Yeast Bay updates

Anyone that used the sour farmhouse, or the melange blend have any comments to add from what they've seen/tasted?

My melange sour stout is pretty pretty sour, has some great cherry notes to it, and no sign of acetic acid to it. It's not very old yet, obviously, but coming along faster than I thought.

 

Heres my comments I left for them on facebook about melange, like yours, mine is still young, so Im reserving judgement, just giving initial impressions:

I just transferred my first 5 gal batch of a blonde ale with melange from bucket to carboy after 6 weeks. Im not really sure what to make of it yet to be honest, granted its very young still. It has a very strange smell, almost skunky like Heineken. The taste has a lot of 'horse blanket'. Theres no sourness yet, its actually a tad sweet. Not making any judgments here just reporting initial findings. I will say that the initial pitch and the second batch which I pitched directly onto the cake of the first, both started fermenting very vigorously within 12hrs. Ive been fermenting in the low 70s which Im sure is delaying the development of the acidity. Did have a nice pellicle going in the bucket before transfer

 

Interesting notes.

Mine took atleast 2 days to atleat show signs of fermentation. I did a straight pitch of the vial, nothing else, just to see what would happen.

Took off, fermented really quick at around 73* and then died down. Stayed that way for weeks, and then I started to get a tiny, tiny pellicle with a couple little bubbles on the top.

I tasted it at Thanksgiving, and it was getting super sour though. Moved it into the house to stay warm, I'll probably move it back to the garage to stay in the cooler temps for the next couple months.

FWIW, I kept the IBU's really low in my stout, so that could have something to do with the sourness.

It was fine tasting as it, I will admit, I did mess up the pure culture now that I'm thinking of it. I added two bottle dregs. One from a Tart of Darkness and another from some bottles of Wicked Weed Black Angel. So it's not pure, but what a friggin combo it's becoming.

 

Heres an update on mine, got a pretty nice pellicle going now(hope instagram link works)

 

That's a handsome looking pellicle. We've seen some real gnarly ones with the Melange blend! Excited to hear how the beer develops for you.

 

Updating..

Melange is pretty nice.. Fruity, sour, slightly funky.. Not as much funk as ECY01, but it's also younger, and it's also in a stout..

Well.. can't be completely sure, I tossed in some dregs of Tart of Darkness and Black Angel too..

Anyways.. Sour Farmhouse.. Used some this weekend. One vial, I know it was an underpitch ,but planned to let it ride for a while, assumed it was a saison yeast that is pretty hearty and hungry, and had 2 kinds of lacto.

48 hours in from pitching.. nada... hardly any positive pressure in the air lock too. I did keep it too cool the first night, but it's since been set to around 70.. Hoping something happens by Thursday at the latest, or I'm gonna pitch some Bug County in that wort, or a vial of Melange.

 

Needed to talk crap about it.. Sour Farmhouse finally took off today, mid day if I guess, as it hadn't in the morning.

So pitched at 6PM Sat night, and nothing until Tuesday around noon if I had to guess. It's gangbusters now.

 

Mine is smelling great now, the 'skunky' smell is gone and Im getting a lot more funk now. Im just smelling the airlock though, I dont plan on messing with this beer until its 1yr

 

The sour stout I have is comin along nice. It's really young - like oct 2014 young.

Use melange but did mix in some ecy Flemish and dregs from tart of darkness and wicked weed black angel.

This beer is more sour but not quite as complex as the others going right now. It's got no acetic acid flavors and it's just sour and loaded full of cherry pie notes.

Roasty and slight chocolate notes in the nose and then little to no funk. The sour is so tart it hits your jaw bone and makes you salivate instantly. Very very good so far.

Not all melange doings but I like my blend at the moment!

 

Any update on the Melange or Farmhouse Sour Ale from any of the folks that have been using either? Excited to get more feedback on them!

 

No updates but I have question on the sour farmhouse, I bought it on the first release(mid summer?) but life got in the way I still have it in the fridge what are your thoughts on it? Obviously its not a lot of money to be out just curious if its still usable.

 

We released in August, but yeah, I think that you could revive it with a starter. Only one way to find out!

 

Not a ton to contribute for my first post to the homebrew forum, but this is the perfect place to start.

Had my longest brew day ever on Saturday and split my saison recipe into 4 4-gallon carboys and pitched 4 separate yeasts: YB Farmhouse Sour, YB Saison blend, YB Wallonian Farmhouse, and a repitch of random bottle dregs and saison yeast. Saison blend and Wallonian farmhouse took off instantly and the Farmhouse sour took about 12 hours but eventually started up. They are all sitting in my closet which has an average temp in the mid 70's. Very excited to see how these develop over time.

 

Update from my end. Pitched the three I mentioned above at night on 2/28 and the saison blend and the wallonian are already down from 1.056 to 1.010 and 1.008, respectively. Awesome stuff. Only thing I'm noticing which my roommate and girlfriend aren't picking up on as much is a fairly strong sulfuric aroma coming from the two. Need to do my research but I'm sure it could be coming from a number if things, though I've never come across it before with what I've used. Anyone know if this is common during the early stages of fermentation with these yeasts? Farmhouse sour isn't showing signs of that aroma and is also still fermenting away.

 

Pellucid update...airlock smell is fantastic! Cannot wait till August..also have 3 gallons of gen 2 with cantillon dregs that is a couple months behind this one..no Pellicle on the 3 galloner as there's almost no headspace

 

I'm sorry your first post is such a sad one!

That's a shame you haven't had good experience with the Wallonian Farmhouse strain. It's our second best seller in both the homebrewing and craft brewing markets, and it's produced some pretty incredible beers, especially in the commercial realm. The earthy character, steady fermentation rate and good attenuation seem to make it a crowd favorite saison yeast. This makes me think this might be a process driven issue given the high degree of success others (especially commercial brewers) have experienced with this strain, but hard to tell with the lack of detail about your brewing process in the post.

Care to share your brew day notes and the notes of your buddies "who share my opinion on this yeast along with a few of there [sic] other offerings"? I'm all about trouble shooting issues people experience with our products and helping them make it work!

 

Ive heard good things about wallonian from all the forums that I frequent, this is the first very negative post ive read. Ill still be trying it out sometime soon

 

I haven't used this yeast, but forgive me if I don't cross it off my list based on a user's first post. In a thread that wasn't anywhere near the first page of the forum before the post. Seems kind of targeted.

 

Dude, how long have you been brewing? You should know that when a beer doesn't turn out the way you expect, the fault always lies with the ingredients.

This thread is intended to discuss personal experience with specific yeast strains. Adding unsubstantiated vague second-hand commentary about others' experience isn't useful.

 

Based on the recent posts, I think I want to try the Wallonian yeast.