Vic 2017 Xmas in July Case Swap

[malt junkie]

It will probably be quite good, my house belgian for a good while was Tony's bright ale clone with dark candy and Abbey yeast.

 

[TheWiggman]

M%&*#$F%&$^R!!
******* Belgian yeasts!!!

BLASPHEMY.
You certainly seem to run into some cross-contamination issues, might be time to move house.

 

[Midnight Brew]

So you have a Belgian x Essex beast? Please do update and save a sample of the yeast to freeze in case you've struck evolutionary gold.

 

[technobabble66]

It will probably be quite good, my house belgian for a good while was Tony's bright ale clone with dark candy and Abbey yeast.

I'm surprised how the OGB has improved over an extra few days-week, so i'm hopeful for that one. Coincidentally used ~5% Lyle's Golden Syrup +2% Oats (of course!) in it, so it'll probably help now that it's a Belgian Bitter .
Not sure about the other 3, partly as i would've added 5+% sugars to them as well, but obviously didn't as i wasn't intending the three Surprise! Belgian ales, and their balance will probably be out a little given the different characteristics of the belgian yeasts. However, given the main issue is probably going to be the darker malts and i'd need to age them a few months to get those to mellow properly even in the intended UK versions, it'll hopefully all mellow out enough to hit a reasonable balance by then.
Who knows, maybe my thoughts on how to balance Belgian beers is all wrong and these accidental batches could be highly educational.
FWIW, that Westy12 clone was all out of whack for the first few months. I tried one last night and after ~6-7 months, it's now hitting ~correct balance, re: bittering, roastyness, hops flavours etc (i.e.: basically all fading into the background a little). So again, i'm optimistic that some age will do wonders for the Surprise! Belgians.

BLASPHEMY.
You certainly seem to run into some cross-contamination issues, might be time to move house.

Only cursing them because they've turned up at the wrong time; otherwise I'm a huge fan.
Yep, agree. That's what's so disappointing - i really nuked the hell out of everything, so it's a little head-scratching as to where the infection might've come from. Taps all broken down & boiled in Sod perc, top of FV & bung hole similarly boiled, then bung sealed and filled with that boiled Sod perc & left overnight. I'm pretty sure i'd boiled the Erlenmeyer flask & the 2nd flask i used for stepping in sod perc as well. Fridge also sprayed down with stars. Twice. Also, i've down an entire series of M22 & S-189 since i used Belgian yeasts - all fine, no weird Belgian elements present. The only thing is i didn't need to do any stepping with those, which means the only thing i did different was to use the 2 flasks - maybe they're the culprits.

So you have a Belgian x Essex beast? Please do update and save a sample of the yeast to freeze in case you've struck evolutionary gold.

Lol - not sure if there's much Essex left. Hopefully there is a bit, but i'd suspect the Surprise Belgian has completely outgunned and overwhelmed it.
FWIW, i've saved 3 small samples of it after each of the first 3 batches, so i've got a little to play with if it turns out to be the GOAT.
Hey, maybe i can claim it's a wild aussie strain, like a modern day Melbourne#1 !!
(Just out of interest, Cam, have you used any of your other WLP-022 slants? Have they all gone true to strain?)

 

[Midnight Brew]

Lol - not sure if there's much Essex left. Hopefully there is a bit, but i'd suspect the Surprise Belgian has completely outgunned and overwhelmed it.
FWIW, i've saved 3 small samples of it after each of the first 3 batches, so i've got a little to play with if it turns out to be the GOAT.
Hey, maybe i can claim it's a wild aussie strain, like a modern day Melbourne#1 !!
(Just out of interest, Cam, have you used any of your other WLP-022 slants? Have they all gone true to strain?)

Yeah used a few and always had good attention, certainly not as low as yours and never Belgian characters.

 

[technobabble66]

hey, what was the total number of cubes we got out of the stout, or rather, what was the final volume out of the kettle?
(Just setting up the spreadsheet for it - looking for an efficiency estimate we can use next time).

 

[malt junkie]

I think 70-75% was bantered about.

 

[technobabble66]

Quick update:
1) 20L Mongrel flatlined at 1.006, so i dry hopped it with 75g Simcoe + 50g Vic Secret. See what happens. A Belgian Golden IPA. Another style for manticle: BGIPA. I know he loves to see new IPA styles. Tasting good out of the 2ndary FV after 4 days CCing.

2) Pitched a 10L cube of the stout onto the Surprise! Belgian yeast cake @19°C, turned out to be ~8L due to a massive amount of trub from being a late cube to be filled. Down to 1.026 within 24hrs, so i added ~1L water + 300g D2 Candi Syrup (why not?!) & cranked it to 22°C. Now down to 1.008, tasty pretty damn good already! See where it stops, but hopefully it's already hit FG.

Looking forward to comparing these in December (esp to droid's stout)

EDIT: This cube didn't have any cube hops added, so the bitterness is a little lower. I'm hoping that it'll work with the high attenuation of the Surprise! Belgian yeast & very low FG. FWIW, the Mongrel prior to this hit 92% attenuation, the one before that hit 80%, so who knows where this'll end up!

 

[Curly79]

Been in the keg for 1 week now so I had to have a sneaky sample. It's very nice! Thick and delicious. Little bit floral? Wasn't expecting that. Definitely taste the alcohol but should be bloody good once it mellows a bit.

 

[droid]

Really looking forward to sitting around tasting and discussing the different ferments at Cams, it'll be edumacational for sure

 

[AJ80]

Checked the gravity of my lager-stout tonight. Down to 1.020. First 10 days were at 10C and the last five days have been at 18C for a D-rest. Turned the heat off and will let it free fall for a few days and will check the gravity over the weekend. If stable, I'll give it 2-3 weeks lagering before bottling.

Sample tasted very very smooth tonight.

 

[droid]

^lager stout ... @AJ80 sounds very interesting!

 

[laxation]

Back to pitching on the yeast cake, if I use some of the cake from the case swap brew, how much flavour from the previous beer carries over? Eg. does the chocolate come through?

 

[technobabble66]

Just out of interest, what was the FG peeps were getting with the '17 July Swap Stout from the non-belgian yeasts?

Mine's on a 059 yeast cake and seems to have slowed down at ~1.020.

I had to run it at 15-16°C for a few days (~day 2-4) after cleaning up my FV fridge 4 times due to explosive krausen - the last was at 17°C. ******* yeast.
Cranked it to 21-22°C for the last couple of days & it's maybe chewed 2 points off.

Tasting awesome from the hydro sample, by the way.

 

[TheWiggman]

By memory mine ended up around there. I used an English yeast I hadn't used before. Details a few pages back.

 

[laxation]

1.018 and 1.02 for mine

 

[droid]

thought i got 1014 - finishing with a Belgian Saison Yeast

 

[mofox1]

1.012 with my 5th Gen Burton, unfortunately it's fusel city :-(

 

[Danscraftbeer]

1.018 with M42 New World Strong Ale. Neutral flavour yeast its yummy liquid Dark Chocolate.