This is the moment we have all waited for – the first taste of the beer that Mike brewed in the Catalyst Fermentation System.

We did the unboxing to see all the parts and get a sense of what this thing looks like.

We did the brew session to show off the system in action.

We even showed off how to dump trub from the fermentation chamber.

Now, it’s time to taste the beer that was fermented in the Catalyst. It’s a witbier and (spoiler alert) it’s a good one. Check out this video to see what we mean.

WitBier Notes

If you want the majority of the recipe, you can find it on the brew session page, but here is the list of hops and the yeast strain that Mike used as he said in the video.

1 ounce East Kent Goldings at 60 minutes to go in the boil
1 ounce Amarillo at 10 minutes to go in the boil

The yeast that he used was WYeast 3944 Belgian Wit. He used this instead of the White Labs Witbier yeast.

I thought this witbier was really, really good. It really was a Hoegaarden plus. The beer had that glowing yellow hazy look.

We thought that the yeast strain brought a phenol note that the White Labs strain does not but it could have been the high fermentation temperatures.

The starting gravity was 1.040, which made the one Wyeast smack pack a perfect amount.

He fermented in his basement and the temps started at 65 degrees Fahrenheit which rose to 80 degrees Fahrenheit as it finished. There was a big rocky head during the fermentation – a real top cropper!

Mike didn’t have a a chance to add orange peels to his beer in the fermentation stage. He had different ideas to get it into the beer at different points, but didn’t get the time.

He did however provide orange slices at the tasting, which I didn’t think it needed. Mike loves Harpoon’s UFO beer so he digs the orange.

Catalyst Notes

Mike liked the system and it was fun to use to brew his beer. He found the transfer from the Catalyst to his keg was tremendous using the tube that connected to the bottom of the system. Collecting the yeast was a little bit of an adventure since it was a bit messy. He said that he would need to brew a few more times to get the hang of it and get more comfortable with the process.

If he keep brewing beers like this one, I’d say it’s a worthy investment for any one.

Brew on!