Anyone try BRY-97 yet

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

bullinachinashop

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 29, 2009
Messages
1,045
Reaction score
36
Location
NE Ohio
This is Danstar's new west coast ale yeast.

I used it on a Blonde test batch that I'm doing and it seemed to work well.
Pitched dry, I had activity in under 24 hours.
I fermented @ 61° and it had a nice Krausen.
Seems to be complete @ day 4 and has compacted nicely.
I'll be bottling this batch in about a week and will let you know how clean it is.
Bull
 
Well I transfered this yesterday because I wanted the yeast to pitch into a new batch.
Hydro sample was very clean and I belive finished @ 1.008. OG was 1.047
If anything maybe a bit thin, but uncarbed it's hard to tell.

I pitched the yeast into a "Fizzy Yellow Beer" that I brewed yesterday and have a thick krausening and strong activity in under 12 hours @ 63°.

So far so good!
 
Never seen or heard of it. Where did you find it?

I'm ready to try Nottingham again after steering clear of it before they started repackaging. I do like US-05, but without cold crashing it takes a long time to compact. Maybe this new Danstar yeast is the ticket.

Bob
 
Here's the Danstar info on it.

BRY-97 American West Coast Yeast was selected from the Siebel Institute Culture Collection and is used by a number of commercial breweries to produce different types of ale. The propagation and drying process have been specifically designed to deliver high quality beer yeast that can be used simply and with reliability to help produce ales of the finest quality. No colours, preservatives or other unnatural substances have been used in its preparation. The yeast is produced in ISO 9002 certified plants.

Brewing Properties:

• Quick start and vigorous fermentation, which can be completed in 4 days above 17 °C.
• Medium to high attenuation,
• Fermentation rate, fermentation time and degree of attenuation are dependent upon inoculation density, yeast handling, fermentation temperature and the nutritional quality of the wort.
• BRY-97 American West Coast Yeast is a flocculent strain. Settling can be promoted by cooling and use of fining agents and isinglass.
• The aroma is slightly estery, almost neutral and does not display malodours when properly handled. It may tend, because of flocculation, to slightly reduce hop bitter levels
• Best when used at traditional ale temperatures after re-hydration in the recommended manner.
 
"It may tend, because of flocculation, to slightly reduce hop bitter levels"

high floc yeast reduce hop bittering levels? i hadn't heard that.
 
"It may tend, because of flocculation, to slightly reduce hop bitter levels"

high floc yeast reduce hop bittering levels? i hadn't heard that.

Well WLP 02 is highly flocculant and one of its properties is that is slightly mutes the hops...............
 
When they say "Highly flocculant" I'd have to agree. I transfered the Blonde to secondary to get the yeast and the beer, after 6 days, was clearing nicely.

The re-pitch into the second beer was equally aggressive and I was surprised to see that the temp in the swamp cooler had raised to 70°. I added more water to bring it down, but this one is aggressive to say the least.

The results are yet to be determined.

Bull
 
"It may tend, because of flocculation, to slightly reduce hop bitter levels"

high floc yeast reduce hop bittering levels? i hadn't heard that.

the hop goodness sticks to the yeast cells and drops to the bottom with the yeast. (that is my unscientific explanation)
 
This one will replace 05 in my brewing when it becomes available. It's very aggressive and finishes up quickly. Flocs out quickly and is very clean up to 70°. Med high attenuation(82%). I've used it 3 times so far and am pleased with the results.
I used it in an American Wheat, a Blonde, and Yooper's Fizzy Yellow Beer. All low hopped, lower gravity beers with nothing to hide behind.
I may be reluctant to use it on an IPA and will most likely stick with wlp001 for those.
This yeast should be available within a couple of weeks for you to run your own tests on.
Keep Brewin,
Bull
 
So you recommend using this yeast in our lower hop ales due to its ability to lower the taste of the hops? I would like to find something different than US-05 or Notty for beers like Yooper's Fizzy Yellow recipe. I wonder when this will be available.
 
So you recommend using this yeast in our lower hop ales due to its ability to lower the taste of the hops? I would like to find something different than US-05 or Notty for beers like Yooper's Fizzy Yellow recipe. I wonder when this will be available.

I wouldn't say it lower's the hop taste, I just happened to use it on those types of beer and it was very clean.

I haven't tried it on a hoppy beer yet because I only had 2 packs of it.

According to Danstar, it's the Chico strain.

It should be available very soon.

Bull
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question but is the chico strain of yeast usually packaged as a liquid? I have not used it before but I think I recall something about it being used by Sierra Nevada brewing. Is this correct?
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question but is the chico strain of yeast usually packaged as a liquid? I have not used it before but I think I recall something about it being used by Sierra Nevada brewing. Is this correct?

US-05 is the same strain as WLP001 and Wyeast 1056. These are collectively referred to as "the Chico strain".

OP, thanks for sharing your experiences with BRY-97. I love dry yeast for the sheer simplicity and value, but there need to be more dry strains available. I'll definitely give this one a shot, but I'm still hoping for a change in variety, not just more west coast ale strains.
 
For all who have been waiting, it's now out.
Selling for the same price as Notty

I actually got the trial yeast from Keith Lemke at a conference and he told me that it was their Chico strain.
I will say, that it acts more like Pacman though.

If you like Notty, you'll love this. It's clean with medium high attenuation, a very quick starter, very aggressive and way more flocculant than US 05.

Post you're own results here.
:mug:
 
I've got this on a fairly hoppy red ale, my OG was higher than expected at 1.068 so we'll see if it can handle that, it's sitting around 67F. Just brewed it last night and there doesn't seem to be any activity yet, I'll take a gravity reading in a few days and let you guys know. I rehydrated it per the instructions, but will definitely be pitching dry next time. I hope this turns out well, LHBS said this can stand pretty high temperatures (which I can't avoid in AZ) and still produces a clean product. If gravity hasn't changed in 2-3 days I may pitch dry right on top of that, hopefully it wouldn't be overpitching the beer.
 
I'm about to try this yeast for the first time in a hoppy amber also... I'm planning on rehydrating and fermenting at 65f to compare it to where I ferment us05 (which is at 67f and not a degree lower as I've some weird aroms and flavors from that yeast when fermented 65 or lower). If the bry-97 works out at that temp, I may try it in my first ever Scottish 60 instead of wlp001.

Ill report back in (hopefully a few days) when I know more. OG of my Amber is 1.052 with 5% brown sugar in the grist.
 
I used this on a Wet Hop Amber that I did a few weeks ago. I am going to keg and carb this weekend. I will try to remember to post my results next week.
 
Chuckus, what was the fermentation like, did it take a while to get started or did it get going right away? And did you rehydrate it or pitch it dry?
 
I am doing a side by side comparison right now where I brewed 11 gallons and split into 2-5.5 gallon primary's. Both are in swamp coolers sitting @68°.

I re-hydrated and pitched Bry-97 on one and Safale US-05 on the other.

Both were pitched at the same time and temperature. Both 1 full 11.5 gram pack, re-hydrated in the same amount of water.

I also stirred both re-hydrated yeasts with a plastic toothpick that was dipped in Olive Oil.

I didn't aerate other than a bit of shaking as I was carrying them down to my basement.

It's been 12 hours since I pitched and although both show pressure in the airlock, neither have any krausen to speak of.

Bull
 
I am doing a side by side comparison right now where I brewed 11 gallons and split into 2-5.5 gallon primary's. Both are in swamp coolers sitting @68°.

I look forward to hearing the results! I've been using US-05 lately, but would like a dry yeast that finishes a bit drier. Hopefully this is the one!
 
23 hours in and the 05 has an inch of krausen and is bubbling away. The BRY 97 , not so much.
Bull

I experienced the same with my bry-97 pitch into a 1.050 amber ale. My bucket is transparent and I can usually see krausen forming, and with this batch it was a solid 48 hours or so before I noticed anything forming... Usually us05 takes off quicker. The bry-97 looks to be fermenting away happily for now, but unless something magical happens fermentation wise, I'll have to see if a longer time and an increased cost over us05 is worth it. I've yet to taste or evaluate this ferment yet, so I'll save judgment till then.
 
I experienced the same with my bry-97 pitch into a 1.050 amber ale. My bucket is transparent and I can usually see krausen forming, and with this batch it was a solid 48 hours or so before I noticed anything forming... Usually us05 takes off quicker. The bry-97 looks to be fermenting away happily for now, but unless something magical happens fermentation wise, I'll have to see if a longer time and an increased cost over us05 is worth it. I've yet to taste or evaluate this ferment yet, so I'll save judgment till then.

This was the same price as 05 at my LHBS, how much more is it for you?
 
This will really illustrate how cheap I am:

Us05 - 3.88
Bry-97 - 4.50

I think all Danstar products are that much more across the board, which isn't much, but the slow take off has not impressed me thus far.
 
I was worried about the slow take off as well, it seems like that's normal for this from reading other posts on here. I'll be looking forward to seeing bullinachinashop's experiment. What beer did you brew for this bullinachinashop?
 
Just picked some up at my LHBS today, for use on an APA tomorrow. I'll let you know how it shapes up.
 
***slight update***

I pulled my American Amber ale from the temp controlled fridge and left it out at room temp to allow the yeast to finish and clean up. I pulled the lid off the bucket and a good bit of (I'd say beginning to fall) Krausen was still present, which for what I'd normally use on a beer like this - us05 on the fourth day is slightly out of normal for my experiences.

But, all ferments are or can be different, and we'll see what happens in about 10 more days when I'll rack to a keg and either serve or it will wait for a spot on the line up. To be continued....
 
I was worried about the slow take off as well, it seems like that's normal for this from reading other posts on here. I'll be looking forward to seeing bullinachinashop's experiment. What beer did you brew for this bullinachinashop?

I brewed an American Pale Wheat. I hopped it as an hoppy APA with Centennial and Cascade. 42 IBU's, 1.052 OG

The Bry-97 took off at about 36 hours and has been really active since.
I just checked it and lucky I did as I was close to blowing the lid on the fermentor. I just cleaned and replaced the airlock. I was going to check gravity tonight as I have another beer to transfer, but I don't feel like thieving through 5 inched of krausen.
The 05 has about 2.5" of krausen and is just chugging away.
More updated to follow.
Bull
 
I pitched yesterday evening at about 6 and am seeing activity about every three seconds. Not having the slow take-off that you guys have described. FWIW I rehydrated according to the package instructions.
 
I've got a pack. I'm gonna use it in a CTZ SMaSH I'm planning this winter. Hopefully I can see more of the yeast properties this way.
 
Back
Top