Brewing a Bavarian Helles

[Weizenberg]

Do you prepare your yeast or do you pitch directly?

[Natebriscoe]

[bjanat]

Thoughts? http://www.themadfermentationist.com/20 ... r.html?m=1


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[Bryan R]

Lets break this down, in a effort to help others.
Improper dosage of SMB
Did not use Acid malt(it carries flavors over that are desirable, and in the paper)
Did not follow the recipe (caramalts and/or a malt blend is essential to the proper flavors)
Did not mash per the sheet(though I will be lenient here)
Did not use any of the recommended yeast strains(infact used 34/70 which we go out of out way to say to avoid)
Did not ferment as per the schedule
Did not spund

As you can see short of not adding SMB, this beer was brewed with the same standard methods the paper say to strictly avoid. I am not surprised at the result.

I don't know if it is a general problem to comprehend or follow instructions properly but hopefully others can break out of these habits and actually give it a proper go! I don't want this to come across negative, but these details need to be pointed out as they taint the results. Onwards and upwards.

[Weizenberg]

I use 34/70 quite often and it's not a show stopper.

[Bryan R]

[Weizenberg]

TBH any lager yeast will work just fine. Mine are liquid but I also had good results with dried (a long time back though). It's not necessary to be so restrictive as to the strain. That should be up to the individual.

Yeast strains and fermentation have very little to do with Lodo in my mind. That's just good general practice. Anybody making lagers should have that basic grasp.

[Bryan R]

The 34/70 dry is a vial yeast. It throws off horrible green apple, and not enough sulfur. The real 830-34/70 is fine, the dry.. blech. I agree its basics.

[Weizenberg]

WLP820 is actually the 34/70 - thankfully they rectified that mistake.

If you want the correct original, you can get it from

[Natebriscoe]

I have used wlp830 low o2 a few times, with great results. It really let's the clean malt character stand out.