American Pale Ale with WLP029
 

I've become a huge fan of White Labs' German Ale/Kolsch yeast, WLP029. While the majority of my US Pale Ales have used WLP001 or their San Diego Super Yeast WLP090, I'm excited to try making one with this German-style yeast. I'm currently in the middle of my boil on the recipe below, which I'm calling Badonkadonk Pale Ale... it's the same grain bill as my Tiny Bottom Pale Ale with American-inspired hop additions. What do you think?

GRAIN BILL
8.5 lbs NW Pale Malt (2.0 SRM) 78.1 %
12.0 oz Crystal Malt - 15L (15.0 SRM) 6.9 %
12.0 oz Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) 6.9 %
9.0 oz Victory Malt (25.0 SRM) 5.2 %
5.0 oz Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 2.9 %

HOP ADDITIONS
14.00 g Magnum [11.60 %] - Boil 60.0 min 23.5 IBUs
14.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min 8.9 IBUs
20.00 g Cascade [6.40 %] - Boil 5.0 min 3.1 IBUs
15.00 g Simcoe [13.00 %] - Boil 0.0 min 0.0 IBUs
1.0 pkg German Ale/Kolsch Yeast (WLP029)

The names from these are inspired by my 2 kids- my son, the one who likes beer... err... has the tiniest ass ever, while my daughter, who hates beer, has, well, a badonkadonk... like her daddy ;)

Wort is chilling down to pitching temp and I'm all cleaned up... time for a beer.

Ballast Point uses that yeast in their APA. Was thinking of trying it on my next APA also. Report back how it goes!

Will do! I actually repitched some from my Blonde that I kegged on Friday... holy deliciousness! It's bubbling away at 63F as I type.2 weeks to kegging, 3 to chugging!!

Definitely follow up on this. I plan on repitching wlp029 into a pale ale shortly. The yeast is waiting in my fridge.

I plan to start "lagering" at 52F next weekend, kegging the following weekend, and finally drinking it the weekend after that. I'll be sure to let you know.

Did you like 029 or 090 better? What differences did you notice?\

thanks Kevin

I actually preferred the 090 to the 029 for this Pale. While it was good, that yeast seems best for Blonde, Cream, and Koelsch, in my opinion. The beer dried out a tad more than I wanted and left that very distinct 029 flavor, which I really like in the aforementioned styles. Hope that helps!

For my Kolsch I did a step starter (2 - 2L) and the WLP029 happily fermented away at 60F.

029 is hands down my favorite yeast for Koelsch and Blonde Ale, fermented at 63F.