Blending Wyeast 1318 and 1056

Yesterday I brewed the Obsidian Stout clone from Can You Brew It. I pitched an equal blend of Wyeasts London Ale III 1318 and American Ale 1056 from starters I made from washed yeast. After the boil I tasted the wort and it was the most amazing tasting wort I've tasted. After pitching the yeast I thought "partigyle time?" So I heated more water and batch sparged the spent grains, added 1 1/2 cups sugar and about a cup of DME to the wort. I pitched a blend of American Ale 1056 and Scottish Ale 1084 into this second brew. The 1056 for this came from a smack pack I smacked back in June, realized I couldn't brew and threw it back in the fridge. The 1084 was a yeast cake from washed yeast, no starter. The odd thing about the old smack pack was once it sat out for about an hour the seal on the top busted from the pressure inside. I guess that's a good sign that it's still viable? The Stout came in at 1.064 and the partigyle came in at 1.04. Both are in the fermentation chamber at 65. I really hope these turn out well. I'm excited to taste the results of yeast blending. If they come out good I'm going to wash the yeast from these batches and have a good blend on hand to grow up.

The blend will change over time, most likely with more high-attenuating 1056. When and how you harvest changes things too.

kingwood-kid said:

When and how you harvest changes things too.

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Any suggestions?

If one of them top-crops better than the other, harvest at peak fermentation to maximize that strain. If one flocculates better, than standard post-fermentation trub washing would favor it. In this case, both of those characteristics apply more to 1318 than 1056. So far as I know, all ale strains reproduce at almost exactly the same rate, but any blend of organisms is an evolving thing. As long as it makes good beer, you can continue to use it, even if the results are not exactly consistent and/or predictable.