3 Belgian Yeasts

[sdixon]

I'm trying 3 strains of yeast back to back (brewing one per day for 3 days) with identical recipes and procedures except using different yeast (Fermentis T-58, S-33 and Wyeast 3522). Started yesterday, so brewing again tonight and tomorrow). I hope to be able to bring all 3 to a meeting in a couple of months (May likely). Should be fun.

Grain Bill
----------------
4.000 kg Pilsner (80%)
0.500 kg Dextrose (10%)
0.500 kg Wheat Malt (10%)

Hop Bill
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35.0 g Styrian Golding Leaf (4.4% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (1.5 g/L)
25.0 g Saaz Leaf (4.1% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (1.1 g/L)

Misc Bill
----------------
1.0 g Whirlfloc Tablet @ 15 Minutes (Boil)
Single step Infusion at 148°F for 60 Minutes.

[brew]

This should be interesting - seems we have a couple of experiments on the go now. Thomas demo on Saturday was excellent - looking forward to checking this out. I think Richard / HH are doing something similar as well...

[Chris Craig]

Yeah.  I think it might be a good idea to start another board just for experiments.  Thoughts?

[Jake]

Good call. I love the experimentation. I'm going to do a S05-1056-1292 experiment here soon that I'm pretty excited for.

[sdixon]

I totally like the idea of an "experiment/research" thread. I suggest we add some rigour to the process and develop some methodology that people can chose to follow (or not). There is some great experience in this club that we can leverage to develop some guidelines and knowledge management practices. Let's have some fun :-)

[Richard]

Stand by... adding new forum

[Chris Craig]

I totally like the idea of an "experiment/research" thread. I suggest we add some rigour to the process and develop some methodology that people can chose to follow (or not). There is some great experience in this club that we can leverage to develop some guidelines and knowledge management practices. Let's have some fun :-)

+1 on the guidelines.  We should be doing repeatable experiments for sure.

[sdixon]

Follow-up:
So this was a great litle experiment. Here are some of my findings:
First - All 3 beers were fermented in a plastic bucket primary for 4 weeks and all started at apx 68F and then heat belts were added to bring them up in temp between week 1 and 2 (up to apx 74F).

1. Color - All 3 had a nice golden straw color.
2. Clarity - Hands down winner here was Wyeast 3522.
3.First place -  Favorite - Wyeast 3522 was the favorite of FCBA members and also the favorite among friends and family. This was also my favorite. I think this beer was nicely balanced (in spite of recipe) woth good (medium lasting) head and lacing. It had a nice aroma (floral, honey and spice) and was very balanced... nothing stood out.
4 Second place - Fermentis T-58 was the 2nd place beer among both FCBA member and once again, my friends and family. For me it was a close second as well. I would brew with this again, especially since it is a simple dry yeast. Oh yes, I should point out that I pitched the yeast dry... no starter. This beer was a little cloudy, but not too much. It had a nice taste and mouthfeel, and I really liked the pepper, but it did stand out strongly for me and so a little unbalanced. Funny that some people didn't pick up on the pepper!?
5. Third place - Fermentis S-33 - Actually, let's call a spade a spade and this was a distant last place. Very cloudy and not great mouthfeel. Tasted of laundry room to me and old bananas and old pear (certainly not fresh). This was last for almost everyone except a few who put it as their second choice. I doubt I will use this again. But I do have on more pack in the fridge, so maybe I will try to design a recipe for it... we'll see.

All in all, this was fun and I learned a lot about these yeasts. The recipe was boring on purpose, because I was trying to use a recipe that would let theyeast stand out. In fairness, every yeast has a recipe it will work better with, but I believe this recipe would not favor any one of these yeasts (not the winner for sure). I have not written up detailed tasting notes for each of thes because that wasn't the point... it was more for me to find a preferred belgian yeast among these 3. I was hoping the dry yeasts would stand up well against the Wyeast 3522 and indeed the T-58 was not half bad in my opinion. I hope this was useful for some of you as well.

Left = S-33, Middle = T-58, Right = 3522

2012-04-08 13.10.41 by sdixon669, on Flickr

Copied from company websites:

Wyeast 3522 One of the great and versatile strains for the production of classic Belgian style ales. This strain produces a beautiful balance of delicate fruit esters and subtle spicy notes; with neither one dominating. Unlike many other Belgian style strains, this strain is highly flocculent and results in bright beers.

Fermentis T-58 A speciality yeast selected for its estery somewhat peppery and spicy flavour development.

Fermentis s-33 This yeast produces superb flavour profiles and is used for the
production of a varied range of top fermented special beers (Belgian type wheat beers,
Trappist, etc.).