Out Of Key Brewing

Just a quick note on WLP002, I think I may have found my new favorite house yeast.

If you ever want to turn a beer in less than two weeks, this is your yeast.  I stepped up this yeast one time with a starter, properly aerated with o2, and pitched and it produced a great beer in 4 days.  The beer was as clear as any of my ales ever are and it was very drinkable.   The beer in question finished at 1012 but tasted of something sweeter.  It was not cloying and was quite good.

Even more amazing was the yeast cake.  After I racked off into the kegs what was left behind was, quite literally, a solid 2 inches of yeast.  It was the consistency of play dough.   I was able to pick this up with my fingers and shape it.  And when it poured it all came out at once.

I will be harvesting this yeast and using it again.

Its been a busy brewing start to the new year.  In the first two weeks that opening the new year I have put 35 gallons into the fermenters.  Both brew days were on on the coldest days of this winter thus far.  So cold were the days that we managed to put ice in the sanitizer bucket.

On the first weekend I was joined by the Freedlund men for our annual winter brewing session.  Seriously, the last time this many Freedlund men were together was down in Cell Block C in Joliet.  For this session we put together 10 gallons of the Barham Irish Red and 10 gallons of an American stout that I am calling Pavement.  Both brew sessions came off with little issue outside of coming in a couple degrees low on our mash temps.  Both batches were fermented with Whitelabs Wlp002.  I was quite impressed with this yeast but am going to save that for another post.  Both beers received 60 seconds of oxygen.  They were fermented at 62 slowing ramping to 68 over 3 days.  Both beers fermented to terminal in 4 days time.

The Barham Irish Red Fermented from 1058 -> 1012 this yields 6% abv @ 78% apparent attenuation (ADF).  On Saturday night I kegged this beer (1 week after pitching) and it was very clear.  I force carbonated a liter of it and had my wife try it and she thought it was great.  It has massive mouthfeel and has a nice level of sweetness.  This is a departure for this beer from last year but it is a change that I thought was necessary.  Two months of aging will help crisp this beer up.

The Pavement went from 1068 -> 1018 which yields 6.6 abv and 72% ADF.  I hope to get this beer into the keg this week.  The hydro sample was quite good.  I will report back once I have a chance to really taste this beer.

Both of  these beers were brewed for the Annual Barham St. Patrick’s Day party that we attend.  In addition to these two beers I will be bringing a Dortmunder Export and a Schwartz Beer.