18th Feb Brewing my Dubbel

Get advice on making beer from raw ingredients (malt, hops, water and yeast)
steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:33 am

Saflager S-23 has a reputation of leaving a fruity flavour - which may or may not be what you want in a lager. Fermentis do two other lager yeasts but only in 500g packs. One is W-34/70 which apparently is a rather nice lager yeast.

oblivious

Post by oblivious » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:42 am

steve_flack wrote:Saflager S-23 has a reputation of leaving a fruity flavour - which may or may not be what you want in a lager. Fermentis do two other lager yeasts but only in 500g packs. One is W-34/70 which apparently is a rather nice lager yeast.
It’s for sale in the Australia as 11 gram packs, maybe we should get on to hop and grape to stock it?

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 10:54 am

Last I heard the H&G had/were getting some on a trial basis. I haven't heard anything since then.

mysterio

Post by mysterio » Tue Feb 20, 2007 11:59 am

Hop & Grape are really good about bringing stuff in if you ask. I wouldn't mind trying the W-34/70 lager yeast, It's a hassle getting a good pitching rate with liquid yeast. Not a problem with dry yeast. I hear W-34/70 is the Weihenstephan strain.

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:18 pm

If you can figure out away of keeping it sterile then you can get it in 500g packs from Charles Faram (or perhaps your local micro can order it when they next get hops). The price I have here says it's £30.60 for 500g (presumably +VAT). As an aside the ale yeasts are really cheap in bulk

S-33 £11.28
T-58 £12.76
S-04 £15.32
US-56 £16.10
K-97 £16.80
S-23 £28.40
S-189 or W34-70 £30.60

I find it odd that the ale yeasts all cost about the same in bulk but S-04 is much cheaper than US-56 and T-58 in the 11g packs.

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:29 pm

I've heard of the concept of "Yeast washing", is that related?

mysterio

Post by mysterio » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:32 pm

So is it not possible to bulk buy the sachets? What do homebrew shops do?

Yeast washing is a process of recycling yeast, whereby the leftover gunk at the end of fermentation is mixed with sterile water, helping the yeast to seperate from the trub/hop particulate.

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:35 pm

You can only bulk buy the sachets if they sell it in sachets - not all are sold in that format.

I suppose you could repackage a big pack into vacuum sealed bags - if you have a vacuum sealer. It won't be sterile but would be better than constantly reopening a bag.

A vacuum sealer is looking like a handy bit of kit as you could also do hops that way too.

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 12:37 pm

maxashton wrote:I've heard of the concept of "Yeast washing", is that related?
That's where you wash recovered yeast slurry in phosphoric acid. Yeast is more acid resistant than bugs so the acid kills the bugs leaving a fair bit of the yeast alive.

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:09 pm

Presumably then it needs a wort starter and off you pop.
Nice, thanks Steve.

steve_flack

Post by steve_flack » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:12 pm

Yes, it need a starter. Don't just pour it into your beer as it makes your beer a bit sour (been there, done that :roll: )

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Tue Feb 20, 2007 1:36 pm

good to have with chips, perhaps?
:lol:

PieOPah

Post by PieOPah » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:11 am

Pleased to say that my Dubbel is fermenting very nicely. Last night there was a nice big krausen. This morning it appears to have almost doubled in size. Almost no signs of it slowing down.

maxashton

Post by maxashton » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:12 am

Good result, Pie.
How does it smell?

:D

PieOPah

Post by PieOPah » Wed Feb 21, 2007 10:15 am

At the moment all I can really smell is the C02 with a faint aroma of beer.

I think I may take a sneaky 'let's see how it's getting along' sample tonight :)

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