Since we have an extra volunteer, I'll drop out. It turns out that I had reserved that date several months ago to brew with someone who won a "brew with a brewmaster" for a charity auction (Saline Sister Cities). I was going to send empty carboys with someone, but this makes more sense.
We have 21 vounteers for 20 positions – will do a drawing at Big Brew. WYeast has agreed to providing two tubes each of the following 20 strains. They ask in retrun for a write up for their website. Let's discuss, but i am thinking that we should plan on doing a vertical tasting of all20 at OG when he serves them for an event.
WLP001 – California Ale Yeast
WLP002 - English Ale Yeast
WLP004 – Irish Ale Yeast
WLP005 – British Ale Yeast
WLP007 – Dry English Ale Yeast
WLP008 – East Coast Ale Yeast
WLP009 – Australian Ale Yeast
WLP011-European Ale
WLP022 – Essex Ale Yeast – Not available/seasonal
WLP028 – Edinburgh Scottish Ale Yeast
WLP029 – German Ale/Kolsch Yeast
WLP036 - Dusseldorf Alt Yeast
WLP041 Pacific Ale
WLP051 – California Ale V Yeast
WLP060- American Ale Blend
WLP072 – French Ale – not available/seasonal
WLP080 – Cream Ale Yeast
WLP500 – Trappist Ale
WLP550 – Belgian Ale Yeast
WLP566 – Belgian Saison II Yeast
WLP810 – San Francisco Lager Yeast (ok due to higher ferm. temp)
Assuming we need to bring airlock/blowoff tube in addition to the tagged carboys. Blowoff would probably be better. Less chance of maintenance. Anything else to bring?
Do we take home our carboy that day? Or do all 40 stay for fermentation then pickup later?
OK, if I have captured all the volunteers correctly that have raised their hands for some free wort and play from Original Gravity on Saturday, May 8th @2:00, I have the following people so far.
We have 20 volunteers, but as I indicated in earlier communications, if we exceed 20 volunteers, we will draw names. If you missed the earlier discussion, the details are available at:
OK, if I have captured all the volunteers correctly that have raised their hands for some free wort and play from Original Gravity on Saturday, May 8th @2:00, I have the following people so far.
There is still room for three more. As I indicated in earlier communications, if we exceed 20 volunteers, we will draw names. If you missed the earlier discussion, the details are available at:
Post edited 11:23 am – April 16, 2010 by crispy275
Hey Chris,
Not to re-do the entire structure for which we just planned, but I had a couple of thougths after seeing some of the responses.
Perhaps to get some of the members the creativity they seem to want we split the experiment in 2 groups. The first 10 stick with the the different yeast plan as discussed. The second group of 10 can do whatever the hell they want after the wort is inside the carboy. They could add different yeast or same yeast. During secondary they could add dry hops, fruit spices, honey, whatever. Maybe this would help get some others amped that are not feeling like they are creatively contributing to the experiment. While the more science minded dorks (like ourselves), can have a more controlled experiment and write a sweet book report afterwards. Thoughts?
OK, so here is the deal. Brad Sancho of Original Gravity made a very generous offer. He expressed a desire to do more with the Ann Arbor Brewers Guild club, and we tossed around a few ideas, and this is what we came up with.
Free beer! OK, now that I have your attention, it isn’t quite just free beer. In the spirit of doing something cool (which this club is all about), and educational (whether you like it or not), this is the outline – details are being made up by Brad and I as I go along, but I think I got most of it.
WHAT: Same wort – different yeasts. For those of you who have been in the club for some time, you will recall that the AABG and FORD club helped me pull off a couple of similar experiments back at the 2003 (Chicago) and 2005 (Baltimore) AHA National Homebrewers Association meetings. We obtained a base wort from Dragonmead and inoculated various carboys (12 in Chicago and 17 in Baltimore) with different strains of yeasts, served them at the conference and discussed the various contributions each strain provided. These were Belgian Ales.
Brad and I discussed possibly doing another Same Wort – Different Hops type of experiment, but the thought of 15 half kegs, burners and the associated chillers and hoses necessary made us both agree that life would be much easier if he brewed a standard sized batch (about 200 gallons), chilled it through his system, and then we all added our own carboys and yeast,
So, Brad has given me creative regain to dig into my recipes and decide on a recipe/style for the group. Because I have been enjoying "session" or lighter beers, I wanted to suggest something middle of the road – about 5%. Additionally, I had to think about what recipes might actually go well with English, American, German, Belgian and whatever selection of yeasts. Initially, I thought about Wits, Kolsch, Blonde and even a plain Jane American Ale.
Then I thought about an Amber I had done in the past where I had used Marris Otter for the base malt, and some crystal, Victory and Munich. I checked with Brad, as I am thinking I would like to replace the Victory with a touch of Melanoidin Malt to get that awesome cookie, cake-like malt character. I contacted both Ray Daniels and Randy Mosher about this selection, and they agreed that Amber or a Pale Ale would handle the various yeasts strains as well as any style. I am working with Brad later to finalize the recipe, but I am leaning toward this.
WHEN: Saturday, May 8th – midafternnon some time – let’s shot for 2:00 – Brad should be into the boil by then. Early arrivals encouraged, check out some of Brad’s beers and food.
WHO: AABG members – maximum participation – 20 members. If we have more than 20 volunteers, then we will draw names out of a hat,
WHAT DO I NEED TO DO/HAVE TO PARTICIPATE?: A couple of things. Each participant would need to bring 2 (two) sanitized carboys. Each carboy would need to have the owners name and the yeast strain clearly marked on the carboys (hint – cover any paper completely with packing tape to avoid ink run-offs, or use a luggage tag or something similar). Details/dates for racking to secondary’s need to be determined, but in the end, everyone would get one carboy of wort to take home, and Brad would keg one of each for serving later.
Bradinitially talked about releasing a few at a time, but we discussed the possibility of bringing the AABG club tap systems and maybe doing a release of all of them one day in his beer garden, maybe even getting the smoker/grill going for a yet to be determined release date, where he would make an event out of it and we could come down and check out the variety. Brad likes this idea!
HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT YEAST WE WOULD USE? This took me a little while to think through, but I think I have a solution. In a nutshell, trust me. But a more detailed version running through my mind goes like this. I will select the yeasts and purchase the necessary 20 packs and tubes. We can have a forum discussion surrounding which ones should be selected. Using club funds, I will pre-purchase enough yeasts to cover everyone. Then, during Big Brew, we determine who gets what yeast via a blind draw. This will give everyone one week to smack their pack/dump their tubes (gosh, this sounds dirty!), and build their starters. Folks can re-imburse the club when they get their yeast
Depending on the timing, I would anticipate a few of these might make it to Minnesota for the AHA NHC, while others could come to the AABG Summer Beer-B-Que.
So, if you are interested, please send me an email and indicate the same in the new "Same Wort – Different Yeast" forum at the club website.
Discussions welcome, final execution will be between Brad and me.
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