale is great, I've used that before. The only thing is, it seems way too bland, with little other contribution to the beer other than the desired alcohol and CO2.

then get yourself wlp005/ring wood yeast great

[steve_flack]

US-05 is supposed to be a bugger to clear as well ?

It's certainly a lot less flocculant than most of the other commonly used dry yeasts. It does respond well to proper isinglass finings though. It's a very clean yeast that emphasises the hops over the malt and adds little flavour of its own.

It's great in what it's meant for - hoppy, 5+% ABV American ales. It's not so great in weaker British bitters where you need a contribution from the yeast to fill out the flavour. I haven't found a dry yeast that comes close to the range of flavours that some of the liquid 'English' strains provide.

Having said that Sierra Nevada use a yeast very similar to US-05 in all their beers including their draft bitter and the recent ESB.

[Parp]

Thanks for the advice

My WhiteLabs Burton Ale has just arrived from Hop and Grape!

So I'm going to give that a whirl!

Any pointers for this yeast?
Any major do's or don'ts?

Does it need rousing every few hours or anything mad?

Cheers All

[steve_flack]

My WhiteLabs Burton Ale has just arrived from Hop and Grape!

It's a nice yeast.

Any pointers for this yeast?
Any major do's or don'ts?

Make a starter a few days before you need to use it. Despite what it says there isn't really enough yeast in the tube to ferment 5 gallons by the time you get it. Maybe if you bought it a week or two after packing then there is, but this stuff has travelled a bit.

Does it need rousing every few hours or anything mad?

No, Burton Ale seems to work OK on it's own.

[Parp]

Thanks for the info.

The WLP023 has a best before 16/07/2008 on it, and it says that date is 4 months after bottling.

So that'll mean the yeast was packaged about a month ago?

What'll it's viability be?

I've got about half an hour to an hour to decide to straight pitch the burton or to rehydrate the gervin or safale - the time its taking the wort to cool

I'll probs head out to the HBS (Alan Gough in Whitley Bay) and get more gear to use the WLP023 with.

Cheers

[steve_flack]

It'll be about 66% viable (according to Mr Malty).

What OG is the beer and how much (5gallons?) For 5 gallons of 1.040 you need a 2 litre starter to hit commercial pitching rates. You could use the Burton but it's a risk as one advantage of using a starter is that you know if your yeast is dead or alive.

[Parp]

Thanks again for the reply.

og 1047

I've decided to keep the Burton for the next brew.

After much hoo-hah from me about which yeast to use, I did something odd and rehydrated some S-04 and Gervin in the same vessel and pitched em when they'd frothed up nicely.

Both were roughly the same sized pack so the mix will be about 50/50.

I pitched 60% of this and kept 40% in a sterilised PET bottle, which is now in the fridge.

Anyone done this mixed strain type of shenanigan before?

And how long will the rehydrated yeast keep in the fridge ?

Cheers