Earl Dreams of IPA

When it comes to tasting beer, entirely too much emphasis is placed on the variety of hops used in the brew and in what volume those hops were used. About 5 years ago I had my very first Tree House Brewing Company beers. It was a Haze and I had never tasted anything like it. Although I had a very simple pallet back then (still do) I recognized that something was very special about the yeast character of this beer.

As the years went by and I continued to brew ever all kinds of varieties of beer, I quickly recognized that London Ale III was not the only yeast that THBC uses in their beers. There’s definitely something more going on in there that LA3 is not giving to this beer. LA3 is far too clean for the flavors you get from Haze.

One morning while eating a bowl of Cheerios with bananas, I was smacked in the face with a reminder of Haze. Immediately I realized I had to start brewing experiments to target this yeast profile.

Not alone in the pursuit, I borrowed greatly from those who’ve blazed this trail before me, especially the group on Homebrew Talk and Marshal Bishop over at Trinity Brewers.

So here are links to my first 4 experiments. Note that the grist and hops changed every time as I was just messing around with those ingredients, mostly based on what I had lying around. My real goal has been and continued to be, to isolate this yeast profile. I really feel like with experiment number 4, I’m starting to get close.

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5 Comments

  1. I stumbled onto you beer experiments while reading your recommended parts list for the iSpindel. Anyway I have been brewing Marshalls clone of TH Julius for awhile now and although never having the opportunity to drink any real TH beers I really like the clone.
    In your recipes the incremental dry yeast additions that are listed as .25, what unit is that?
    How was the brew #2 with all T-58?

    1. I wasn’t a big fan myself. I live about 30 minutes from THBC and regularly have it in my fridge. Nothing I’ve made so far even comes close. Experiment #3 was what I imagine Marshall’s clone to taste like because he used a lot of WB-06 but it’s definitely not right. THBC’s yeast profile is unlike anything I’ve had before.

      The experiment with straight T-58 helped me to learn what T-58 tastes like. I’m not a big fan of it straight. To spicy and watery for me personally but I can definitely taste a hint of it in THBC’s beers. Just a lot less. I shared this with a bunch of friends and they all agreed it was their favorite of the 4 so far.

      Experiment #4 was a complete disaster. Some how got infected. Had to dump it. Will try again though.

      0.25 meant 25% of the weight of the yeast in the package. The package is filled with 15 grams of yeast so I used 3.75 grams of yeast. But like I said, I don’t really know how that turned out as it was dreadful.

  2. Just FYI, these are the amounts of yeast based on Marshalls recipe that I use for 5.5 gal.
    11.5g SO4
    .625g T58
    .375g WBO6

    1. Oh cool. Thanks for the ratios. One thing I’ve been reading/learning about is how much stress late pitching can have on yeast because most/all of the oxygen is gone. So thinking of making a baby starter next time and pitching it while active.

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