Heady Topper Extract Clone Opinion

Sure, the March/April was here:
https://byo.com/mead/item/2808-hop-stands
The only change I made in the most recent edition of the Heady was to cut to the 30 min addition to 1/2 oz and to add a 60 min hop addition of Bravo. Also I've changed the yeast up to use either Nottingham or Dry Whitbread or Essex Ale from White Labs…all the 'Conan' strains I've used put out too much peach, so it tastes like baby peach formula. Heady has a slight hint of peach…not like peach extract has been added. They're also highly unreliable (finicky) from my experience with attenuation. I brewed a couple focal banger clones for an article coming out now and the latest rendition of Focal Banger was Gigayeast's Conan vs. 1275 (everything else exactly the same for the two beers)…Conan again put out peach purree and finished as 1019. 1275 put out a little white wine aroma (think Nelson) and finished as 1012. (OG was 1068)

 

Dave, I have read several times that poor attenuation is a first generation yeast issue. Allegedly if you use the yeast again (i.e., second generation) the attenuation will be better (i.e., a lower final gravity). Do you have any knowledge here?

Cheers!

 

Not sure Jack…i've heard Fuller's strain can do the same thing though. I always pull for future batches from the yeast starter to keep things clean, so can't comment on this. I should have stated, I've only used two strains (Gigayeast & Omega) as well as a built up from two cans.

 

Dave, John Kimmich commented:

“I find it interesting that so many brewers and yeast companies are now using our yeast. I have tried several beers from different sources, and find that, for the most part, they miss the mark. I can attribute this to one thing–they are all getting their yeast from our cans of beer one way or another. Some have cropped the tiny amount of yeast on the bottom of the can, or they bought it from one of the tiny online yeast banks. The problem with this is that they are all using a culture taken from the weakest yeast cells in the fermentation process. Although we do not filter our beer, we do a pretty good job of keeping yeast out of the can. Therefore, the only yeast left in the can are the weaklings that were never able to fully drop out of suspension. That is their starting point, so they are at a huge disadvantage from the start. I often hear about the fact that these beers being brewed around the country are very turbid and almost milky in appearance; again, not surprising.”

http://www.newschoolbeer.com/2016/03/new-englandvermont-style-ipa-is-not-a-thing.html

It sounds like the commercially available cultures of Conan yeast are sub-optimum?

Cheers!

 

yeah…was up at his new brewery a couple weeks ago to interview John and really wanted to ask if i could get a sample of his yeast to put up against those strains available to home brewers. Wanted to gauge performance, flavor, etc…wussed out in the end, but pretty sure he wouldn't have given me any anyway...

 

I agree with you here. Since Alchemist has the 'real' Conan yeast it provides them with a competitive advantage. I am confident that John would also add that the knowledge they have accrued with utilizing this yeast (e.g., knowing the best/proper fermentation conditions, etc.) is key here as well.

Cheers!

Jack

 

Thanks bud!

 

How do you think it would work to build up from one can? TIA

 

If you can build up from two or more cans…i think it would be better, but as stated the yeast count in cans of Heady may not be as strong as some people think and not sure how much weight the following logic still carries, but for years the consensus among brewers was to not re-use yeast from a high ABV or highly hopped beer as those yeast left are going to be extremely stressed and more prone to mutations. Heady is both of those…so may not be a great place to go searching for yeast…just some thoughts.