Archive for category Experiments
An Experiment in Brewology – Beer Yeast
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Hobbies, Home Brewing on February 6th, 2010
It’s been a long while since I have last done an experiment in home brewing and this is one I have been planning on doing for a long time. The lack of small 1 gallon fermentation units and the terrible state of the local home brew suppliers in my city have prevented me from attempting this.
Last week I found a decent online store which supplied several strains of dry beer yeast, plus a variety of well priced hops and managed to convert several 1 gallon apple juice containers into fermenters. The yeast arrived at my house last night and the rest will be history. Until now I have exculsively used Coopers beer yeast which has served me very well in producing beer. Still from my reading and research many state that the strain of yeast plays a very large role in the overall final product. I have to find out for myself…
The Question – How much does the strain of yeast affect the final flavours of a home brewed beer?
The Experiment -4 Different strains of yeast will be used for a single beer recipe which will be divided into four seperate 1 gallon fermenters.
The Recipe -Bradinator’s Red Ale
All the ingredients collected and ready to go
- 3.3 lbs Pilsner LME
- 1.0 lbs Light DME
- 1 and 1/2 cups (approx 0.5 lbs) Crystal Malt 60L (steeped for 30 minutes at 70-80c)
- 1 oz Amarillo Gold @ 60 minutes
- 0.5 oz Amarillo Gold @ 30 minutes
- 0.5 oz Amarillo Gold @ 5 minutes
- 1/2 tsp Irish Moss @ 10 minutes
- 1/2 tsp Yeast Nutrient @ Cold Break
- SafeAle-04, SafeAle-05, SafeLager S-23, SafeBrew S-33
Original Gravity: 1.038 – 1.040
The Plan – 4-6 weeks in the fermenters, then an additional 2 weeks in bottles. The final products will be refridgerated for 24 hours prior to drinking and will be sampled on an individual basis (possibly 1 a night). A final gravity reading will be taken from each individual batch as I highly expect them all ferment out differently, especially the S-33.
All the beer was divided evenly and each individual yeast packet pitched.
SafeAle S-04: Described as an English Ale yeast
SafeAle S-05 - An American ale yeast, low diacetyl production
SafeLager S-23 - A german lager yeast, supposed to impart fruit like flavours
SafeBrew S-33: A robust ale yeast with high alcohol tolerance. Used in strong ales.
I am going to need to monitor this brews over the next couple days as I pitched the entire 11.5g packet of yeast into these small fermenters. To prevent the inevitable blow out that will occur in the next day or so I have all the beers pointing into a blow-off jar filled with sanitizer.
I already know this beer will explode... It's just a matter of time.
Another experiment in Brewology is about to begin
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Hobbies, Home Brewing on February 6th, 2010
I am excited about it 
Several yeast strains, several possible beer outcomes
An Experiment in Brewology – Part 4
Posted by bradinator in Experiments, Home Brewing on January 14th, 2010
Thought I forgot about this didn’t you? I wanted to give these a very long time to settle before trying them again.
I did not take gravity readings this time, though in hindsight I probably should have. I did take some tasting notes from each glass though.
Bread Yeast – Some of the funny off-flavours have dissipated from this cider. It smells like cheap wine and has a semi-sour, sweet taste. It seems to have retained its apple juice like qualities, including being completely flat.
Beer Yeast – Bleh. This one has taken a turn for the worst. That funny off-taste of yeast is stronger then ever in this cider. The yeast obviously did not do a very good job of cleaning up the flavours before they died. It is definitely the sweetest of the bunch, but has over the past 6 months become flat like the bread yeast.
WC-1118 – It smells like wine, it looks like wine and for all intensive purposes it tastes like wine. The driest of the bunch and the most carbonated, the WC-1118 yeast did an exceptional job of cleaning up any form of funky flavours. It was the cleanest, most enjoyable of the batch. It was so enjoyable I finished off the entire bottle of it with happy results.
I still have one more round which I will do way into the summer. Thumbs plus for SCIENCE!
Round 4 is finished with WC-1118 in the lead!
Routine of the Day – Tabata This! Round 3 of Tabata Training
Posted by bradinator in Experiments, Fitness, Routines on October 28th, 2009
It’s another day and another 24 minutes of brutal exercise. But its just 24 minutes…
Tabata Scores (8 Rounds – 20 Seconds Exercise, 10 Seconds Rest)
- Pullups – 16 12 10 7 6 6 5 5 Total: 67 Best: 5
- Squats – 24 22 21 20 20 20 20 20 Total: 67 Best: 20
- Pushups - 36 26 22 22 22 22 21 21 Total: 192 Best: 21
- M. Climbers - 25 22 22 22 22 22 22 22 Total: 179 Best: 22
- Chair Dips - 28 25 22 22 22 22 22 22 Total: 185 Best: 22
- Burpees - 7 6 5 5 5 5 5 5 Total: 43 Best: 5
Total Repetitions Completed: 833
In comparison to my last rounds I am still down on Pullups for both best and total (I think doing 120 pullups yesterday may have had something to do with it), but up in Pushups, Mountain Climbers and Dips. My overall total repetitions up by about 15 as well showing that I am getting improved sustainability in these exercises.
Still I feel that there are several other factors that contribute to getting a better Tabata Score, including how I have been eating, how much sleep I have been getting and the time of day I do the exercises. Rest between routines is also important as you body needs to recover to perform at its best.
If I compare to some of my very first Tabata scores the improvements are amazing. I had a journal I kept for some of my previous Routines of the Day, before I began posting them on my blog and compared those Tabata Scores its mind blowing. I do not have total repetitions recorded, but I do have the best of the sets.
I will post the exercises I am doing for this Tabata Challenge only just for comparison:
Febuary 25th 2009 (first ever, no vest) – Burpees – 7, Pushups – 15, Squats – 17
April 1st 2009 (no vest) – Pullups – 4, Burpees – 6, Pushups – 11, Squats – 12
April 26th 2009 (no vest) – Pullups – 5, Burpees – 6, Pushups – 12, Squats – 15
Those are some pretty sad scores. Not even with my vest! I wonder how many I could do without that damned thing on? Hmmm…
| Tabata Scores | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | Best |
| Pullups | 16 | 12 | 10 | 7 | 6 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 67 | 5 |
| Squats | 24 | 22 | 21 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 20 | 167 | 20 |
| Pushups | 36 | 26 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 21 | 21 | 192 | 21 |
| M. Climbers | 25 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 179 | 22 |
| Chair Dips | 28 | 25 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 22 | 185 | 22 |
| Burpees | 7 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 43 | 5 |
An Experiment in Brewology – Part 3
Posted by bradinator in Beer, Experiments, Home Brewing on August 28th, 2009
It’s that time again. With it being well over a month since the last time I took the test samples from the original batch, I felt it was time to continue with my Brewology lessons.
Bread Yeast – SG: 1.000 ABV: 8.8%
Notes: This one is still as flat as ever and still carrying the funky it had last month. Its sweet, with some definite notes of caramel, but the off-tastes are far to apparent to make it enjoyable. Actually I think it may be worse then last time.
Beer Yeast – SG: 1.000 ABV: 8.8%
Notes: There was just the slightest hints of carbonation in this one. The SG has actually dropped some putting it on par with the Champagne and Bread yeasts. Some sweet flavours and the apple juice taste is still there, but it has some of the off-flavours that the bread yeast carried.
WC-1118 Champagne Yeast – SG 1.000 ABV: 8.8%
Notes: Its hard to believe they all leveled out at an SG of 1.000. This one had the greatest improvement overall, with some apparent carbonation and the least amount of funky aftertaste. Actually it was almost unnoticeable. It was the least sweetest of the batch, but easily the most drinkable now.
Round three is finished and this experiment is quickly turning into a disaster with two of the ciders still very unpleasant. It may be another two months before I try the next round which will hopefully allow any of those strange flavours to dissipate.
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