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Mangrove Jack’s British Ale Yeast M07

Mofo

Grandmaster Brewer
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Dec 11, 2014
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Fujian, China
I brew in China. White Labs and Wyeast are hard to find and often approaching their best-by dates. There’s also no way of knowing how well they’ve been refrigerated on their way here. Mangrove Jacks, out of Australia, began popping up on brew supply websites here last year, first just a few strains, but now in ready supply. I didn’t find much information about the line on the more popular brew forums, but gave it a try anyway. I think it’s worth adding a review.

(I’ve also been reading Chris White and Jamil Zainasheff’s Yeast and am anxious to wax on and on about the subject. Better to do so here than over dinner with my wife!)

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Here’s what I was working with:

5 gal batch
12.5 lbs Maris Otter pale malt
Mashed at 152º for 60 minutes
Sparged at 168º
3oz kettle hops, boiled for 90 mins
1oz dry hopping for two weeks
Post-boil gravity 1.058 (Should’ve let it boil down to 1.060 for this recipe. I’ll get ‘er next time.)
Estimated final gravity 1.014.

Yeast rehydrated well in water that had been boiled and cooled to 90º. Ambient temperature was 59º but fermentor had been placed in a water bath with a fish tank heater. Wort pitching temperature was 63º, where it stayed for the duration of primary fermentation.

I pitched in the late evening and noticed no airlock activity before heading to work the next morning. There was still no airlock activity after work (20 hours after pitching) but it had started kreusening. This was my first time using a 3-piece airlock and it turns out the inner cap was sitting askance on the post, allowing gas to escape without bubbling. (Even when working properly these airlocks are unsettlingly quiet!) By the second morning there was steady airlock activity and 4 to 5 inches of kreusen in the bucket.

Two days after pitching the hydrometer read 1.037.
Four days after pitching it read 1.017.
Five days after pitching it read 1.015. I had to leave on a two-week trip and transferred to secondary to dry hop while away. I also unplugged the heater, but ambient temp had gone up to 62, where it stayed for the most part. I left it in the bath to insulate it from day/night spikes.

It’s now 19 days since pitching. I removed the hops, tested and sampled it. Hydrometer reads 1.014. Bingo.

M07 is a neutral, top-fermenting strain billed as “brewing silky smooth light ales with
a neutral yeast aroma and flavor contribution. This strain also works well for stronger ales where a soft and balanced mouth feel is desired and where the nutty, spicy and earthy hop and malt characteristics should be enhanced.”

It’s recommended temperature range is 57º-72º. The company rates its products’ performance characteristics on a 1-5 scale. It’s highly flocculent (5) and attenuates well (4). It has a low tendency to produce esters unless temps rise above 74º, “after which ester like aromas can become pronounced.”

I created the ingredient profile in BeerSmith to add to my recipe. I would have liked to add its minimum and maximum attenuation percents. Mangroves’ “5” doesn’t mean much. I wrote the company via their “Contact Us” web page but never heard back.

The sample I tasted was indeed smooth and had no noticeable esters present. There was a very slight butteriness, which may well have been my doing. No matter; it was a pleasant plus.

It wasn’t as clear as I’d have liked it to be. This, again, is perhaps my own fault; it doesn’t seem like a characteristic of a highly flocculent yeast. You can see by the picture I’ve attached, which itself isn’t very clear.

I’ll post a follow up after it’s in bottles and ready for real sampling. If anyone has any experience with this strain or this brand in general I’d love to hear it. I so far give it a thumbs-up and plan to work with it again. I’ll also be trying their M44 US West Coast Yeast later this week and will post a review of that.




 

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I made an English style Golden Bitter yesterday using M07. I set the fridge to 19c and it's taken off like a train. I'm glad I decided to use a blow off tube.
 
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