Nottingham yeast

I recently started brewing and the local beer supply store sold me a kit which claims to be a lager which he says is a Mach of Kokanee gold ( the owner of the store creates the kits) ....Well the kit includes Nottingham ale yeast.. As far as I know there is only one thing that separates a lager from an ale... Yeast! And this an ale yeast how could it be a lager? I called him to ask and his reply was that it was such a "neutral yeast" that it was a lager brew... However it only called for 2 week fermentation... is there any truth to what my supplier is claiming?

nottingham will not a lager make so who knows what your supplier is talking about.

eastoak said:

nottingham will not a lager make so who knows what your supplier is talking about.

Click to expand...

yoda'd

I've used it for ales though and it has never let me down!

Well, about as true as a campaign promise! Ale and lager yeast aren't even the same species - Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Saccharomyces uvarum (or pastorianius), respectively. Nottingham is a fairly neutral ale yeast, but very much an ale. I think of US-05/Wyeast 1056/White Labs WL001 (very similar, if not the same strain) as more neutral. BierMuncher used US-04 for his well-respected Octoberfast ale, which came across as quite close to a lager in character. I suspect you'd get even closer to a lager character with a Kolsch yeast. However, to really use a lager yeast properly, you have to have the capability to lager, i.e. store at rather cold temperature. Generally, that's a fridge with an external temperature controller, and then several weeks or months to commit their use to it. I have the fridge and all, but I'd rather have an ale and keep my pipeline moving than tie them up that long.

Yeah this is confirming my suspicions... I think he may be just wanting it to appeal to buyers that want to make an ale and don't know any better....

OP, if you are a new-ish brewer, you would be well-served to brew some ales before jumping into lagers. Lagers are more difficult, requiring using large yeast starters and a higher degree of fermentation management.

its pretty common to see kits that try to mimic lagers with ale yeast. but no matter how neutral the yeast is it will still be pretty clear that youre drinking an ale.

Maybe it is a "mock" lager? I.e. an ale that uses a clean fermenting yeast, done at a relatively (at least for an ale yeast) low temperature? Nottingham can handle temperature well down into the 50s.

At 54-60f Notty is probably the most neutral dry ale yeast you can get
Above that us-05 will be fairly similar

Guess you could call it a lager if you stick to lager temp and lager it
Beer yeast is closely related just like humans, and is mostly destinguished by the brewing methods they are most suited for(just like better sun protection is a trait of hotter climates)

If you can get your fermenting beer temp south of 60 with that yeast, it just may fool you. It's super clean at 59, although some say it gets tart at the lower temps. I'm still trying to find a house dry yeast for my basic ales, and this one is in the running.

Yes, it is an ale yeast.

That being said if you keep the fermentation temps in the 60 degree range, you will get a very crisp, clear beer that looks and tastes similar to a lager. So if you're wanting to brew a lager but don't have a way to get down to lager temps, notty yeast will give you the next best thing.

This is an ale I brewed with notty for my BMC buddys.

From the Danstar Catalog & Technical Info:
"Temperature of use
Nottingham will ferment successfully between 10°C (50°F) and 23°C (73°F). At lower temperature it is
possible to brew lager-type beers in all-malt worts in 8-9 days (fig. 1). The recommended temperature
for ale beers is 20°C (68°F) and fermentation should be complete in 3 days in all-malt wort (fig. 1) and 4
days in high-gravity wort (fig. 2)"

ncbrewer said:

From the Danstar Catalog & Technical Info:
"Temperature of use
Nottingham will ferment successfully between 10°C (50°F) and 23°C (73°F). At lower temperature it is
possible to brew lager-type beers in all-malt worts in 8-9 days (fig. 1). The recommended temperature
for ale beers is 20°C (68°F) and fermentation should be complete in 3 days in all-malt wort (fig. 1) and 4
days in high-gravity wort (fig. 2)"

Click to expand...

Three days! Wow. I just checked the gravity on my first batch with notty. After 8 days it was done (1050 to 1008 at 62f) I was impressed. Now I guess I'll just turn down the temp and let it clear.