Seeking Conan experience.

I will see shortly, just pitched to the big job today.

 

It's working great for me after 3 generations; it might start changing after 10 batches or so but it still gets going pretty damn quick if you aerate properly. Just bottled an imp. amber that went from 1.070 to 1.012 in about 2 weeks, just a bit better than I anticipated actually. Can't compare it to other strains but it does really well with hoppy beers and adds a nice peach/melon citrus undercurrent, and John Kimmich (its creator) says he has underpitched it slightly to draw out more flavor. Sweet spot is about 64-70 deg depending on how much you want it to add to the beer, and it doesn't flocc very well so it'll finish strong if you bring it up 3-5 degrees after 5-7 days.

 

It's a monster, crazy attenuative. I ferment in a carboy with it now so I can see the crazy stuff that goes on with it for a few days. Make sure to swirl the slurry strongly before you pitch as I am not the only one who has had a layer of cells grip firmly to the bottom and not get pitched. As afrokaze stated, actually he understated, it doesn't flocc. well, and def. bring temp up to finish it.

 

Just started drinking a Citra APA I made with Conan yeast, which I built up from the dregs of two cans of HT. The gravity went from 1.057 to 1.011 for 80% AA. I fermented it at 64°F, letting the temp rise about 1° per day, ending at 70°F. The beer itself is quite good. Lots of grapefruit/citrus up front, and believe it or not, there is definitely a "mango" component in the finish. The flavors work very well together, IMO. I feel like the beer has a slightly creamier, or heavier mouthfeel to it as well, versus a California Ale equivalent. Though, that's probably just due to all the yeast still in suspension in the beer. It DOES NOT want to drop out.

 

This matches what I've heard ... never used it, but high attenuation, low floc seems to be the consensus. As soon as I can get my hands on a can or two, I'm going to start raising my own brood of Conan for my next IPA.

 

It really depends on what generation of yeast was used in the can's of Heady you collected it from. If the brewery was on generation 10+ then there is a heightened chance that your reclaimed dregs will either mutate and/or be dog tired after doing multiple starters to step it up into a pitchable amount. That is what happened to me and my fermentation stalled out at 1.019 FG (68% attenuation) and actually flocc'd extremely well at that point.

 

For those who don't want to bother building it up from can dregs, supposedly this is the Conan strain:

http://yeastgeek.com/product/yg001-green-mountains-ale/

It seems to be released in batches every few weeks from what I can tell.

 

I spoke to an Alchemist Brewer while I was in VT this past April and he said that they were making an effort to "clean heady up" from this point on. The cans I bought at that time definitely had little to no hop debris / trub, the wort seemed a bit clearer, and as a result the aromatics muted IMHO. These were also the cans that I used the yeast dregs from and built up my starter that stalled out with.

 

Here's a few status points:

• Pitched @ 3:30PM - 8/3/13
• Lagged until 7:30PM or so, no Krausen, but starting to bubble through big tube style airlock.
• Pretty health white Krausen @ 10:54PM

• Starting to pump @ 1:40AM

• Still going strong @ 8:00AM

• Present, no more pumping through the airlock, but still bubbling; sounds like a little drummer boy. Can't tell, but Krausen may be starting to go down.

So brew info: OG 1084, pitch volume about 300ml, fermentation temp 70F.

 

Yep - I picked up a bottle from their first release - very quick shipment and great communication.

I pitched it in a 1.5 l starter yesterday AM and it's happily chugging along at 68*.

 

• 9:20PM or 54 hours later and the krausen has dropped and the bobble rate although steady, has slowed. Still early for judgment, but it appears that Conan’s low flocculation is already apparent. I’ll be interested to see how this clarifies through the remainder of primary and secondary.

 

I had some late generations start tossing a belgian clove like note late in it's life. Wasn't terrible, but wasn't as planned.

Was almost like a cousin of 3711, but with shittier attenuation.

 

Wouldn't bother checking there. They are out of business already, and won't be selling the yeast anymore.

 

1.070 OG
1.019 FG (not sure, but that's where it was a week ago and I'm cold crashing it now)

Lower than expected :-/

 

Actually, the guy who started it got a new job and his lab tech moved away. I did a lambic barrel fill with him about a month ago but he is getting out of brewing/yeast ranching completely now. I am going to be taking it over and I should have inventory in a couple of weeks if anyone is still looking for Conan. Let me know if you have any question.

Cheers!

 

Not true, Conan was a Greg Noonan yeast strain (Vermont Pub & Brewery) and he gave permission to John Kimmich to use it prior to his passing. It is a proprietary yeast strain so yeast ranches like the one above this post i believe are selling it illegally...but i'm not a lawyer, so not sure how that works exactly, but from my understanding would be like somebody selling Citra rhizomes because they got some to grow from a cutting. This is the reason Wyeast & White Labs have not been able to release Conan.