Mangrove Jack Craft Series Yeasts

[TimT]

Fletcher, just did a robust porter last night. Ended up going with the Newcastle Ale yeast; my plan this time is to tend to it after peak fermentation to try to ensure there's enough high temp to keep the yeast active.

 

[Forever Wort]

I ended up with a 96-hour lag time on the M10 slurry - but it sure foamed up!

 

[TimT]

The issue of attenuation is a tricky one. I've been giving two of my MJ brews a low-tech heat treatment in an attempt to lower their gravity a few points each - basically I'm plonking them in a pot of water during the day and refreshing the water every so often to keep the temp up. That way the temp all around the fermenters is fairly even and the yeast has a warm environment in which to work. At night I put them back on the heat pad - not ideal but maybe yeast is used to cycles of warm day/cool nights and so can adjust to this.

One brew is a Beetroot Ale that's been fermenting over Burton Union yeast. The other is a wheat beer on the Bavarian wheat yeast.

The OG for the Beetroot Ale/Burton Union yeast: 1.060. In eight days it went down to 1.028. Took another sample in six days from then. It's now down to 1.025. This is a little disappointing - I might need to give it an extended nurse for several weeks to make an appreciable change in the gravity. (Perhaps I took this sample too early, anyway.)

The wheat beer OG was 1.066. In three days, that went down to 1.034, and a lot of yeast must have dropped out by then as in my notes I say I 'gave it a swirl'.
At this point I also added some herbs and spices (some lichen and lemon rind). The lemon rind seems to have kicked off a bit of a secondary fermentation. Nine days after that I decided to give this one a bit of a heat treatment, too. I've yet to sample this one, but there are more signs of activity in the wheat beer than the Beetroot Ale - more movement through the airlock, and a fringe of bubbles around the side that have only really subsided in the past day or so.

And that's where I am with both of those brews.

On the plus side, the taste of both is fantastic: the Beetroot Ale is malty and sweet and slightly fruity and spice and, overall, quite pleasantly strange. The wheat beer had a super sweet and yeasty flavour when I tasted it, which yeasty flavour has hopefully been enhanced by some weird licheny flavours from the additives. On the flavour side I'm very satisfied with these yeasts.

 

[Donske]

Can anyone share their experiences with the Bohemian Lager yeast, M84 I think.

I'm currently planning a German pils and am hoping that I can find an adequate dry yeast for the job, I'm tossing up between the MJ yeast and S189 at this point.

 

[Forever Wort]

I have a lager 2.5 weeks into fermentation with the M84. No dramas. Long lag time at 12°C but frothed up eventually. Smells good.

 

[Donske]

Can anyone share their experiences with the Bohemian Lager yeast, M84 I think.

I'm currently planning a German pils and am hoping that I can find an adequate dry yeast for the job, I'm tossing up between the MJ yeast and S189 at this point.

Gonna chicken out and go with S189 for this pilsner, I like to have as many known quantities as possible when brewing something for the first time.

I will grab a couple of packs of the MJ lager and throw them at a cube of cream ale wort, which I think would technically make it a classic American pilsner, should be fun, the lost causes who drink the bloody thing will have a melt down, took long enough to get them comfortable with drinking an ale.

 

[jimi]

I have a helles which had MJ84 pitched to it 3 and a bit weeks ago. The bit of sulfur is starting to disappear now and is tasting very clean at it's expected FG of 1012 (OG 1048). I pitched cold 10c and kept at about 12c until ending at about 15c now to finish off. I did pitch two packs. Quite happy with it at present, it will soon make its way into a dunkel as well

 

[Topher]

I've been reading this thread and just pitched the burton union into a batch of 1043 Irish Red.

Will post results here. My main concern is the reports of low flocculation and soupy beer.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I didn't get low flocc with m79 - in fact it sits like a stone in the bottle and easy to pour a dead clear beer.

 

[indica86]

I did not get "soupy" beer with M79. The Bitter it was used on is great. Repitched slurry into two IPAs and they are both great, and reasonably clear too for me.

 

[indica86]

I have a lager 2.5 weeks into fermentation with the M84. No dramas. Long lag time at 12°C but frothed up eventually. Smells good.

Do you know how long the lag time was? Mine has not kicked off yet and I think I'll cry soon.

 

[SJW]

I pitched M84 Boh Lager 24 hours ago at 20 deg C. It dropped to 15 deg C pretty quick, but still no action. Is this normal?
I hate dry yeast

 

[skwaler]

I used a rehydrated packet of West Coast M44 into 25L of OG1049 @ 20C. No sign of action for 72 hours, then bubbled away happily for 5-6 days. I only bottled this batch last week so can't comment on how this slow start affected flavours.

I've seen many reports of slow starts with the Mangrove yeasts.

 

[AndrewQLD]

I pitched M84 Boh Lager 24 hours ago at 20 deg C. It dropped to 15 deg C pretty quick, but still no action. Is this normal?
I hate dry yeast

My last one took 48 hours to really kick off.

 

[Topher]

My burton was nothing for 48 hours, then a decent krausen and a lovely smell. Pitched and kept at a hospitable 20c, weird.

 

[SJW]

My last one took 48 hours to really kick off.

Ok she is away now, I hope it fully attenuates. Not too worried about lag time as long as it does its job.

 

[jyo]

So far I've made my way through the West Coast, Burton Union, Newcastle Dark, Bavarian Wheat and British Ale.

The only one I've had lag with (24 hours +) is the West Coast Ale.

 

[tj2204]

How long is the burton union taking to ferment out for everyone else?

I've had a batch of standard bitter (1040 og) in the fermenter at a steady 18c for 11 days now and gravity has only dropped to 1018. There is still a thick foam on top of the wort so it still appears to be chugging away, albeit much slower that I was expecting.

 

[indica86]

My Bohemian Lager took 3 days to take off, but then finished in a flash.
Pitched on the 8th, diacetyl rest done and crashing now.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

My M79 was done in a week or so.

I'm happy with the flavour regardless of whether it has that slightly Belgian feel to it.