Kegging Beers with Conan Yeast

I have been experimenting with Conan yeast lately. I have been trying to selectively breed and evolve the strain and I've had good results maximizing the tropical esters. However, I have only been bottle conditioning. I'm wondering for you guys that are kegging with it, does it ever flocculate out in the keg? I want to keep the yeast in suspension for these beers and I'm worried if I start kegging it at my brewery that bartenders will freak out if they see so much yeast in the early pints. I figured the homebrewing community would have more experience with this than the commercial breweries I know, so I'm coming to you for help. What have your results been like?

 

Before I started reading reviews about Conan yeast, I saw a lot of people saying that their beers appeared underattenuated. People seemed really pleased with the flavor profile though and I started developing several theories about why Conan yeast would be better for IPA's. You can read some of that on my last two blog posts (http://drankprettygooddontit.blogspot.com/2016_01_01_archive.html). Originally I was trying to be a little secretive about the Conan yeast, so I don't refer to it by name. Now that we are closer to our re-release date, I don't mind being a little more open about it. Basically, what I'm attempting to do with the Conan yeast is to evolve it to the point that it is more attenuative (85-88% is what I'm seeing now) and producing more intense tropical esters.

Starting off, it was very easy. I found that just using multiple re-pitches I was getting better attenuation with each new generation. So I began isolating the yeast and selecting the higher attenuating colonies to grow back up. I have been fermenting very small batches at a wide range of temperatures and selecting the batches that gives the most intense esters. I will top crop and bottom crop after cold crashing and decanting each batch and then propagate and see which one is more desirable. It is hard to say if the yeast is now actually less flocculant or not, since it is already such a poor flocculating yeast strain, but I would imagine that if I had started with a well flocculant strain and did these same experiments that I would have a less flocculant strain at this point.

The fun thing about this experiment is that so many people naturally develop a house yeast strain, but what I have done is sped the process up quite a bit. I am now to a point that I like the yeast a lot and I'm ready to start brewing 30 BBL batches once I'm done with some dry hopping experiments.

 

The problem with doing stuff like this when I step it up from homebrew size to commerical size is the little stuff that I'm thinking about now with serving it on draught. Obviously, bars don't like when a keg comes to them and they have to dump out pints because it's too yeasty. I'm not concerned about bottling since we can write on the label that the beer is cloudy, unfiltered, etc. but it is a lot harder to educate the bartenders that are serving the beer 400 miles away from the brewery. I think in an ideal world, the kegs would be shaken up to keep the yeast in suspension, but there is no way to get bartenders to do that.

 

Isolation streaks, then propagating and measuring. Some of the colonies will show 75% attenuation and others will show close to 90%. I've been trying to keep it in the 85-88% range.

I will propagate up to 10 colonies off of the streaks at a time. Once I got them to the point that I had the higher attenuation, the colonies were more consistently strong.

 

With Conan and with Wyeast 1318 I have a theory. Both of those yeast strains will clear fairly normally in the absence of dry hops. If you dry hop with it though, the yeast seems to lose its ability to flocculate. Before I continue, I want to point out that this is only a theory based on observation and not lab testing.

My thought is that hop oils are coating the yeast cells and preventing the yeast from aggregating. In most beers, the yeast would still get coated with the hop oils and the yeast flocculates out. With the yeast, goes the hop oils. In a sense, this is preserving hop flavor in the beer as long as the yeast is still in suspension. In addition, these yeast strains may have the ability to bio-transfigure hop compounds. Using Cascade, Calypso, and Bravo, I am getting intense tropical and floral flavors. Using the same dry hop combination in beers with Chico yeast, I get some floral, some earthy, and some minty, but nothing intense like this. The mint flavor is gone when using that dry hop combo with these yeast strains.

So I would not say I'm trying to get the flavor of suspended yeast, but rather the flavor of the hop oils and resins that have attached themselves to the yeast cells.

 

I don't really have the equipment to do that kind of testing. In theory, the added weight would make the yeast flocc faster, but the problem is that well flocculating yeast will aggregate together and fall. If the oils are what's preventing the yeast from aggregating, I doubt they add enough weight. Also, it is very hard to filter beer that has a large amount of yeast in suspension. Filtered beer is normally already pretty clear before filtration.

 

Fermenting in a shallow vessel is an easy way to increase esters while still giving the yeast a healthy environment. I think it is a better option for ester development than decreased pitching rate or increased temperature. I think that spunding is a better way of carbonating than force carbonating is. The natural carbonation creates finer bubbles which release more aromatics, "scrubs" the palate, and increases the head retention and lacing. Bio transformation and increased pressure during dry hopping both are important for getting a long lasting hop flavor and aroma. Dry hopping under pressure also decreases the oxygen problem which is huge for hop flavor stability. I think that it all is a process that ties together naturally if you allow it to do so. Every little thing has a purpose and we should facilitate the natural reactions as much as possible.

 

Oops, I got caught up in my stream of consciousness and forgot to answer the questions! As far as building a spunding valve, that really depends on what you are going for and your system. I don't have a way of answering the question. I believe naturally carbonated beers have a better mouthfeel. I prefer bottle conditioned beers over draught beers... My order of preference: Bottle conditioned>Draught>Cask>Force Carbonated Bottles.

Experimenting with 1318 vs Conan... Both are wonderful yeast strains and I would love to use more of either of them. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Conan evolved from 1318 (I don't know Conan's backstory, that comment is solely based on flavor profiles and characteristics). Conan seems more flavorful and seems to work well with bottom cropping where 1318 is a top cropper.

 

I hope that no one minds that I am gathering info as a commercial brewer for my brewery on this forum... A lot of times it easier to gather info from homebrewers since there is the potential for a wider range of experimentation than can be done at the commercial level in a small time frame.