If you only had 4 different yeasts...

If you could ever only use four different kinds of yeast for all your beer brewing needs for the rest of your life which 4 strains would make it on your list?

Wyeast 1056, 1098, 1007, and the London ESB one

US-05
WLP833 German Bock Lager
WLP002 English Ale
WLP029 Kolsch

The last one is tough. It was a toss up between that and WLP570 Belgian Golden Strong.

This list will definitely change as i continue to brew but so far in my short time brewing my answer would be american ale 1056/wlp001/us-05 british ale 1968 wlp002/ us-04 a german lager yeast and probably a versatile belgian yeast for saisons and belgian ales.

S 04
US 05
Conan
WLP560 Saison Blend

Wyeast 1056, 3068, 1332 and 1187

Us05, Brett b, Brett l, 3068

wy1318 london 3 for ales, wy2124 bohemian for lagers, wy3068 weihenstephan for wheats and back up pack of nottingham if things go bad

Pacman
Kolsch
S04
Forbidden Fruit

WY2124 Bohemian Lager
WY1968 ESB
Nottingham dry
WLP530 Abbey Ale

Just one. Saccharomyces cerevisiae

1056, 830, 3787, 007

WLP001 for American styles
WLP830 for lagers
WLP550 for Belgians
Wyeast 1469 for English

This assumes I can still culture the bugs from sour beer.

Easy peasy

Wlp001 - California Ale
Wlp002- English Ale
Wlp029 - German Ale
Wlp644 - Brett b. Trois

Choosing only 2 or 3 would be a challenge though

1056, wlp545, wlp840, 3768

wlp 007
wlp 565
wlp 351
wlp 530

these are my favorites...

I maintain my own yeast bank on agar slants when I am brewing; therefore, yeast availability is not a problem. However, if had to choose four cultures, they would be Ringwood (the real stuff, not the cultures that are sold by the major suppliers), Southern Tier's house strain (which is definitely not BRY 96/Chico), Young's pitching yeast, and NCYC 679.

Us05 and t58 for dry yeasts, Denny's Favorite 1450 and Edinburgh Scottish Ale Wlp028 for liquid yeasts.

1272 for IPA/APA's
1968 For English styles, Irish Red etc.
3711 Saisons
3787. Belgians

These cover most of the styles I brew.

Well I'm not a huge fan of Belgian banana clove flavors so I probably wouldn't use up any of my 4 options with a Belgian strain.

I would go with the Chico strain for American ales - wyeast 1055/wlp001/us-05

Fullers for English ales - wyeast 1968/wlp002

American lager - wyeast 2035/wlp840

And roselare for sours - wyeast 3763

I live in a remote area and bank my yeasts. Really unless you are brewing very specific styles you dont need many strains of yeast. I keep the following on hand and brew almost exclusively with these.

US-05 (Ales)
S-23 (Lagers)
W-34/70 (Lagers)
EC-1118 (Mead)

I could cut this down to just 3. I sometimes have a few other strains on hand, or import as necessary, but these cover the majority of styles quite well.

White Labs Irish ale, wlp 004
Brett C
Burton ale
US-05 what can I say

Easy! I'd pick an american, a british, a german, and a belgian strain.

WLP001
830
002
565

Although I also love 007 and 1450. 3711 is good, too.

Ok, so 7 strains. That's still very good though!

If you haven't listened to it, the brewing network episode of Jamil's Favorite Yeast was really good. Spoiler: It's 001.

1272, 3787, 1728, 2633

Surprised to see some 1272s in the selections! Differebt strokes for different folks i guess.

Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes
Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire Ale
Wyeast 2565 Kolsch
Safale US-05

And I have several jars of the first three in my fridge right now.

Nottingham (my clean to mild ester strain)
3726 (my belgian spicy and/or fruity strain depending on temp)
1968 (my english fruity and malt-forward strain)
2124 (my lager and cali common strain)

I guess this leaves me with no great hefe yeast - oh well

Dave37 said:

Surprised to see some 1272s in the selections! Differebt strokes for different folks i guess.

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yes! and whats the point of this thread if we aren't going to insult each others selections?

...and with that...wy1469? seriously? Are you just jamil fanboys? have you brewed with other english yeasts? do you enjoy repeatedly rousing it only to have it blow out 30minutes later before flocing out again? do you all have yorkshire squares to ferment in? Way too fruity, way to floccy...and floccy in an annoying way (I don't enjoy the weird floaty yeast chunks that don't drop to the bottom)

gbx said:

yes! and whats the point of this thread if we aren't going to insult each others selections?

...and with that...wy1469? seriously? Are you just jamil fanboys? have you brewed with other english yeasts? do you enjoy repeatedly rousing it only to have it blow out 30minutes later before flocing out again? do you all have yorkshire squares to ferment in? Way too fruity, way to floccy...and floccy in an annoying way (I don't enjoy the weird floaty yeast chunks that don't drop to the bottom)

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Actually I started using that before Jamil mentioned it. Black Sheep is one of my favorite breweries. The yeast is fruity but in a good way unlike S-04 which tastes like garbage.

I will agree with you on the blow off issue. That is annoying as hell. 30% head space isn't enough.

I'll deal with it for the flavors I get though.

US-05 for ales
Wyeast 3068 for wheat beer
Wyeast 3724 for saisons
Red Star Pasteur Red for ciders

I could pass on lagers, too hot and difficult in GA anyway.

dannypo said:

Actually I started using that before Jamil mentioned it. Black Sheep is one of my favorite breweries. The yeast is fruity but in a good way unlike S-04 which tastes like garbage.

I will agree with you on the blow off issue. That is annoying as hell. 30% head space isn't enough.

I'll deal with it for the flavors I get though.

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Are you guys using 5 gallon car boys?

I only use 6 and have never had a problem. It's one of my favorites for sure. Pre jamil as well....

American Ale
Nottingham or ESB
Belgian Ale
German Lager

gbx said:

yes! and whats the point of this thread if we aren't going to insult each others selections?

...and with that...wy1469? seriously? Are you just jamil fanboys? have you brewed with other english yeasts? do you enjoy repeatedly rousing it only to have it blow out 30minutes later before flocing out again? do you all have yorkshire squares to ferment in? Way too fruity, way to floccy...and floccy in an annoying way (I don't enjoy the weird floaty yeast chunks that don't drop to the bottom)

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I got the 1469 with a kit, and had no idea Jamil said anything about that yeast. In my opinion, the more 'floccy' the better. I've used a few other english strains. The 1469 just happens to be the one I was using when I started washing/saving yeast. And I do like the fruitiness.

Thank god I don't really have to make this decision.

Re: 1469 sucks

Floccing is good if it happens after primary fermentation is complete, bad if it drops out at half gravity and needs repeated rousing. (and what other yeast goes from stalled fermentation to 3 inch krausen with only a little stirring?). Floccing is good if the yeast ends up as a solid cake on the bottom of the fermenter, bad if it just forms little chunks that float around in the beer.

Agreed that s04 is gross. Even windsor is better (provided you can get the yeast to drop out). I have yet to find an ale yeast I really love. They all have something that annoys me. 1469 may be great but its too high maintenance. Of the UK yeasts I like, 1968 is great too but doesn't dry out well and can **** out a ton of diacetyl. It also doesn't repitch well - doesn't top crop and stops floccing after only a couple generations of bottom harvesting. wy1318 is a good middle ground - not quite as malty, not quite as fruity, not quite as floccy but repitches beautifully, needs only minimal rousing and doesn't have the diacetyl issues.

Whatever the hell is in my house yeast (constant mix of washed chico-like strains, it has US 05, WL001, and PACMAN)
US 05 (because sometimes dry yeast is just easier)
WL 001 (yes I know I am being redundant)
WLP029 Kolsch

Glynn said:

Wyeast 1056, 3068, 1332 and 1187

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I'm with stupid!

LabRatBrewer said:

Whatever the hell is in my house yeast (constant mix of washed chico-like strains, it has US 05, WL001, and PACMAN)

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Que?

What is a "chico-like" strain?

grndslm said:

Que?

What is a "chico-like" strain?

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My house yeast started with a harvest from Sierra Nevada. After a couple generations, mostly due to lack of space for new varities, I combined a washed dry version (Safale US-05) and then the liquid equivalent (Wyeast 1056). Cal Ale (White Lab 001) had been added, as well as Notty. It is my (limited) understanding that these West Coast yeast have a common origin (the Chico Strain). I could be wrong, but it keeps working nicely.

LabRatBrewer said:

My house yeast started with a harvest from Sierra Nevada. After a couple generations, mostly due to lack of space for new varities, I combined a washed dry version (Safale US-05) and then the liquid equivalent (Wyeast 1056). Cal Ale (White Lab 001) had been added, as well as Notty. It is my (limited) understanding that these West Coast yeast have a common origin (the Chico Strain). I could be wrong, but it keeps working nicely.

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If you are wrong( i'm pretty sure you're right) then you truly do have your own house yeast strain. :Tank: An impressive one at that. 4 different strains of yeast working together nicely would be interesting and impressive to accomplish.