A little late, but things around here are still moving as fast and feverous as normal. Here are some high level overviews of what we have cooking for our members.
We completed a N=100 study of a special enzyme, that allows for roughly 85% attenuation.
Mashing and attenuation are very important to us. With current malt lots the gelatinization temperatures are high enough that without doing some very intricate mash regimens, we are not able to get the AA% numbers we desire in our beers. This is where exogenous enzymes can help us. In our sensory evaluations we found the beers to be nice and dry, exhibiting no issues or off flavors. Interestingly enough though we discovered something that was quite revolutionary, it grew way more yeast. More test strings were ran once this was discovered.
A New Starter Approach?
The discovery made when examining harvested yeast, showed roughly 40-50% percent more yeast (verified via scoping slurry’s). This brought forward the idea of using it in starters to grow more yeast with no more work. Some tests were ran, using various exogenous enzymes and a winner was found(left).
This small scale test shows control in the center, and the enzyme on the left. It’s very easy to see the large difference in yeast cakes here. Yet another side benefit was the beers dropped brighter faster.
This enzyme (and others) which will not be named here are available solely to the members here. Some of the other enzyme’s available are, to ensure no diacetyl is ever produced, no cereal mashing for adjunct, etc.
More on Extract and Attenuation
In this testing we also found there is a non-exogenous method to dial in attenuation, and its available to pretty much anyone. It is basically accurate to 1%. Targeting 82% AA? Easy use x amount. How about 86%? Sure, add x amount. This method is easy and available, but does not grow yeast like above, a minor trade off. A very large thread on the forum discusses this.
Yeast
While on the subject of fermentation and attenuation, we went out and worked with a very large yeast bank in Europe, to get us a yeast that no one else has, with performance unheard of, to do some dirty work in our breweries.
Introducing TMB Asylum
TMB Asylum Lager-
The Modern Brewhouse™ has specifically selected this special strain directly from the world famous yeast bank at Weihenstephan. In a true covert recovery mission, this strain spent time in an abandoned asylum in Croatia in order to maintain secrecy. Remote drop offs, exchanges, international flights, and deception got it back here for you to use. We think this special yeast and its crazy journey, indeed turned this into an insane performer.
Flocculation: High to Very High
80-84% AA
Low to No Diacetyl
Low Sulfur
Average fermentation rate is ~2p/day at pitch rate 2.5m/mil/48f.
Pitch to spund in 3-4 days and FG in 5 days on a 12p lager @48F (No d rest needed). Brilliant and not requiring filtering after a brief lagering(1-2 weeks) period.
Not only that, but we have a fantastic yeast lab who banked this for us, and is allowing our members to order directly.
We are partnering with RVA Yeast Labs, and are SUPER excited and happy about it.
With a masters of science in chemical ecology and experience teaching biology, founder Malachy McKenna’s attention to the scientific aspect of brewing was inevitable.
Since 2013, McKenna has used his expertise in brewing and science to offer brewers “The Freshest Yeast for Optimal Fermentation” – the company’s tag line.
RVA Yeast Labs is located in the Virginia Biotechnology Research Park in Richmond, Virginia, the heart of a growing beer destination and community.
The website is located here: https://rvayeastlabs.com/
Revival of Old Yeast Slurries
We have been trying (with good success) some simple tricks for reviving old yeast slurries for direct pitch. Taking a 5 month old harvest and direct pitching it, with activity in the main batch in ~3-4hrs.
Other Member Benefits
Our focus as of recent has really been on the fermentation side of the house, but that doesn’t mean thats all we have been doing.
We have the TMB tool shed– Chocked full of in process and other highly desired meters and tools ( in process DO, PH, Microscopes, etc).
I started the new TMB scholarship, which gives any member(s) money to research/purchase desired mediums, tools, products to further our knowledge of our brewing community.
The TMB Library – It has every professional brewing book out there currently. It also has literal hundreds of scientific papers, that are updated monthly and ever growing.
Alternate Hop growing methods – members have came up with some brilliant way to grow hops, and maximize yields.
Last but not least- The World Beer Meeting – We have weekly zoom sessions with people with brilliant minds from around the world talk about beer, life, and god knows what else.
Closing Thoughts
This was just a short and quick note of the goings on here at TMB. We have years worth of data and research on the forums for the members. As I have said before, a day on our forum will teach you more than you could ever learn in a lifetime browsing other forums, regardless of ones current knowledge level.
Join the patreon, and take a rocket ship to the brewing moon.