Which English Ale Yeast?

I'm sooo confused when it comes to English Ale yeasts - too many to pick from. I'm a Bitter, Best Bitter, Northern Brown Ale, and Hobgoblin fan. Is there one particular yeast you would use for all of them or do you use certain ones for the bitters only...one for the brown and I really don't know what Hobgoblin is considered...some say old ale...others a brown ale...etc.

I see Burton Ale yeast, English Ale yeast, British Ale yeast, London Ale yeast....I've even seen books and recipes suggest the Irish Ale yeast suggested. Aren't they different? If so, they the tastes are going to be different for the end product so how do I know if a recipe is going to mimick a certain clone...etc.

For instance - I can get a certain yeast that I know that brewery uses but for something like Fullers London Pride - do they use their Fullers ESB yeast? Or do they just use it for their ESB?

Compare the beers you like to this list, then start trying different strains. The best advice I can give is to start experimenting based off what you like, but find something that works well with your system. There's one yeast strain that can produce amazing beers, but I've given up trying to use it because it's too finicky for me (or, I just haven't been able to make it work on my system). Finding a strain that makes brewing easy for you is just as important as anything else - when you can manage a strain well, you're going to get the best out of it.

As for particular breweries and their yeast, most use just one strain for most (sometimes all) their beers. The more established the brewery, the more likely it seems to be to use just one. Fuller's, for example, has just one strain they use for everything.

You can get the Fuller's strain from Wyeast and White Labs. Lots of people like it. Try Wyeast 1469 as well. Based off what you state above, you should like it a lot.

Well I know that WLP002 is similar to Fullers so is you like fullers that's a good choice. My personal favorite is Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire. Both of those yeasts will work well in any British style.

White labs and wyeast have style guides on their websites
http://www.wyeastlab.com/rw_styleguide.cfm
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/yeast-style-charts
Consider listening to CYBI episodes for the beers you like and check out the recipes as well.

Try some and see what you like best. They will probably all make good ales, but you may like one more than others.

JZ is in love with the West Yorkshire.

Excellent info...particularly that Fullers uses only one yeast strain. So the hops and the grain bills are the difference between their London Pride and their ESB. Cool.

I've had experience with 1469 when I made my Timothy Taylor Landlord from LME. It was pretty good and my wife has been hounding me to make it again but this time it will be AG. I guess the Burton/Thames and other English/London yeasts are probably pretty similar - all hops and grain bills being equal. Thanks for the info.

Kuhndog said:

So the hops and the grain bills are the difference between their London Pride and their ESB. Cool.

Click to expand...

Nope, even that is the same. Most of their beers are brewed with the same grist (95% pale ale malt & 5% crystal 75L) partigyle style, then blended (post fermentation, I believe). The difference between, e.g., ESB and London Pride is that ESB gets more of the first runnings than London Pride. Hops are the same, yeast is the same, grist is the same. It's the blending that makes the magic happen.

If you're interested, there's a short interview here that made its way into BYO.

this thread is a long read but well worth it
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/b...on-temps-profiles-cybi-other-thoughts-221817/

really great discussion about strain traits, ferm temps etc