Mangrove Jack Craft Series Yeasts

[TimT]

I'm impressed though with the carbonation on the first ale I fermented on my MJ British Ale yeast, and the taste was quite satisfactory - a pleasant apple-ester character and a slightly fruity yeasty bitterness. It's what I want in my beers at the moment: yeast that performs well and brings out the character in malt with little or no hops. When I crack some of my beers from MJ yeasts over the coming days/weeks I'll be able to make some more observations re: carbonation.

 

[noz]

I have lately been having a few carbonation issues of my own but at the moment I'm hesitant to blame it on the yeast. Could be a side effect of the cold weather.

You're probably right, when I say room temp, I mean the cold part of the house so it could probably do with it a bit warmer in the bottle.


To your health and happiness.

 

[TimT]

I suspect the cold is knocking around the beers in my study too, still on heat pads but looking a little lacklustre at the moment. They get warm bottoms and cold tops at night.

 

[Forever Wort]

Of the brew before last, bottled a month ago, only half have carbed satisfactorily. The batch after that carbed perfectly, 100%. Of the most recently bottled, only three bottles have carbed so far.

The weather is definitely playing a role in my opinion.

 

[noz]

I've never had the same trouble with fermentis brand yeast. I find the safales work right down to 14 or 15 degrees. Might stick to that and try mangroves again in November when it warms up.

 

[technobabble66]

I pitched in the Mangrove Jacks British Ale yeast into my latest brew, a pale ale, yesterday afternoon. Almost no signs of activity yet - for most of that time the bubble in the airlock has indicated more pressure from the outside than from the inside! I pitched when the wort was about 20 degrees and chucked in a couple of raisins for natural nutrient.

I think the yeast is having a bit of a sook because of cold temps overnight; I'm going to keep the brew at a fairly steady 20 degrees or so today to give the yeast a chance to work up some steam. If it's still doing nothing in a day or so I'll chuck in some nutrient.

Same - mine took several days to properly fire up. But to be fair, i was a bit slack with temp control - it dropped "a bit" from 22°C down to 15°C over 3-4 days before i decided f*&^% it i've gotta nurse this, & added some heat. 2 days later a nice 1" krausen formed & is now tasting great. We'll see how it ends up!

 

[going down a hill]

I suspect the cold is knocking around the beers in my study too, still on heat pads but looking a little lacklustre at the moment. They get warm bottoms and cold tops at night.

You could always throw a blanket over the top of the beers to keep them warm at night?

 

[mje1980]

Or spoon them

 

[TimT]

Had another one today - pumpkin ale today, fermented over the British Ale yeast. More than adequate carbonation and a full bouquet of flavours to boot.

 

[TimT]

Even if the cold is knocking them about a bit I am noticing a few problems with attenuation. Bottled a red ale fermented over the Newcastle Ale yeast today, and the gravity was still in the high 20s - 10.28, down from 1.030 when I sampled earlier in the week. It started at 1.056. Not ideal!

I've observed the Newcastle Ale yeast in particular seems to have a very quick uptake and does a lot of fermentation rapidly in the first day or so. Within hours it will have started, and in a few more hours carbonation will be occurring extremely rapidly. And then, often.... it quietly disperses and sinks to the bottom, not bothering with the last portion of sugar. This can be a sizeable portion, as seen above.

So I'm thinking maybe a bit more nursing is desirable for these yeasts: maybe mutliple additions of yeast nutrient for stages in the yeast's life cycle? I may try that for further brews.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

I would say more constant temps, heat belt thats controlled. Keep the temp at the top end of the range late into ferment.
Every winter I hear what you are saying, the answer is the same.
Nev

 

[TimT]

Hmm. Thanks for that. My other idea was move them to another room, maybe near the oven. My heater for this study (where the yeast and I do work sitting alongside one another) has gone bork, so I can't keep the room temp warm.

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

I agree.
Sounds like the Newcastle yeast behaves like a lot of the other english yeasts do. It likes to be warmed up towards the end of fermentation.

I like to pitch them cool and then warm them up slowly over the ferment (about 1C a day). Doing this I often get quite high attenuation.

 

[fletcher]

I agree.
Sounds like the Newcastle yeast behaves like a lot of the other english yeasts do. It likes to be warmed up towards the end of fermentation.

I like to pitch them cool and then warm them up slowly over the ferment (about 1C a day). Doing this I often get quite high attenuation.

what sorts of temps are you talking about mate? starting at what and finishing at what?

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

what sorts of temps are you talking about mate? starting at what and finishing at what?

Depends on how clean/estery I want the beer and the yeast.

Typically for a fairly clean beer with a hint of english fruity esters I will pitch at ~16. Then set the fridge to 19C. It will usually take about ~24 hr to reach 19C and I keep it there for a day or two. Then start bumping it up 1C each day until I get to 21-22C.

I have never used the newcastle yeast, but have done similar things with WLP 002, 007, 013, Wyeast 1028 and SO4 all producing good results.

 

[technobabble66]

As I mentioned above, I accidentally hv done the same. Dropped as low as 15*C by day 2 w no sign of activity. Gradually raised it to 18-19 over 2 days using a couple of PET bottles of hot water in the bottom of the fermentation fridge (works well as a ghetto solution to maintain a 1-2*C range). After another day or 3 had krausen forming. 17 days after pitching it's dropped from 1.055(?) to 1.016, with about 4 points to go. Bit slow, but not too bad considering it was hypothermic for the first 2-3 days. Smells nice - slight pear notes I think.
So I'd agree w RB, it seems to behave similar to other British yeasts I've read about - needs a bit more nursing with heat than some of the other strains.

 

[RelaxedBrewer]

Even if the cold is knocking them about a bit I am noticing a few problems with attenuation. Bottled a red ale fermented over the Newcastle Ale yeast today, and the gravity was still in the high 20s - 10.28, down from 1.030 when I sampled earlier in the week. It started at 1.056. Not ideal!

Am I reading this correctly, that you bottled at a FG of 28?

 

[TimT]

Yep. As I said, not ideal. (It tastes pretty good though).

 

[AndrewQLD]

The Newcastle Ale yeast does not attenuate very well, the spec sheet on this yeast states that it doesn't as well. I've brewed 3 times with this yeast and each time my fg was around 1.016 with the starting gravity being around 1.054. It's a yeast for full bodied brown or dark ales and if you use it in the correct style it gives a beautiful rounded malt flavour.

 

[beermeupscotty]

Even if the cold is knocking them about a bit I am noticing a few problems with attenuation. Bottled a red ale fermented over the Newcastle Ale yeast today, and the gravity was still in the high 20s - 10.28, down from 1.030 when I sampled earlier in the week. It started at 1.056. Not ideal!

I've observed the Newcastle Ale yeast in particular seems to have a very quick uptake and does a lot of fermentation rapidly in the first day or so. Within hours it will have started, and in a few more hours carbonation will be occurring extremely rapidly. And then, often.... it quietly disperses and sinks to the bottom, not bothering with the last portion of sugar. This can be a sizeable portion, as seen above.

So I'm thinking maybe a bit more nursing is desirable for these yeasts: maybe mutliple additions of yeast nutrient for stages in the yeast's life cycle? I may try that for further brews.

Had similar problems with the Newcastle Dark Ale M03 yeast. Recently fermented a brown ale using a starter with the dry yeast (I've since read that people generally don't do starters from dry yeast). It took off like crazy but stopped pretty quickly at 1.022. I thought maybe this was on account of my starter so I pitched another pack of the dry stuff but no more fermentation occurred. I think I may have pitched slightly high (24-26°C) but temperature controlled it at 19°C, followed by 21°C.