Omega Saisonstein and Conan

I noticed a few of you have bought and possibly have already brewed with Omega Saisonstein yeast. How did it work for you? I'll be trying it soon regardless, but look forward to your comments.

I'm trying their Conan yeast for the first time this weekend. Has anyone here tried it?

 

Please do. I've seen the yeast on the shelf for 6 months and haven't gotten around to using it. It might be next in the queue.

 

Did you split a 5-6 gallon batch three ways and pitch the whole pack of Saisonstein?

 

The Omega Conan smelled pretty good after the starter. Different that anything I've tried.

The yeast took off quickly. Major CO2 release in less than 12 hours. Pitched at a wort temp of 60F. Ambient temperature is 58-62F. No temperature control other than a cool basement.

 

My Omega Conan beer also attenuated less than anticipated. 1.014 when I expected 1.010 based on the advertised attenuation range and Beersmith's calculations. It attenuated 75% which isn't too disappointing and probably won't matter when I get to the drinking stage. The beer appeared relatively clear in the fermentor.

This beer is extra hoppy, so a little more sweetness might even be a benefit. Mash temp was 152F. Sugar was 7%. OG was 1.064. If fermented vigorously at 64F and the temp was raised to 70F after 4 days.

The first thing I smelled when I pulled the airlock was a big peach ester blended with citrus hops. Should be drinkable in 10 days. Can't wait!

 

The next Omega yeast in the queue is Where da Funk? (OYL-210)

This yeast contains three microbes. The first is allegedly "Brett" Twah, but more accurately known as Sacc Trois . It has another strain of sacc isolated from Fantome which is also available from East Coast Yeast as EC-03, but isn't what Wyeast sells seasonally. This blend also contains a legitimate strain of brett isolated from Crooked Stave and is CMY-01, 05 or 07.

Omega doesn't skimp on the cell count. A package of OYL-210 has approximately 150 billion total cells. White Labs has no comment on "Brett" Trois cell counts. If it's comparable to their other "bretts" it's probably less than 5 billion.

http://www.omegayeast.com/?portfolio=14045-2

 

Better late than never update. I finally made a Saisonstein beer. The precarbed sample indicated good potential. It had some of the characteristics of DuPont. Clove, bubblegum, lemon, pepper. It also had a fruity ester similar to pear.

The beer was kegged. Not sure what happened, but most of the yeast character that was easily noticeable in the hydro sample became pretty subtle and some of it disappeared. The beer tastes fine, but it doesn't taste like a saison and barely passes for a Belgian. It's relatively clean with a little ambiguous spice and fruit. It fermented well. 93% attenuation in 2 weeks. Based on a sample of one versus many, I'd say this is my least favorite saison yeast.

The Where da Funk yeast blend is a different story. Very happy with the results and will use it again soon. My only complaint is it took 3 weeks to finish.

 

It was somewhat funky with an underpitch and no added oxygen. I used 180 billion cells when 240 were called for. The mango ester was comparable to 644. It took 3 weeks to finish with this setup. The funk wasn't brett funk. It was a stressed yeast funk that I thought was interesting.

Using 30 seconds of oxygen and a textbook pitch rate resulted in no funk, but it still had plenty of mango ester. It finished in two weeks with this set up.

Both beers finished in the 1.004-1.006 range. They might have gone a couple points lower with a full month in the primary. Both beers were very murky from yeast in suspension and remained murky for a month in the keg. Both beers were hopped to 80ibu, dry hopped with 4oz of hops and tasted very good.