Exbeeriments with Belgian Yeast (Y6)

[Wolf]

Has anyone worked with Y6 at lower alcohol before? Looking for some feedback.

I love the Abbey double however it's a bit strong to smash a couple down and still be able to drive. In that spirit I'm trying a few runs to see if I can brew a tasty 4% beer using the yeast. I'm dialling back the bitterness in line with the mid strength beers. I figure less packs mean less residual sugars and I probably don't need as much bitterness to counter it.

These are my planned runs. Runs will be consecutive then after 8 weeks in the keg I will stick all 3 on tap for a tasting session.

Light IBU 12 EBC 9.5

E1 E1 X1 X2

Medium IBU 21 EBC 44

E2 E3 X2 X3

Dark IBU 15 EBC 120

E4 X2 X3 X4

I've started brewing from dark to light as I figure the darker the malt the more time needed to mellow in the keg. I'm concerned the light may be too sweet and I could use E1 E1 E1 X2 but I'm not a fan of bitter beers anyway. I figure with 12, 15 and 21 IBU I can figure out the sweet (or not so sweet) spot for future iterations.

Edited April 3, 2024 by Wolf

[Rob Courtney]

3 hours ago, Wolf said:

Has anyone worked with Y6 at lower alcohol before? Looking for some feedback.

I love the Abbey double however it's a bit strong to smash a couple down and still be able to drive. In that spirit I'm trying a few runs to see if I can brew a tasty 4% beer using the yeast. I'm dialling back the bitterness in line with the mid strength beers. I figure less packs mean less residual sugars and I probably don't need as much bitterness to counter it.

These are my planned runs. Runs will be consecutive then after 8 weeks in the keg I will stick all 3 on tap for a tasting session.

Light IBU 12 EBC 9.5

E1 E1 X1 X2

Medium IBU 21 EBC 44

E2 E3 X2 X3

Dark IBU 15 EBC 120

E4 X2 X3 X4

I've started brewing from dark to light as I figure the darker the malt the more time needed to mellow in the keg. I'm concerned the light may be too sweet and I could use E1 E1 E1 X2 but I'm not a fan of bitter beers anyway. I figure with 12, 15 and 21 IBU I can figure out the sweet (or not so sweet) spot for future iterations.

 

Looking forward to the updates on this

[Wolf]

Stuff got hectic. I actually cracked these open June long weekend then sampled over the next month or two. My feedback is largely undrinkable - the yeast itself has an incredibly strong funky taste - I guess it needs lots of residual sugars to mask the funkiness? The worst of it was the medium, followed by the dark.

The only one that was half drinkable was the light version with E1 E1 X1 X2. May be worth using this as a starting point if I revisit.