Dark Ale Yeast

[PaulM1111]

Hi all,

 

I am sure this has been asked before - I am putting down a Coopers Dark Ale this weekend and I have a spare Cerveza yeast left over from a past brew - can these yeasts be mixed? I understand the Cerveza yeast is half ale half lager?

 

I assume the 7g provided would be enough to get the job done - I am planning a milder beer:

 

Tin of Dark Ale

500g Light Dry Malt

200g Choc Malt Steeped 30 mins

 

[LeonardC2]

Good looking recipe. Going a slightly different way than I did with my dark ale can. The plain light DME will lighten the color,maybe more than the plain amber DME I used.

I made a starter for my 7g yeast sachet. It made it start faster & more vigorous. Use 1 1/2C of boiling water,add 1/4C of the DME & stir. insert quick check thermometer & cover with plastic wrap. When cooled to 21C,stir in yeast sachet & recover. Do this 1st & let it sit while you go about your brew day.

When ready to pitch,stir it up,& pour it all in. Stir the lot gently to mix,& rig a blow off,you'll need it! But the 200g of chocolate malt seems like a good choice for a dark ale that has a sort of creamy quality to begin with. Imagine that flavor!...

I used medium toast French oak chips in secondary,& I'm getting a vanilla cream bourbon flavor going. My word! that's nice.

So that quality combined with a light chocolate hit should be grand as well.[love]

[Guest]

I have a spare Cerveza yeast left over from a past brew - can these yeasts be mixed? I understand the Cerveza yeast is half ale half lager?

 

I assume the 7g provided would be enough to get the job done

 

The 7g in the kit will be enough to get the job done and I believe you can have both those yeasts in the one brew.

I'd keep the 2nd yeast for something else or use it as a nutrient when you need one.

[Trusty1]

...

I used medium toast French oak chips in secondary,& I'm getting a vanilla cream bourbon flavor going...

 

Lenny, how about some more info re the French Oak Chips, such as how did you use them (just chuck them in the 2ndary and what are you calling secondary? In Aus secondary fermentation is what puts the bubbles in the beer after bottling! orare you talking about racking from primary FV?) where do you source them, are they pasteurised, etc. SOunds interesting.

 

Thanks

[LeonardC2]

...

I used medium toast French oak chips in secondary,& I'm getting a vanilla cream bourbon flavor going...

 

Lenny, how about some more info re the French Oak Chips, such as how did you use them (just chuck them in the 2ndary and what are you calling secondary? In Aus secondary fermentation is what puts the bubbles in the beer after bottling! orare you talking about racking from primary FV?) where do you source them, are they pasteurised, etc. SOunds interesting.

 

Thanks

Ok,I bought an 8oz (226.8g) bag of medium toast French oak chips they sell at the LHBS,or half the bag in a Glad container (the ones you get Oscar Myer deli meats in)with 5 jiggers (7.5oz,or 221.76ml) of 8 year old Beam's Black Kentucky bourbon poured over the chips,sealed,& placed in the fridge right after pitching the yeast on my dark ale.

Let it sit there til dark ale reached FG and cleared to a bit cloudy. Then,took the soaked oak chips & poured the chips,liquor & all through a grain sock (looks like a big hop sock) straight into the bottling bucket I made that doubles as a secondary FV.

Tied up the end of the sock, & dumped it in. Then rack from primary onto the chips/liquor in secondary.

Seal & fill airlock with cheap vodka from the grocery.

I let it sit for 8 days,primed & bottled 64 bottles.

The chips don't need to be pasteurized,since they're soaked with bourbon & going into completely fermented beer.

We use a secondary vessel nowadays only if we're adding fruit,honey,oak,etc to the brew,& don't want it getting anything from the yeast cake. Flavors not allowed to start "re-fermenting" are more pronounced & cleaner. Otherwise,if we're just brewing something straight up,we don't use a secondary vessel at all. Secondary fermentation is done in the bottle most of the time.

But do try it,it's cool to experiment with. After some extended aging,the vanilla,etc flavors come back out to play...[love]

[Canadian Eh!L]

I've heard of oak chips being appropriate in some IPAs to give the illusion of oak barrel ageing. I can source oak chips from my LHBS. They are more often found in wine kits. When used in wine kits the instructions say to add them at the begining of fermentation.

 

I'd like to give them a try sometime. I sure like an Innis & Gunn now and again.

 

Chad

 

P.S. Hey Lenny, that Whiskey ale of yours sounds interesting.

[LeonardC2]

I've heard of oak chips being appropriate in some IPAs to give the illusion of oak barrel ageing. I can source oak chips from my LHBS. They are more often found in wine kits. When used in wine kits the instructions say to add them at the begining of fermentation.

 

I'd like to give them a try sometime. I sure like an Innis & Gunn now and again.

 

Chad

 

P.S. Hey Lenny, that Whiskey ale of yours sounds interesting.

We have a couple guys on HBTthat are oaking an IPA,can't wait to see the results of that one myself. Since I still have 1/2 the bag of French oak chips left. The chips,boiled in small amount of water,cooled & sealed in a container during fermentation,is added to a secondary vessel (use a grain sack to contain chips!),& the brew racked onto them,liquid & all.

Then allowed to age till at desired flavor level. Usually 7-10 days. Longer if you use less oak. I just bottled it yesterday,& it's already beginning to clear,so color is starting to darken again. I gave it the old slang name "whiskely",since that's the common name for it I found in my research. I have a thread with the recipe here if you're interested.[cool]

[Trusty1]

Very interesting, sounds cool. Thanks for the blow-by-blow account. Let us know how this one turns out.

[LeonardC2]

You folks will definitely find out,maybe late August. This stuff takes a while to condition & mellow the twice oaked bourbon flavors. It is said that a vanilla flavor comes out as the oak & liquor mellow.

Not to mention,the creamy flavors from the dark ale can. I have to say,that I'm also going to brew a batch of this minus the oak/bourbon. I used;

1 can OS dark ale

1.4 kilos Munton's plain amber DME

1oz (30g) Kent Golding hops

1oz (30g) German Haulertauer

cooper's ale yeast in 1 1/2C starter

Brewed to 23L

It gets this beautiful dark brown color with ruby color mixed in. As if you mixed red ale with a brown ale. Creamy vanilla malty goodness.[love]