While the brew master is away the minions must work and occasionally make important decisions. This past weekend I took Brian’s usual spot as captain of our brew team and brewed a couple fresh batches of IPA. As usual there was some good, some bad and some real weird. The good and the bad were directly correlative to the level of intoxication affecting the ersatz brew master.
The weird was the new yeast I tried. My hand was forced because our local brew supply store was out of the Rogue Pac Man that we had been using for our IPA’s. On the advice of a fellow brewer I gave – American Ale Yeast – 1272 a shot, and man was that wild. I made a starter a couple of days before hand, so it had been sitting for about 48 hours before I pitched it. After pitching it I cleaned up the brew shop and headed home to sleep it off.
What I returned to the next morning was the aftermath of a yeast bomb. The yeast had popped up through the airlock, covered everything in a yeasty, beery mixture and left about a quarter inch of beer in the bottom of the kettle that the carboy was resting in. Certainly we expect some overflow. As a rule it happens with the Pac – Man but nothing like this. This was a different animal all together and it made a damn mess.
Anyway, we’ll see what happens with the beer. I moved it to the secondary fermenter yesterday and it attenuated perfectly although it was not as clear as I would have liked. Time will tell but I think we’ll likely play around with this yeast some more.
Here’s what Wyeast Labs has to say about it:
With many of the best qualities that brewers look for when brewing American styles of beer, this strain’s performance is consistent and it makes great beer. Fruitier and more flocculent than Wyeast 1056 American Ale yeast, slightly nutty, soft, clean with a slightly tart finish. Ferment at warmer temperatures to accentuate hop character with intense fruitiness, or ferment cool for clean, light citrus character. Expect good attenuation, but this will vary with grist makeup, mashing protocol, or other wort characteristics. Reliably flocculent, producing bright beer without filtration.