BREWDAY: Belgian'd Golden Cloud

So, I modified the Golden Cloud Ale recipe a bit, to reflect my first round try. I wanted to simplify things, a little. I wanted to get the percentages into something that would be easier to scale up. I also wanted to adjust the hoppiness into something resembling a wheaten Patersbier.

I wanted to experiment with a Belgian yeast versus a German one! I had a mystery packet of WYeast Belgian Abbey II that was accidentally included in a grain shipment at the bottom of a box - and it sat in a garage in September southwest of San Antonio, in Texas, which is to say it was probably baked dead! I also had a backup dry yeast of Safbrew S-33, if the Wyeast packet was as dead as I had suspected. I wanted to take this same grain bill concept, and hop concept, and apply a different kind of yeast entirely to experiment and see if it tastes better this way!

So, the revision of the recipe:

3 gallons, BIAB

3 pounds of Rahr 2-row

3 pounds of Rahr Red Wheat

6 ounces of Toasted Malt

3 ounces of Quick Oats

@60 - 0.6 ounces of Cluster

@10 - 0.4 ounces of Styrian Celeja

Target OG: 1.059

Target FG: 1.015

29.2 IBU

The brewday went as expected. I had thought everything was going to be fine. I ground some grains, got my bag out and got brewing. I have acquired a functioning refractometer, and managed to hit my target gravities, hooray. 

Now, as I had suspected, the Belgian Abbey II packet was dead as a doornail. there was no activity at all after three days. I pitched the backup yeast, that I thought had been handled correctly. Alas, two days later, no signs of life! 

As I am out of yeast, and it would take at least three days to get any, I went ahead and pitched some bread yeast I had handy. I was concerned, definitely, that I had issues I didn't realize in my water, and if the bread yeast hadn't took, I'd have dumped the whole batch. Fortunately, kreusen formed and activity took off. I watched the temperature of my fermenting beer carefully, attempting to keep it very cool because who knows what off-flavors will develop with this last-minute, unexpected change in the yeast addition. When I try my next round of Golden Cloud, there really is no telling how good or gross it will be. Perhaps the S-33 was just slow to take off, and dominates the flavor. Perhaps the Belgian Abbey II rose up from the bread yeast invasion, and became something. Perhaps the bread yeast will surprise me with a clean, respectable ale flavor. Who knows? I bottle sometime tomorrow, and we'll see what happens.

Regardless, I will soon be able to answer the question that pops up from time to time on message boards about using bread yeast to make beer with real, live experience.

In the mean time, it's time to order more yeast. I'm looking for a way to buy a box of yeast packets at once, instead of just one at a time. I don't really have room in our fridge to do any yeast saving. I'm lucky there's room for yeast, at all!