I had to postpone the brewday I had planned for last Saturday, but tomorrow I should finally have the time to brew the S. eubayanus beer. Trials in the lab have gone well, but attenuation has been around 70%, so I need to mash really low to not end up with a cloyingly sweet beer. I’m also a little afraid that I don’t have enough viable yeast and that I will be underpitching, since the strain seems quite sensitive towards even moderate concentrations of alcohol. Well, we will see how the fermentation progresses. I’m sticking to the recipe I posted in the previous post, since I want a moderate bitterness in case the beer ends up sweet. Wish me luck, this will most likely be the world’s first homebrewed beer fermented with Saccharomyces eubayanus!
Update 08.03.2013: Just finished the brewday, and pitched the S. eubayanus slurry into 13 liters of 1.051 wort (slightly better efficiency than I predicted). I placed the fermenting vessel into my fermenting fridge set at 12 C, where I will leave it to ferment for at least 3 weeks. Hopefully the yeast manages to ferment the beer dry enough!
Update 09.03.2013: 12 hours after pitching there is already airlock activity, despite the low fermentation temperature. I’m very pleasantly surprised.
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Any results on how the beer tastes? I have a local source for the yeast and wondering if its worth experimenting with.
Thanks for your comment! Here are some tasting notes: http://beer.suregork.com/?p=2890
It produces drinkable beer, but has some drawbacks. The first being the inability to use maltotriose, meaning you will end up with a high FG. This is not necessarily a problem if you take it into consideration when designing your recipe (aim for a low OG, low mash temperature and enough bitterness to balance). Also, you won’t be getting a clean product with it, as the yeast is POF+ (i.e. it produces 4-vinylguaiacol) and produces quite much isoamyl acetate even at low temperatures. So think Belgian-style when designing a recipe for it. Definitely give it a try if you have the chance!
Regards,
Kristoffer