M36 Liberty Ale Yeast in an NEIPA

This "NEW" style is all the rage in the US, and it's starting to creep in over here in New Zealand. From Garage Projects Part & Bullshit to The New Deep Creek New England IPA, there is a range of this style emerging into the craft beer scene, so given I've made a couple of these (I haven't posted about all of them) I figured it was time to test out a new yeast.

The most common yeast in the style appear to be the Conan yeast and WY1318. Low Flocculating british style ale yeasts, with some fruit driven ester formation.  The beers tend to be Hazy (some even Murky) It seems to be a combination of low flocculation of yeast, flaked oats, hop bio-transformation and general amount of hops thrown at it from a distance.

But what about Dry Yeast? We all know S-04 is one that is used in the style, sometimes to good effect. But outside of that, people tend to use or stick with the tried and true WY1318 or Conan type yeasts. (we're talking about clean beer, rather Trois here)

Anyway - Living in New Zealand has its own set of challenges; 1 of which is the cost of and availability (at times) of liquid yeasts, specifically conan (only the local shop here gets it in, and that not a steady stock stream.) So I wondered about using one of the Mangrove Jacks Craft Series Yeasts for this, and came up with M36 Liberty Bell. formerly known as M79 burton Union, it exhibits fruit ester formation and is considered a good yeast for hoppy british beers. 
Great; but just one problem..... It tends to flocculate relatively well in British Stock Ales. but hey why the hell not, right?

So I brewed it up, and you'll see the rest below. Fun Times are back in full swing with a brand new knee.

North Canterbury IPA

Batch Size: 21 Litres

Est OG: 1.064

IBU: 45

EBC: 6

Efficiency: 70%

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain:

     Pilsner: 4.8kg

     Wheat: 1kg

     Flaked Oats: 750g

     Acidulated:  200g

Hops:
     First Wort: 25g Columbus prior to GF Sparge

     05 Minutes: 30g Columbus

     Flameout: 45g Columbus
     
     Dry hop: 40g Citra / 40g Mosaic / 40g Galaxy

Yeast:

     M36 Liberty Bell (Mangrove Jacks) (3x Packs rehydrated)

Brewing Notes: 

     3 June 2017: Brewed on Grainfather. Good extraction, hit 1.063 (pretty close). Pitched yeast at 17 Deg C. Set at 18 for natural rise Overnight.

     4 June 2017: 16 hours after pitching set temp to 19 Deg C. 
    
     7 June 2017: Ramped temp to 21 deg C (Morning). Ramped 12 hours later (Evening) to 22 Deg C

     12 June 2017: Dryhopped with 40g each of Citra/Mosaic/Galaxy

     14 June 2017: (Evening) temps dropped for cold crashing

     16 June 2017: Gravity 1.014, kegged and put into fridge for force carbonation at 30PSI. (first time in awhile I haven't added gelatin to the keg.)

     18 June 2017: First Taste - Lovely beer, no off flavors, hops are a little muted with a the yeast character more prominent than I'd like.

Tasting Notes - 

     Appearance: Golden Straw - Hazy as expected. Force carbed has done a good job, with nice lacing and slightly low carbonation. but good so far. Should improve. At least its not murky, like some of these I see.

     Aroma: Fruity Hops, resin from columbus, but citra/galaxy and mosaic takes over. some yeast character too. not too sure on this. Needs more hops. Something I noticed at the CHBA meet over the weekend, (DIY Dog Brewcomp) was that massive dryhops can actually work, I always thought that that amount of hop saturation would make a beer come out grazzy, but it doesn't seem to be the case. so I probably under-did the dryhop based on what the forums are talking

     Flavour: Similar, Hops are a little underwhelming, should be packed with flavour, there is a distinct yeast character, pear ester type thing from the yeast that detracts from teh beer. It's a nice tasting beer, and I get plenty of hop flavour, it just hides a little bit of it. Bitterness is spot on, its present, but not tongue stripping. more APA bittering, which is what the style asks for.

     Mouthfeel: Nice coating beer, thick and creamy as it should be. malt flavor is there. Needs more hops.

     Overall: Very good beer, I'm impressed with this, I think if you use this yeast, you have to add more dryhops, as the yeast takes away from of the impact. I think S-04 as a dry yeast is probably more appropriate for the style, but at a push its definitely a good yeast to use.
Columbus is a good choice in the boil, gives the hop character as extra note, that I really enjoy.
Change for next time? more hops, especially if I leave the yeast strain alone. I attenuated well and fermented brilliantly. Even had a blow out at day 3.

THE YEAST: I think it can work in beers like this, but you've got to work harder to hide the yeast character. It would definitely work well, in Stouts/Porters and other English style beers. Might have to give it a crack next time I brew up my favourite Brown Ale.

Still working on a House blend Saison.....

Part of the reason I've been so quiet recently is this......
 (Insert Gross picture of knee scar here)

I had knee surgery to reconstruct the Anterior Cruciate Ligament in my left knee, leaving me crippled for a solid 2-3 months. So we know what that means don't we? No Brewing of any form of beer, and even no drinking for awhile.

so, well before this overly invasive knee surgery I bought some of the following:
     * The Yeast Bay - Saison Brett Blend
     * WLP648 - Brettanomyces Vrai

The intention being to recreated a similar culture to the WLP670 - American farmhouse yeast, that I've enjoyed previously (last batch went all banana like) so after that poor effort,  I decided to try and create some for of house blend, which may or may not change over the course of. time. I'm not entirely sure how I'l feed and keep the culture going etc. but I'm excited to find out.

Anyway, I brewed this particular beer in January of all times, with a simple 3 week primary fermentation. Followed by racking onto 3kg of Mangoes (In hindsight probably a tad too much) and aged on those until April. The harvest for this blend then went straight into a similar style beer, but with peaches and a kettle sour (Lacto Plantarum). Given my knee and everything else that was going on, this got a 6-8 week primary, before the flesh of white peaches were added (Note to Self: Cut the peaches before freezing them, and remove the stones, otherwise it gets pretty messy)

I then dry hopped this beer with Mosaic and Citra for a few days, before adding gelatin and kegging. the second beer receives Simcoe/Amarillo after the fruit explosion is done (I overfilled a little bit I think.....)

Overall, the blend has worked out really nicely, and I'm excited to make more beer with it.

MANGOMANGOMANGO!!!

Batch Size: 21 Litres

Est OG: 1.048

IBU: 20

EBC: 4

Efficiency: 70%

Boil Time: 90 Minutes

Grain:
     Pilsner: 3.2kg
     Vienna: 0.6kg
     Flaked Oats: 0.5kg
     Acidulated Malt: 0.2kg

Hops:
     Pacific Jade: 20g @ 60min
     Dry hop - 60g each of Citra / Mosaic
Yeast:
     WLP648 - Brettanomyces Brux Vrai
     The Yeast Bay - Saison / Brett Blend

2 separate Starters were made - 1: WLP648 1/2 Litre Starter 2: 1 Litre Starter Saison Brett Blend and WLP648 blended into Starter 2. (the idea was to grow up the 648 a little more, to get some extra brettanomyces in there.)
Brewing Notes:

     January 2017: Mashed in at 67 Deg C. Boiled 90 Min's total, missed target OG of 1.050. Full 1 litre starter poured in. 21 degrees C fermentation.

     January 2017: Ramped temp to 23 Deg C

     January 2017: Moved from temp controlled chamber to Spare Room (not temp controlled)

     February 2017: Racked to secondary onto 3kg of Supermarket Frozen Mango

     April 2017: Racked to Tertiary (Purged with Co2) with dry hops as above.

     April 2017: Racked to Keg and standard gelatin addition added.

Taste Notes - MANGOMANGOMANGO!!!

     Appearance: Pale straw/golden colour Carbonation is mid range (all my beers tend to sit around the same level) head retention is pretty non existent, given the mangoes used. looks good. crystal clear from the gelatin addition.

     Aroma: Early on the Mango well and truly dominated. Very green fruit over ripe mango and some hoppy notes to suit. Now its a little older the fruit has fallen away, and the hops are much more prominent. minimal malt character. Some notes from the Brett and farmhouse yeast. Impressive. the starter has done something here I think.

New Brew Club Glasses - Pretty Fancy!

     Flavour: Mangoes again, dominating the beer as per the aroma, the hops are now coming forward and its a nice easy drinker. Prickly carbonation, but not too fizzy.

     Mouth feel:  Surprisingly good. I thought the fruit and lack of speciality malts might kill the mouth feel. Like I said the head retention is non existent, but that's by-the-by. It's come out really well, easy drinking but not thin, the brettanomyces in this beer has really helped to boost the mouth feel, as well as the flaked oats to prevent it from being watery.

     Overall: Really enjoyable, reduce the mango addition. Its just wayyyyy too over the top when its fresh. The Brett is subtle, which is nice, and the farmhouse elements are all there. If I can hit my Target OG's I think its a winner. reduce the fruit, balance it out a bit more with the dry hops, but I'm glad I didn't waste any money on whirlpool/flame out hops.

This house yeast has already been racked off about 3-4 weeks ago (I need to get it running ASAP) from adding my white flesh peaches to the lacto soured version of the same beer. This is Simcoe/Amarillo, the peaches are probably way too much as well, but hey - live and learn right???? I'm hoping to get this kegged up in a few weeks, after dry hopping and gelatin.