a few occasionally-related thoughts on my experience with HG, and my future plans...
- i brewed with HG once, split my brew into two 5-gallon batches.
- i bought one pack of HG and used a starter to boost the cell count for the 2 batches. dunno if i over-pitched, but it was one of the messiest blow-outs i've had in a while... see photo below
- i did all the thiol-precursor-boosting things: mash hopped Cascade, Phantasm in the whirlpool, generous amount of thiol-rich late hops. result: the jolly rancher/froot loops flavor was way over the top. i mostly enjoyed it, but it was a bit much.
- you know how some folks OD on a certain alcohol once and then can't stand it anymore? (tequila seems to be a popular one for this.) well, i think i might have been similarly traumatized but to a lesser fashion by the distinctive "fake taste" of over-thiolized beer. New Belgium has two new(ish?) beers called Fruit Force and Juice Force and i'm certain that they use a thiolized yeast.
- next time i use HG i'll be dialing down the precursors. or might just use Cosmic Punch instead, given its lower output of thiols.
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