I had brewed a beer and had two envelopes of WPL530 that were a bit out of date, I knew that I should have done a starter, but didn't
A several days after pitching the yeast, no activity.
So i looked at what dry yeast I had and decided to pitch them both the T-58 and BE-134 (in 10+ Gallons) to try to get something unique.
Beer is a Witbier, I'll update the thread at packaging/sampling.
We shall see.
I just made a witbier with T-58 and put it in to competition. It did not do well. Not an impressive beer, and I agreed with the critics. It wasn't bad, just... not great. I've had similar experiences every time I've used T-58. It's a very mediocre yeast strain.
My results with WLP400 in the past were much better. BE-134 should be similar to that one. Here's hoping the BE-134 does a good portion of the work for you.
Cheers.
I've always felt T58 kind of throws the kitchen sink at you. "You want Belgian? I'll give you Belgian! Have some phenols! How about some esters? Here, have even more esters. I CAN'T HEAR YOU!" Fingers crossed for you that this batch works out.
When you decide it's time to restock your dry yeast, grab some Lallemand Abbaye.
I like the combo. Both yeasts are pretty characterful and it looks like they might complement each other nicely.
I think it's better to pitch them separately at different stages of fermentation. If you pitch them mixed BE-134 would munch fast through the sugars leaving T-58 no food to build its peculiar esters and phenols.
Now I'm thinking of doing such combo myself.
If I was doing such a combo, I'd make the wort a bit heavier than planned and pitch T-58 first. In the first 3-4 days it will produce enough esters and phenols, where the higher gravity would help. Then, at the day 4, I would top up the partially fermented wort with the precalculated amount of water and pitch BE-134.
What I'm getting as a result, is essentially a nice BE-134 Saison enriched with T-58 flavours. Which sounds yummy. BE-134 is a nice but not too flavourful yeast. Adding some Belgiany phenols from T-58 might be exactly what it needs.
I don't think you can get a Witbier with such a combo, though. BE-134 will ferment it totally dry. You'll have a Saison, and most probably a very good one.
. I found a brewers best starter kit at my local transfer station's swap shack. Nobody took it so I scored a fermentation and bottling bucket, a bottle capper and some perfectly fine muntons yeast - EXP 2007. Totally will work, no starter necessary.
I've used T-58 for a Quad and a Tripel. both came out great. No experience on the BE-134.
but mixing yeasts will have wierd results. How did you determine no activity? Did you take a gravity reading? No visible activity doesn't mean a thing.
Four days in, no pressure on the kegmenter, opened it up, no sign of krausen, surface still.
I'd disagree with you @odie , no visible activity does mean something.
But we are each entitled to our opinion.
Now watching and airlock, that is something else.
As for gravity readings, I don't take them in the beginning or at the end, haven't in about a decade.
I would say gravity reading are more definitive than any visual clues.
granted, everything you describe points to no fermentation. But doesn't mean it's not happening, perhaps at a very low level.
with old yeast, 4 days is not necessarily proof of dead yeast. I've had beer with healthy fresh yeast not kick off for a couple three days.
I don't see where you mentioned pitching temps. Perhaps a bit on the cold side so some delay in it waking up? Perhaps a leak preventing air lock activity?
The results are in.
Unimpressive.
It likely would have been better with US-05.
I had use my standard hops, normal amount of coriander, and almost twice the orange peel, all three were "muted", not really much taste, although my buddy said that the orange peel stood out to him and he liked it.
I had planned on reusing the yeast, plan changed, it will be dumped.
Post time 2022-11-15 10:53:57
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