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yeast mix up?
I'm at the holiday inn somewhere far north (don't want to get anyone in trouble). I mentioned to the other patrons that I make my own beer, and just happned to have some with me of the Mac and Jacks variety. So everyone cracked a bottle, and marveled at how great the beer was compared to the Amber on tap.
This is where this story takes an unexpected twist. This batch, or this bottled batch that was half of a 10 gallon batch, came out low 1.013 I had them finish this low before, but the first thing I noticed when I was pouring it for everyone was how crystal clear it was? I mean, it was clearer than the other amber on tap. Then I started drinking my own beer that I poured. The beer was very good, crisp, light, and dry, nothing like a Mac and Jacks? WTF? This beer is supposed to be cloudy. this beer is supposed to be slightly sweet as in the english style, this beer was good, but belgianesque? Not bad as in infected, as I said, the beer was perfectly clear, and perfectly carbonated, but dry, and well begian tasting? I use Wlp005 exclusivly for this beer, and got 2 vials of it, 1 for each 5 gallon fermenter. The kegged version came out as expected, the bottle version did not. I did indeed check both vials of yeast before I made starters with them, what do you think? is it possible these vials where mislabled?
Could have been a fermentation temp issue or something weird.
I find it hard to believe that White Labs would have put the wrong yeast in a vial. Not impossible to do, but its probably highly unlikely as how they probably process and fill the tubes.
In bottles yeast has a far shorter distance to travel to settle out than in a keg. I have always noticed when I split a batch that bottled beer clears much faster than the keg. Furthermore, there is no flow disturbance in the bottles. Where in a keg you are always creating a little disturbance in the keg every time you pull some out. This leads to cloudier beer in the pour.
The yeast will definately impact the overall flavor of the beer too. So the more of it there is in suspension the more the taste will differ between your kegged and bottled version.
Did you bottle condition the bottled stuff? If you did you might expect it to be a little drier than the kegged stuff to. That's because of you kicked up fermentation again, added a little O2 while racking etc etc. So the beer might be a little drier than the kegged stuff.
were you making 2 batches of beer? if you were making 2 different batches and made starters for them you could have grabbed the wrong starter. It would probably be very rare to find the wrong yeast in a vial. But who knows? There could have been a mix up and a vial with the wrong label got used.
This was the same yeast, just 2 different vials. It was the same beer just split into two fermenters, the starters where the same. I bottle this batch all the time, and there are some subtle differences, but not like this. I would say this bottled version tastes like a Fat Tire clone. Like I said, it's good just different, and nothing like a Mac and Jacks. they where both fermented at the same time with the same amount of yeast, very very strange.
I'm going to chock this one up to the starter. The only thing different that I did was to use Thirsty's method of using malto goya for the starer. I've never done it before, and I didn't pour off any, just poured the starter straight into the fermenter. That's the only thing different that I did. Now I don't know if it would make it crystal clear, or why the kegged version came out fine, but it's the only thing that i've done different, and I guess I won't be doing it again.
I really can't see how using malto goya would make such a difference, especially if you used it for the starter for the kegged version too, which came out normal.
could the bottles have suffered any kind of temp swings or anything during your travel up to the hotel? maybe if they got real cold, the yeast crashed out.
No, they where in my beer fridge at 38 degrees for 2 weeks before that. I know what your going to say, but cold crashing does nohing to clear this beer unless you do it for 4 months. I don't add moss to this anymore, and no matter how cold I get it it just stays cloudy, the way it's supposed to be. The wlp-005 is actually a paihen in the ass yeast for anything but this beer, and ESB's. Doesn't flocculate well, but the malt flavors it brings to the party is worth it. I'm telling you it's acting like a completely different yeast. When I pour it out of the bottle, it stays put pretty well, I can pour almost all of it out. The 005 starts to come out of the bottle almost as soon as you pour it. Oh well, I run into this every 10 batches or so, just somthing weird, it could very well be wild yeast in the second fermenter, who knows, but the beer does not taste contaminated in any way, it's actually very very good, just not the mac and jacks. Like getting your mouth ready for coca-cola, and having it be Pepsi instead.
bruguru wrote:
The only thing different that I did was to use Thirsty's method of using malto goya for the starer.
and I guess I won't be doing it again.
Man WTF? I get blamed for everything around here!! 
Ha ha, not at all, it's just the only thing I can think of.
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