Charlottesville Area Masters of Real Ale

Greg asked what everyone was brewing with their Starr Hill slurries, so I thought I'd open up this thread for discussion of that sort of thing.  I was planning on making a maple pale ale later this spring using WLP001, but this recipe just got moved up to the front of my queue with the acquisition of this yeast slurry.  This was the first beer I brewed on my own when I started homebrewing, recipe made up by yours truly.  I've been meaning to revisit this recipe for a while now, and now I'm finally going to get to it.  It's a basic amber pale ale recipe with maple syrup added at the end of the boil and then again when the beer is kegged.  Beautiful maple syrup flavors and bitterness from the hops combine to make a very easy to drink beer.
What is everyone else planning?

Great idea for a thread.

I'm still trying to figure out what I want to do with my mine.  I'm leaning towards an all centennial hop IPA with Maris Otter.  Like you, it jumped up my schedule over an oatmeal stout and a small experimental batch because of the Starr Hill yeast.

Starr Hill Sampler:
In the primary: Jamil's American "Blow-out Stout" with a flame-out addition of 2oz of homegrown Cascades.
On Deck for the Starr Hill yeasties: West Coast IPA--can't wait to deal with that mess!

@Greg

I'm planning to use the uber Starr Hill Chico this weekend when I brew, but the yeast has been sitting in my fridge for a week+.  Did you do anything special to rouse it?  It seems pretty caked down and raising it to room temp seems both sensible and dangerous.

I am not sure what I am going to brew with it yet.  It might be an experiment of how long it can live in my fridge and then restart with a starter.  I may fit a brew day in before March, when Greg and I are doing a English Mild yeast experiment brew, in which case I will use it for an IPA probably.  Otherwise, I may not be using it until April.

You probably already used the yeast but in case you didn't: I pulled it straight from the fridge, shook it up most seriously, added a bit of clean water, and poured it in the carboy. A most intense ferment if I do say so myself.

I've got a second slug of the Starr Hill yeastie-beastie to use within the next two weeks. I'll probably pour off the spend Dark Starr that came with it and feed it a 1/2 cup of 1.040 generic wort. And use a gigantic blow-off tube and gallon pitcher to catch the gunk.

I ended up doing a Dogfish Head 90 Min IPA clone and it took off.  I tossed up that info in another post somewhere.

Did you go back for a second round of tours and tasting at Starr Hill?

BTW - I've used the Fermcap-S stuff in my boils for a while since I have a 7 gallon pot and I'm always boiling right to the top.

With this hyperactive Starr Hill yeast, I dropped some in at the start of fermentation and the krausen never even hit the top of the carboy.  I guess I'm a fan.

This is interesting (not my pictures, just something off the web): http://www.flickr.com/photos/plaztikjezuz/2311342840/in/set-72157604044357632/

I didn't go back to Starr Hill for more. Not yet at least. I simply asked for two at the meeting and viola!, here I am. I've got strike water heating as we speak for an Imperial American India Pale Ale. Geez, what a long descriptor. but IAIPA sounds like some lame governmental-style regulatory group so maybe I'll just call it: American India Pale. Sounds better. I'll try the fermcap dropper but I'm pretty sure that the yeast out here in Troy ain't scared of that stuff.

WTF?

My advice to everyone using the Starr Hill yeast is to mash high.  I brewed and pitched the yeast on Sunday (2/15) and it was done on Wednesday night (2/18).  That is the good news, the bad news is that the final gravity is much, much lower than I expected.  I made a Cennetenial IPA (kinda in the vein of a Two Hearted Ale) and the yeast took me from a 1.063 to a 1.006. 

No typo there, a 1.006.  That would have been cool for a saison, but ....damn.

Anybody else had this high of an attenuation?

(FYI: the malt bill was 12 lb of 2-row, 1 lb of Vienna, 1 lb of Munich, .5 of Carpils and .5 of Crystal 20L)

I had a similar experience, Jamey.  I brewed a Dogfish 90-min IPA clone that started at 1.083 OG.  It ended with a 1.013 FG, while the recipe figured it would end at 1.020.  Initial tastes, when I racked onto dry hops, indicated that it was still going to turn out ok, but wow.  That yeast was crazy.  As I posted elsewhere, I doubled the Fermcap-S drops and I still had a minor foam-over during primary.  I had only filled th 6 gallon carboy 2/3rds full too, man that stuff is VERY active.  When I read the FG, I figured that my residual sweetness to bitterness balance was going to be totally off, but it seems that things will turn out.  That stuff was really SUPER yeast.

Yikes Jamey!
Luckily my Stout mashed at 154 and ended on target but we'll see with the whoppin' IPA that's blowing off volcanic style as we speak. Ah the joys of a fat blow-off tube.
I bet the Centennial turns out super tasty regardless of the low gravity. Don't sweat it !