Don’t ask about batch one because I don’t want to talk about it. Pouring that much would-have-been beer into a drain feels like an almost unforgivable party foul. Batch 2, a hoppy porter based on extract and mixed crystal malts, went well except that the boiling wort needed more attention than expected. The homemade wort chiller worked well.
Waiting 24 hours for the airlock to start bubbling was agony. Starter cultures for me and to hell with kit directions. It’s not like I respect recipes-as-written for any other type of food.
One question for the community: I bought a 2-gal. fermenter to try making beer with genetics research yeast, so now I’m searching for beer recipes that go well with (or cover up) suboptimal yeast strains. Finnish sahti comes to mind, although I’m not sure that many will appreciate a sour juniper-tinged rye beer that tastes like bread yeast. Or will they? Discuss.
***Update***
As per the comments, feel free to submit names for my first successful batch made with genetics yeast. The winning entry will go on the label.
Bombadil
Boilover?
Tim F.
A touch.
Bombadil
After my first boilover (and the ensuing two hours of clean-up, and the numerous complaints of the smell of burnt hops filling the house), I have been extremely vigilant when the wort gets close to boiling. I use a probe thermometer and set it for 200 degrees if I’m even going to be in the other room for a few minutes. I never want to have to scrape solidified malt sugars off a stovetop, burner, burner pan and drip pan again.
VidaLoca
Bummer. That didn’t take very long — what happened?
Tim F.
My wife was pretty horrified, but honestly it wasn’t that bad. It took three squeezes of a sponge to get wort off the stove. It took more work to recover the precious hops from the lid and sides of the pot.
Bombadil
I’m going to guess the Dreaded Clots of Goo floating on top of the primary. That’s what happened the last time I had to throw out a batch. In fact, I had three batches in a row go that way — and I performed all my sanitization rituals each time. Did the same thing on the fourth batch and it came out fine.
The gods of brewing are a fickle bunch.
RSA
To be named. . .
The Lager of Dr. Moreau?
Mary Barley’s Frankenstein Ale?
The Porter from the Black Lagoon?
Bombadil
You got off easy. I was out of the room when it boiled over, and the burner was on high. I lost nearly half the batch.
Bombadil
Soylent Grain?
Michael D.
It absolutely IS.
You need to do what my father used to do when he screwed up a batch:
Run it thought a distiller! Shine!
brendancalling
“Waiting 24 hours for the airlock to start bubbling was agony.”
You had to had to wait an entire 24 hours? That sounds kind of long: is your house really cold or are you using less yeast than usual? I can usually expect some signs of fermentation after 8 hours.
I don’t know what the “Dreaded Clots of Goo” refers to, but if it has to do with clogging your airlock, the solution is to replace to airlock with a sanitized outflow tube that empties into a jar of sanitizer solution.
Blake
Heh, I will now illustrate the difference in reactions to boilover between brewing on the stove, and brewing on a standalone burner, i.e. outside.
Stove:
“HOLY CRAP, I may have just ruined the stove, and look at that sticky mess pouring down onto the hardwoods, oh damn oh damn oh DAMN!”
Propane burner:
(yawns)”Oh look, the wort’s boiling over, guess I’ll start my timer and get the hops ready. Suppose I’ll have to rinse off the porch again, better bring the garden hose around.”
BTW, standalone burners are real cheap this time of year for all the crazy people who want to deep fry a Thanksgiving turkey.
Tim F.
Not a bad idea. We certainly have enough distillers in my vicinity…
binzinerator
Two-headed Lambic?
Six-Fingered Stout?
Albino Ale?
Blake
I wouldn’t worry about style of beer for your yeast experiments, BTW. If the yeast does anything bad, you’re going to have “off” flavors, and probably toss the batch regardless. I’d suggest extra malty varieties, but that’d just mean you’ll toss out an extra expensive batch. Just pick something you like, and scale down the recipe to two gallons.
Bombadil
I’m going to print this comment off and post it on the refrigerator as part of my Christmas list.
Trevor B
Whenever I have yeast that is performing suboptimally, I will often do a secondary fermentation with some added lambic bacteria, notably B. lambicus. This is naturally occurring airborne bacteria found in the air around Belgium, it gives beers a nice fruity smell and taste, the bacteria is also capable of fermenting everything the yeast is. Alternatively if fermentation is bad one could always add lager yeast to clean out the flavor of the unfermentables. As a microbiologist I am interested in what kind of genetics research yeast you obtained?
Tim F.
Yes, the apartment was about 67-68 F when I pitched the dry yeast packet. Like I said, from now on it’s a primed culture of live yeast for me.
Blake
Binzinerator, yeah a Lambic would work, except that you then have to quarantine all the equipment that you use. One batch of lambic and it’s not safe for regular beer again, ever. Just for bonus pain, lambic takes six months minimum to finish, and you don’t want to wait that long to find out something’s wrong (trust me on this one!).
Bombadil
Six months is nothing — try making a mead and waiting for two years to find out if it turned out right. Sure you can drink it before then, but it doesn’t start to hit its stride until at least two years are up.
brendancalling
“Like I said, from now on it’s a primed culture of live yeast for me.”
Definitely. Always. And of course, when you transfer, reserve the yeast on the bottom of the primary fermenter for your next batch. It’ll keep for about a week in the fridge, and it’s already cultured. I brewed up a batch of ale on Saturday, and primary fermentation is almost done. I should be able to transfer by tuesday or wednesday. I think you can reuse yeast up to four times.
What i learned the hard way is that too much ambient heat is no good either. When XMas ale #2 was in the primary, not only had the temperature dropped, pay day was a week away, and thus the fuel purchase for the winter (oil heat). I put a space heater near the fermenter, but it was too close and the yeast went nuts for about a day, and then bupkes. We transferred anyway, but i think the beer’s going to be kind of weak.
Bombadil
Re: sitting near a space heater — I have never tried this, but have seen recommendations that you put your fermenter on top of (or alternately, wrap the fermenter in) a heating pad set on low.
Anyone have any experience in this? Given the price of heating oil this year, I may need to try it.
Libby Spencer
Double Helix Dark
or maybe just
DNA Dark
brendancalling
“I have never tried this, but have seen recommendations that you put your fermenter on top of (or alternately, wrap the fermenter in) a heating pad set on low.”
Sounds sketchy to me. I will say that I used the space heater on this latest batch as well, just moved it a little further away. Everything was OK this AM.
Putting the fermenter on or near your refrigerator might be a happy medium. Perhaps behind the fridge near the heat sink?
Another question: how many of us are kegging?
demimondian
Following up on a question from the previous thread:
Yes, exactly. I enjoy it — it’s just plain FUN. No, when I’m done, I can’t have more than a couple of sips of the stuff (hey, this breathing business? It’s fun, too. Try not doing it for a while, if you want to understand that.) But I can give it away, and my friends are always impressed.
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
How about:
Boyer-Cohen Brew?
Stooleo
I’ve been brewing all grains since 94′ and in my opinion, kegging is the single greatest time saver you can do as a brewer. Also it gives you a great excuse to build a keggerator!
I bet no one can top this brewing disaster. I made 12 gallons of alt beer and was fermenting them in glass carboys. I had a rubber cork with a hole in it and a plastic hose shoved into it; this was to vent off the CO2. So at 2:30 in the morning the hose got plugged and the carboy blew up. Half fermented beer and shattered glass over everything! It was lucky it happened so late cause it probaby would have killed me had I been around when it blew. Spent 4 hrs cleaning up. Now days I don’t even use a fermentation lock, just double up some plastic wrap and wrap it over the neck of the carboy. This works great no infections and no explosions.
Z
Frankenbrewed
brendancalling
“I’ve been brewing all grains since 94’ and in my opinion, kegging is the single greatest time saver you can do as a brewer. Also it gives you a great excuse to build a keggerator!”
Agreed 100%. I love kegging. We’ve brewed 2 5-gallon batches of XMas ale to give out as presents, and I am NOT looking forward to the bottling. Sure, we’re saving work by using the 22-ounce bottles, but still. That’s a lot of scrubbing, soaking, and of course dumping noxious chemicals down the drain.
mazzy
Belchworthy Beer
Tim F.
I’m not sure how many kinds of wild-type S. cerevisiae there exist in the genetics world, but I plan on using the upstairs variety. When (if) that works I will move on to a strain expressing a temperature-sensitive nucleolar protein on which a friend based part of her thesis. It’s more of a sentimental project than a money-saving effort on my part.
Billy K
I envy you all.
When I finally buy my own damn house, I’m doing this.
Bombadil
My son-in-law does it out their small third-floor apartment.
Punchy
I wouldn’t do this if I were you. If you’re absolutely positive it’s wild-type…perhaps. But if you’re using transfected strains with odd plasmids, just wait until it rearranges under stress and starts secreting toxins. And is yeast grown on solid agar going to divide at the same rate when placed in solution?
Billy K
I know. My brewing friends tell me I have room. I don’t. There isn’t a square foot not accounted for in my apartment right now, and I’m probably moving to a smaller place soon.
RSA
I should have written, Mary Barley’s Frankenstein, or the Modern Inebriate.
I actually have brewed beer, inspired by several friends who entered beer competitions with their “products” when I was living in Massachusetts. My stuff never turned out very good, though.
Fwiffo
Severed Finger Ale
Kit Smith
I do wine instead of beer, though beer will be on the fermentation list soon. Right now I’ve got about 30 gallons going in the basement. It takes up surprisingly little space, as I’ve got 4 carboys and 2 primary fermenters going at once. My first batch of wine was called Mad Train, much to the annoyance of the wine connoisseurs in my family who wouldn’t show it to their friends unless they knew me personally. I’m thinking the next batch will be called Ragin’ Hobo.
As for a beer name… Weaponized [Yeast Strain Here] might be amusing. Maybe “CDC Watchlist” or “SCIENCE!!!” would work too. If I win the naming contest, do I get a bottle?
Kit Smith
…the filter cut out my multiple exclamation points after SCIENCE. Add three of them in there.
maxbaer (not the original)
How about “I can’t believe it’s not Botulinum.”
JWeidner
Building off Kit’s idea of “weaponized”…
How about Ale of Mass Destruction
binzinerator
Blake:
That might be necessary anyways, what with that genetics research yeast and wild-type S. cerevisiae transfected strains with odd plasmids secreting toxins and all!
Cripes, the entire block might have to be quarantined!
binzinerator
Plasmids Porter, what else?
demimondian
“Milk Medium Stout”
“Dump Pale Ale”
“Pipetteperson Porter”
“Cerevesiae Cerveza” (Mexican lagers are marzens, if you’re going to make this. If not, though, let me know. I may make it myself.)
JWW
Tim,
A good choice, if you have the opportunity would be a good honey and gingered beer. They are very tasty, very well at 45 – 50 serving temp. The ginger range is about 2 – 3oz, sliced not grated, and around 2 cups of honey. This is per 5 gallons. It is a good duet in many fine beer recipes, and won’t overpower lighter recipes if limited to beer style.
Second,
Try corriander(cracked), but the beer must be served very cold.
Either way the added flavors of either, will due well in giving a pleasent flavor. It’s holiday season. Don’t use pumpkin.
Guido Montefeltro
Tim F:
“One question for the community: I bought a 2-gal. fermenter to try making beer with genetics research yeast, so now I’m searching for beer recipes that go well with (or cover up) suboptimal yeast strains.”
Brewer’s yeasts are products of years of genetic engineering, much like breeds of dogs. They are isolated for specific purposes and make a specific product. Playing with them is fun, but the results are very unpredictable.
The only really successful crossover I know of is steam beer, which is brewed with lager yeast under ale conditions. (Lagers require longer fermentation at low temperatures. Steam beer is perhaps the only purely American style – and damned good.)
But if you want to experiment, try using light malt, a very long boil, and minimal hops. That way the yeast flavors will be the most pronounced. Warning: This may not be a good thing.
Try this, for 2 gallons of Blade Runner Ale:
3 lb light malt
1 gallon H2O + more to top off
1 oz Cascade hops (pellet, plug, whatever)
Bad-ass genetically engineered yeast
1/3 cup corn sugar (for bottling)
Bring H2O to a rolling boil and add malt and half the hops. Boil 70 minutes, stirring frequently, add the second half of the hops, and boil another 5 minutes. Cool, top off to 2 gallons, and pitch yeast.
When fermentation is complete or after 10 days, boil corn sugar in 1/2 cup H2O for 5 minutes, cover, cool, and add to the wort. Bottle and let sit at 70F for two weeks or until they explode, whichever comes first. Good luck!
Hell, I might try this myself.
demimondian
Hmm. Actually, FDDD and I were discussing this — Tim, the look on her face at the thought of using a lab strain was worth the whole thing right there, by the way — you’re probably going to want a recipe which covers a multitude of sins, and, trust me, your lab strain will be sinning something severe. You’re going to get cogener and fusel alcohols, and all sorts of…interesting…estery “accents”.
In short, the stuff is likely to smell incredibly flowery and fruity, and be utterly clear, highly alcoholic, and almost certainly undrinkable. In fact, given the tendency of wild yeast strains to throw off methanol during fermentation, I’d probably be really careful with any beer that appeared which appeared fit to drink, for what it is worth. You know how your mother used to tell you “if you keep doing that, you’ll go blind”? She was really talking about drinking methanol.
JGabriel
Tim F.: “As per the comments, feel free to submit names for my first successful batch made with genetics yeast.”
How about taking a cue from Joss Whedon, and calling it: ‘Mutant Enemy’.
Bonus logo: ‘Genetically modified for your pleasure.’
JGabriel
Or, in case there are trademark issues with ‘Mutant Enemy’, try ‘Toxic Adventure’.
Yep, the more I look at it, the more I like ‘Toxic Adventure’ (though the aforementioned ‘Frankenbrew’ is also quite good).
Sock Puppet of the Great Satan
Select Agent Cerveza!
Aaron J. Grier
sorry your first batch didn’t turn out well. there’s nothing wrong with the dry stuff, and it’s so cheap you can buy three or four packets for the price of a liquid smack-pack.
yeast flavors vary depending on temperature and stress the yeast is under. a large starting quantity of yeast will reduce these, as will a low fermentation temperature. some yeasts start throwing phenolics (spicy, possibly bandaid) at lower temperatures and esters (fruity, flowery) and fusel alcohols (“hot” headache-inducing long-chain alcohols) at high temperatures. some yeasts are prone to producing vicinal diketones (diacetyl is a common one and is used in artificial butter flavor), while some aren’t, and others will produce them but later reabsorb them.
the trick is to figure out where the yeast is happiest converting sugar into alcohol with a minimum of bad-tasting byproducts.
I’m sure the guys at wyeast or white labs would love to chat with you about your yeast experiments. http://www.wyeastlab.com/ http://www.whitelabs.com/
GeneJockey
Genetically Modified Orgasm.