White Labs Yeast – 500 Monastery Ale White Labs

I love this yeast! I didn’t realize how much like a wheat yeast it seems to be. Is very cloudy and leaves behind a bunch of fluffy, slowly settling yeast. The krausen was like a big, tan fluffy cloud that didn’t want to go back down into the beer. I brewed a Belgian Blonde style ale with an O.G. of 1.060. My apartment A/C went out so the fermentation got up into high 70s low 80s. The F.G. was 1.014 at bottling (1 week of fermentation), which was a bit of a concern because I would have liked it to get a bit lower. However, I still liked the taste (not too sweet, still nice and malty), it had been settling out as well as it seemed it would, the activity had slowed to a stop, and I wanted it to be ready for the following weekend. So into the bottle it had to go! There was a bit of a lingering hot alcohol afterbite upon sampling after 1 week in the bottle. After a couple of days the hot mellowed out and the beer is fluffy, wonderfully drinkable, with lots of big Belgian notes such as banana, a little clove, orange and fruity esters. I used a little bit of orange peel and lots of late addition Saaz. The aroma is quite lovely with lots of orange and citrus. The color is a beautiful deep orange in the middle and glowing fuzzy yellow on the outside edges of the glass. The head is foamy and cotton white; it’s light on the tongue and lingers with a velvet mouthfeel going down. It’s a great beer and one I’ll be happy to share at BBQs this summer! I would have liked to restrain the esters a bit with a lower fermentation temp, but overall very satisfactory. I am looking forward to experimenting with other styles and ingredients, especially on wheat-forward and spiced beers. I’m also looking forward better temperature control in a fermentation cabinet would produce, such as by starting on the low end and slowly raising throughout. Love it!