I was always a fan of all beers English, Belgian, and different. So in my early days when it came time to brew an American beer, I used one of the alternative ale yeasts, like Stone (WLP090) or Anchor (WLP051) rather than Chico (US-05, Wyeast 1056, WLP001, etc).
In an attempt to achieve an extremely clean beer to explore the new Medusa (neomexicanus) hops, I chose Imperial Yeast A07 Flagship, their version of the Chico strain(reported to be 1056). For the grain bill it was 100% locally-produced pale 2-row (4 L). Fermented at 62 F for a week, then raised to 70 F to clean up and attenuate.
The beer is about a week or two old, in the kegerator and fully carbonated, and I find myself really disliking the beer. The yeast really brought out the light toast in the malt making it taste like I used 100% biscuit, the mouthfeel is slimy, and this is one of the cloudiest beers I have ever made. It's definitely not an infection; fermentation was healthy and vigorous. I'm left to believe that I just don't like this yeast. Tonight I will be dosing with Biofine Clear and saturday I will be adding an additional charge of dry hops, so I should probably wait until then to post...
This brew has turned me off of Chico yeast. I've started to notice the yeast's tendency to negatively accent toasty flavors and create slimy mouthfeel in commercial beers now as well. It's as if a switch went off in my head, and I can no longer enjoy beers made with the yeast.
Does anyone else have any detailed feelings towards or experiences with this yeast? Is there another yeast that produces a vehement response from you?
In an attempt to achieve an extremely clean beer to explore the new Medusa (neomexicanus) hops, I chose Imperial Yeast A07 Flagship, their version of the Chico strain(reported to be 1056). For the grain bill it was 100% locally-produced pale 2-row (4 L). Fermented at 62 F for a week, then raised to 70 F to clean up and attenuate.
The beer is about a week or two old, in the kegerator and fully carbonated, and I find myself really disliking the beer. The yeast really brought out the light toast in the malt making it taste like I used 100% biscuit, the mouthfeel is slimy, and this is one of the cloudiest beers I have ever made. It's definitely not an infection; fermentation was healthy and vigorous. I'm left to believe that I just don't like this yeast. Tonight I will be dosing with Biofine Clear and saturday I will be adding an additional charge of dry hops, so I should probably wait until then to post...
This brew has turned me off of Chico yeast. I've started to notice the yeast's tendency to negatively accent toasty flavors and create slimy mouthfeel in commercial beers now as well. It's as if a switch went off in my head, and I can no longer enjoy beers made with the yeast.
Does anyone else have any detailed feelings towards or experiences with this yeast? Is there another yeast that produces a vehement response from you?