Conan yeast strain

[john luc]

Anyone here got their hands on this yeast. It is a talking point in the US atm.

[seymour]

Not yet, you?

I've had Heady Topper but only at an invitation-only Ratebeer gathering, because they don't distribute to my state. Heady Topper really is uniquely tasty. I hadn't thought about it being largely due to a fruity yeast strain.

I've never heard which strain "The Alchemist" started with though, have you?

[john luc]

A bunch of lads here in Ireland are planning to group buy some to see what all the fuss is about. Claims to be much more active at converting hop oils then other yeast strains and getting new flavors in IPA's.

[seymour]

A bunch of lads here in Ireland are planning to group buy some to see what all the fuss is about. Claims to be much more active at converting hop oils then other yeast strains and getting new flavors in IPA's.

Here's why: Conan yeast doesn't "get new hoppy flavours" so much as it does not strip them away the way most ultra-clean yeasts do when they flocculate out, or when other IPA breweries filter before bottling. Heady Topper comes in a can, on which is boldly printed "Drink From The Can", specifically because the Conan yeast is so cloudy and gunky and flakey, there are big visible floaties all throughout. The brewer is smart enough to know most people don't want to look at that in their fancy glass, but that's the very reason so many yeast-derived and hops-derived fruity esters remain in Heady Topper. That and the fact it's an especially estery yeast to begin with, and he ferments quite warm to accentuate it.

We homebrewers with cloudy bottle-fermented and cask-conditioned ales already know a lot about this, but "The Alchemist" successfully built a business model around it. He's not the only one of course, the Marble Dobber I just had last week would tick most of these boxes, I'd put it up there with my memory of Heady Topper...

Best of luck in your quest, but I have a feeling it was probably a low-flocculating, high-attenuating, estery English ale strain to begin with, along the lines of Ringwood, Fullers, Gales, etc...

[YeastWhisperer]

A few brave souls, including yours truly, allege that Conan is derived from the pitching yeast that Ballantine used at the large malting and brewing operation in Newark, New Jersery. All of Ballantine's ales were brewed at this complex. Ballantine had a smaller brewery in Newark where it produced "Ballantine Beer." Both of the Ballantine strains are held in the NRRL culture collection. Here are the NRRL assession numbers and data for the two known Ballantine strains:

Y-7407 Saccharomyces cerevisiae Meyen ex E. C. Hansen (1883)
G.W. Lange, Ballantine, New Jersey BR, Beer pitching yeast

Y-7408 Saccharomyces cerevisiae Meyen ex E. C. Hansen (1883)
G.W. Lange, Ballantine, Newark, New Jersey BR, Ale pitching yeast

There is growing evidence that points to Y-7407 being the parent of the Chico strain. Sierra Nevada obtained their pitching yeast (BRY 96) from the Siebel Institute of Technology. BRY 96 is from a brewery formerly operating on the East Coast brewery. There was only one major ale brewery on the East Coast; namely, Ballantine. It all makes sense because Chico ferments clean enough to produce a psuedo-American light lager. Chico is known to throw sulfur. A few us believe that Conan is derived from Y-7408. In fact, the result of fermentations conducted with the Y-7408 culture that Al Buck revived from lyophilized (freeze-dried dormant) form pretty much match those of Conan.

BRY 96

This is a flocculent top fermenting ale yeast from a brewery formerly operating on the East Coast of the United States. It produces a very clean ale flavor which has been well accepted in a number of breweries.

With the above said, the good news for non-yeast geeks is that Al has made both of these strains available in liquid form. His company is called East Coast Yeast. Y-7408 is being sold as ECY10 Old Newark Ale. Y7407 is being sold as ECY12 Old Newark Beer.

ECY10 Old Newark Ale
Sourced from a now defunct east coast brewery, this pure strain was identified as their “ale pitching yeast”. Good for all styles of American and English ales. Top fermenting, high flocculation with a solid sedimentation. Suggested fermentation temp: 60-68°F. Apparent Attenuation: 68-72% Resurrected from a freezed-dried deposit library, this pure strain of S. cerevisae is NOT the rumored Chico strain.


ECY12 Old Newark beer
Sourced from the same defunct east coast brewery as ECY10, this pure strain was used as their “beer pitching yeast”. The strain has been identified as S. cerevisae, hence it is not a true lager strain, but should ferment at lager temperatures. Could this be the parent strain of Chico? Suggested fermentation temp: 58-68°F, Apparent Attenuation: medium

[seymour]

I've read the Ballantine theory before, and you could certainly be right. But I don't know how to make the timeline work.

Heady Topper has been on the market using their adapted yeast which The Alchemist supposedly got from Greg Noonan several years before Al revived the Newark strains, right? Are you suggesting they obtained a sample of the same freeze-dried culture even earlier, or that Al also had it for many years before offering it for sale through his ECY company? I remember when ECY first announced these strains, and how Al differentiated them from the ubiquitous Siebel/Sierra Nevada strain; it sure sounded like he had only recently obtained them.

[YeastWhisperer]

Al is not the original source of the Ballantine cultures. The Ballantine cultures have been in the NRRL Culture Collection since at least the early seventies because they were added by Ballantine. Anyone who is affiliated with a research organization can request lyophilized (freeze-dried dormant) yeast cultures from the NRRL Culture Collection (cultures can only be shipped to a valid research organization address).

I believe that Al has retracted his claim about NRRL Y-7407 (a.k.a. ECY12 Old Newark Beer) not being related to BRY 96. All roads point to NRRL Y-7407 being the same strain as BRY 96. Now, NRRL Y-7408 (ECY10 Old Newark Ale) is an entirely different animal. From what I can tell, Al is the first commercial yeast supplier to offer NRRL Y-7408 to the masses.

[Trefoyl]

A quick search found this experiment culturing the yeast from the can:
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2012/09/cu ... heady.html

Joe Bair of Princeton Homebrew sells the ECY strains through the mail is my LHBS. I've only used the Newark Ale and it flocculates tremendously as described, but the reviews say Conan does not. It would be pretty cool if the ale or beer strains were closely related.

[6470zzy]

A quick search found this experiment culturing the yeast from the can:
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2012/09/cu ... heady.html

but the reviews say Conan does not.

Which apparently is why they want you to drink it from the can, so that you don't notice the floaters I have yet to taste the Heady Topper myself, so close and yet so far

Cheers

[YeastWhisperer]

A quick search found this experiment culturing the yeast from the can:
http://www.bear-flavored.com/2012/09/cu ... heady.html

Joe Bair of Princeton Homebrew sells the ECY strains through the mail is my LHBS. I've only used the Newark Ale and it flocculates tremendously as described, but the reviews say Conan does not. It would be pretty cool if the ale or beer strains were closely related.

One can alter the way a yeast strain flocculates by altering how it is cropped. Ballantine used open fermentors. They more than likely cropped at high krausen. If the same yeast is used in conical fermentors and one continuously crops from the top of the cone, the yeast will become less flocculent and more attenuate over time. The opposite will occur of one crops from the bottom of the cone. That's why brewers who use conical fermentors tend to crop from the middle of the cone.

[john luc]

The group buy of this strain has arrived,25 vials. . Need to think of a recipe next.

[seymour]

The group buy of this strain has arrived,25 vials. . Need to think of a recipe next.

which strain?

[john luc]

Sorry forgot to say,it's the Vermont IPA Yeast GY054

[seymour]

...Need to think of a recipe next.

I assume you've seen this well-documented clone thread? The fact is, there aren't many hard facts, but lots of theories are summarized there.

[john luc]

Debate is running about how best to get the best out of this yeast. Seems to be a yeast that is a friend of hops