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Sacrificial turnip

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Hey guys, im pretty new to brewing.
I recently started working at a brewery and I love it and have access to unlimited information and ingredients from my boss but I dont like bothering him too much.
I've been making beer at home to get a better understanding of everything so I dont have to try and learn on 1000 litres batches that I could potentially ruin.
Anyway, I've recently make a dark ale, about 5kg of grain in total, probably about 4.4kg of ale malt and 600g of dark chocolate malt (I think, I was very out of it when I milled the grain) in a roughly 28 litre batch, I used safale us05 yeast, and I've found a fair few forums online saying it makes for a really bad dark beer, I used it because I had a couple packs left from my previous batch,
Anyone have experiences using us05 in dark beers?
 
Works fine, its one of the most popular dry yeasts in the world.
Unfortunately people love to blame anything other than themselves when things go wrong, or not up to the standard they expect. More often than not you really have to try it yourself, always worth having a read of the manufacturers information and following them until you have a lot of experience. US-05.

Personally there are a couple of other choices I would make before US-05 but that's just personal taste.
Good idea to keep notes (and be awake) when you brew, that way if you make a cracker you have a chance of doing it again, also a good chance of learning from the odd dog.
If you ask your boss he would probably let you have a copy of whatever they use in the brewery to record each brew, generally will be a pretty good record of what went in and came out.
Hope you are really good at cleaning, its about 90% of the work that will be coming your way. I've always thought anyone wanting to start in a commercial brewery should get a Cert 3 in mopping.
Mark
 
Hey guys, im pretty new to brewing.
I recently started working at a brewery and I love it and have access to unlimited information and ingredients from my boss but I dont like bothering him too much.
I've been making beer at home to get a better understanding of everything so I dont have to try and learn on 1000 litres batches that I could potentially ruin.
Anyway, I've recently make a dark ale, about 5kg of grain in total, probably about 4.4kg of ale malt and 600g of dark chocolate malt (I think, I was very out of it when I milled the grain) in a roughly 28 litre batch, I used safale us05 yeast, and I've found a fair few forums online saying it makes for a really bad dark beer, I used it because I had a couple packs left from my previous batch,
Anyone have experiences using us05 in dark beers?
US-05 is perfectly fine for dark beers. Are there more appropriate yeasts? Yeah. Will it make "bad" beer? No.

US-05 is a neutral, fairly consistent, low ester producing yeast. It won't express much character, and may leave the beer a little drier than anticipated (unless you plan for it in the recipe)

In future, consider slightly enhancing your grain bill. Dehusked specially grains like Carafa Special 1 2 or 3, chocolate malts, crystal malts, barley all play important roles in a beer.

I think around 5 malts is about the most I would go, and would caution going more than 10% of the grain bill in specialty malts unless you know what you are doing.

Alternatives for dry yeast and dark beers are
S-04
Or London ESB or Ale yeasts.

While I'm not a fan, even the Verdan IPA yeast could work in the right dark beer (I get apricots from it)

Perhaps consider messaging @MHB and asking if he has some tips, as I believe he works or did work in commercial settings. His time may be limited, but it doesn't hurt to ask.

Edit: Disregard he beat me to it on the reply.
 

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