May 182016
 
Recommendations for Brewing with S. eubayanus

After all of the data had been analyzed, I came up with these basic recommendations for brewing with S. eubayanus. S. eubayanus is a tricky yeast to work with and not for the faint of heart. Many of the brewers were turned off to using it again because their beers did not turn out as […]

May 182016
 
Sensory Analysis of S. eubayanus Beers

Sensory Analysis of S. eubayanus Beers Sensory information of beers brewed with S. eubayanus was gathered through a BJCP-sanctioned competition judged by Certified, National, and Grand Master judges. To standardize and easily quantitate the judging results, the BJCP checklist scoresheet was used. Judges were also required to write notes in the comment sections so a full […]

Apr 132016
 
S. eubayanus Brewing Data

Designing the Experiment In my previous post I introduced the brewing project to analyze Saccharomyces eubayanus as a brewing yeast. After collecting all of the data, they were analyzed using a concept known as design of experiments (DOE). Without delving into theory, the effects of multiple factors (e.g., starting gravity, mash temperature, mash time) on an output […]

Jan 052016
 
S. eubayanus Brewing Project

Currently, there is very little information about brewing beer with S. eubayanus. A search of journal articles on Pubmed (retrieved February 2016) yields only two or three articles relevant to brewing with this yeast. I think this is mostly due to it not being readily available to the brewing community. The yeast can be obtained through a research-only license […]

Nov 102014
 
Brewing with S. eubayanus

I received a slant of Saccharomyces eubayanus (CBS 12357) from Bret Baker via a brew club member who was at NHC this past year. To be sure that I was using a clean, pure culture, I streaked a YPD plate for isolation. I then took 3 colonies and inoculated a few milliliters of 1.040 wort […]

Apr 262013
 

I’m starting to get geared up for the National Homebrewers Conference.  I’ve got my ticket, I’ve got the hotel reservation, the baby sitters are lined up.  Now I just need to get the beer ready.  I’m providing 2 kegs for my homebrew club, and time’s starting to run out.  I had better get brewing.  I […]

Apr 222013
 
English Hop Comparison

Last night a couple guys from my homebrew club put together a nice tasting comparing different English hops. They made a simple bitter with Maris Otter and some crystal malt and single hopped 3 gallon batches to about 50 IBU at 60 and 10 min with 0.25 oz at flameout. It was a great way […]

Nov 302012
 
An alternative starter...

I decided to be a little creative when making my most recent lager yeast starter. I am going to be co-brewing an 11 gallon batch of German pils, and this requires a 2 gallon starter using my starter system. It seems like a waste of beer to just dump 2 gallons of starter down the […]

Nov 012012
 
Yeast Isolation Medium

I have been contemplating taming wild yeast. What I mean is I want to isolate clonal strains of wild yeast, be it S. cerevisiae or Brettanomyces species. By far the latter is more intriguing, as there are hundreds of S. cerevisiae strains available. To begin taming Brett stains I need two things: a source and a medium to specifically […]

Aug 212010
 

I had Jolly Pumpkin’s Bam Bier a bit ago, and I loved it.  It’s a great low-alcohol beer with tons of flavor, and a nice subtle sourness.  I highly recommend buying this if you ever see it.  So, I was inspired to try something similar.  The style is along the lines of a low gravity […]