# m44 & us05 IPA battle



## of mice and gods (28/12/13)

So, now that I've got my double batches down I thought I'd start altering things post boil to do some side by side comparisons. This time the variable was yeast, namely MJ's m44 and safale US05.

The candidate was a citra/cascade IPA with perle for bittering. circa 70IBU, OG approx 1060, FG to be measured. two identical fermenters pitched with 20L each of the above brew, not aerated, dry yeast sprinkled over surface (m44 was a dark orange colour, not much movement for the first day then as others saw, it formed a nice tight krausen and did it's thing. US05 was up and running pretty early on, as per usual), on with the glad wrap and ferm fridge set at 18.5c. At day 7 both recieved a dry hop of 15g Citra and 30g Cascade, dropped temp by a degree or two a day for 4 days, crash to 1c for 1 day (in a hurry to have beer for the old boys BBQ)

Anyway, I'm just getting ready to take my FG readings and keg, so had my first taste of the brews. And here are my ignorant tasting thoughts..

m44 - dry hop aroma was excellent, what I've been chasing. on tasting there was a very pronounced short lingering bitterness but not astringent, however it lacked that "citrusy" flavour I am used to from my US05 ales.

US05 - dry hop aroma minimal to almost nil, noticeably less upfront bitterness, more balanced. And it had that "citrusy" flavour I like.

Both are noticeably different beers which I can only account to the yeast being as far as possible I maintained the other variables. Both have good qualities.. if I could get that m44 aroma retention with the us05 flavour I'd be laughing.. so I think I'll keg both and try some blending in the glass.

Pics to follow in a couple of days.

Cheers,
Al


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## law-of-ohms (28/12/13)

Dare you to use both m44 and us05 at the same time.


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## joshF (28/12/13)

Hey of mice and gods, I used m44 in a citra IPA just last sunday and it took a good 2 days before i saw any visible krausen. Definitely smells awesome but usually by now the krausen has settled and starts to clear but this m44 stuff is stubborn as hell. A hydro sample was still sitting at 1.022 so it's not as quick as us05 either. Hopefully with a bit of luck i force carb a 1.25L coke bottle for next friday night and give a taste verdict 

let us know how it goes as this is my first time using this yeast but if its a winner i'd be inclined to use it more often for a bit of variety from my us05 APA's etc.

cheers, Josh


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## of mice and gods (31/12/13)

Ok, guys so it's time to re-visit the APA's after a few days carbed in the keg..

i filled a couple of growlers to take to brew day and was quite surprised that I thought the m44 had lost most of it's aroma (in under a week).

Anyway, I'm going to pull a fresh pint of both and post more..


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## of mice and gods (31/12/13)

m44 - slightly more clarity than the us05 sample, hop aroma has gone from really intense to barely there. However what little remains is a rich hop aroma, no grassy notes. the bitterness has smoothed out a little, going from a really upfront bitterness on the sides of the tongue to a more middle of the tongue slightly less confronting bitterness (if that makes sense? i'm no sommelier) flavour overall not bad, not mind blowingly fantastic but drinkable.

us05 - hop aroma is still low, although slightly pips the m44 at the moment. fresh grassy aroma more predominant than the "rich aroma" of the m44. bitterness is nicely balanced, short lasting on the middle of the tongue with a slight residual bitterness on the back of the tongue. flavour overall good.

Oh, and both yeasts achieved FG of 1.012

So overall, I'm less enamoured with m44 now then when I was tasting my pre-keg gravity samples. I think in the future I'll stick with the us05 as a dry yeast. Although I did pitch 2 cubes of identical APA on the existing m44 & us05 yeast cakes from the IPA (i know I did it the wrong way around but they were both full krausen circa 4 hours).

law-of-ohms, dare accepted. I just knocked up some heavily hopped dark ale, maybe I will try pitching a cup of slurry from each of the m44 and us05.

al


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## Doctormcbrewdle (8/11/17)

I for one much prefer the M44 over US05 I'd been using for years prior. It attenuates slightly better and flavour and aroma just jump out like a good commercial Pale or IPA. I always struggled to get this with 05.


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## Bribie G (8/11/17)

Nice necro doc 

However I'd agree, every MJ yeast I've used has performed better than its counterpart dried yeast from other companies, and often better than liquid yeast equivalents.

I should also say that every alternative yeast to US-05 I've ever used has performed better than US-05


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