Multiple yeast types per batch

I brewed a beer with an Wyeast English Ale yeast and a Wyeast Wheat Yeast. It had a distinct flavor, not bad, kinda liked it. Anybody else here tried mixing yeast types in single batches and what were the results? What were the best combinations?

This totally goes against the idea of repeatability. You have no idea which became the dominant strain. You'd be better off splitting the batch, letting them each ferment out and age, then combine the beer.

Interested to know why you did it or why you thought it would be a good idea.
I don't know of any other brewer who thought it would be a good idea.

My neighbor and I were going to brew a Paulaner Heffy (extract w/ grains) clone from a recipe, but he accidently purchased regular light pale malt instead of wheat malt. The brew store was closed and we had already started the process.

This was one of our first beers and didn't know if the wheat yeast would ferment in a non wheat malted beer. So, we threw in both the ale and the wheat yeast.

Since, we have discovered that the malt type doesn't matter to the yeast.

It tasted more like a sweet wheat beer than an ale though.

Since, I have also brewed with White labs blended yeasts.

So you're telling me that Blended yeast are engineered in some way as to design a yeast mixture where one strain doesn't out compete the other? Does/Will only one strain convert the sugars?

Checkout the latest pod cast on thebrewingnetwork.com (click on archives) -- Chris White discusses blending multiple yeasts.

Ok, so maybe there's a real point to it all but most of us find dealing with a single strain enough varience from batch to batch. As a beginner, there are a million other basic methods to get right before experimenting. Then there's the cost of two viles, packs, whichever.

But that is creativity. Think outside the yeast cell Man!

Wonder what 3 different strains would do... or more...

Hey don't Belgian brews use more than one strain of yeast for Lambic?....

- WW

I've pretty much resigned myself to never brewing the exact same beer twice. Just too many variables for me to control. I haven't even really given it that much effort either. Besides, who was it that sang: "If memories were all I brewed, I'd rather drive a truck...but it's all right now..."

Scorching Sugar said:

I've pretty much resigned myself to never brewing the exact same beer twice. Just too many variables for me to control. I haven't even really given it that much effort either. Besides, who was it that sang: "If memories were all I brewed, I'd rather drive a truck...but it's all right now..."

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Okay "Rickie".

As long as you enjoyed the beer, who cares?

At the very least though, you ought to take good notes cuz one of these times, you're gonna tap into the best beer you ever made (by accident) and you'll never remember what concoction you used.

There are several yeast mixes available. Wyeast Octoberfest 2633, WLP060 and 080 are blends.

Some times I'll put champaign yeast in with an ale yeast for a higher gravity batch. Champaign yeast is a slow starter, so all it does is dry the batch out. Did one other experiment and seemed to hit a combination that clumped and dropped out without fermenting at all! Can't remember which two though. One of the techs from Wyeast told me some yeasts have negative surface charges and some have positive charges. Combining them makes for rapid clumping. He added that you can use this property to stop a ferment, but the timing is tricky.

Alright, sorry about squelching that creativity. I'm always inside the box. hehe.

I've thought about this, I figured if I ever have a combination idea I want to try I will use the yeasts seperately first, then use the slurry from those batches and combine. with a new wort. WOn't be buying two for just one batch that way

I've been contemplating mixing yeasts latey.... I used a brittish ale yeast that wasn't the healthiest (let it sit in heat too long) in my Pale just recently and the gravity only dropped to .021. Since then I've been thinking about adding some healthy WLP001 to eat the rest of the sugars up because I don't think I used enough hops the first go around and I don't want it too malty. Thoughts?

shlap said:

I've been contemplating mixing yeasts latey.... I used a brittish ale yeast that wasn't the healthiest (let it sit in heat too long) in my Pale just recently and the gravity only dropped to .021. Since then I've been thinking about adding some healthy WLP001 to eat the rest of the sugars up because I don't think I used enough hops the first go around and I don't want it too malty. Thoughts?

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Well, you got some good flavor from the british ale yeast, so I personally wouldn't waste another liquid yeast. I would swirl it lightly and see if action picks back up, if not, I'd throw in some dry yeast... maybe some nottingham or some safale 56

I have actually thought of doing alot of different yeasts. Why not? Hate to have them fight over the spoils of war and drop to the bottom right out of the gate though. I have thought about this a bit but decided that since I don't know what all the yeasts taste like in beers fermented at one temp, let alone all the ranges of yeast fermenting temps, I'd stick with just one yeast at a time. Although if I were so inclined to do just this I would use some really smelly estery yeast, one off the charts with something less smelly, like 1056 american ale or perhaps a nice british ale yeast. Then to get goofy i'd let it ferment out. Rack to 2nd, then rack to 3rd, then make a big starter of a yeast completely different from those 2 and pitch it into the 3rd then add 2lbs of dissolved DME. For giggles I could filter the beer to remove all the active yeast then add a 4th yeast to carbonate the beer up! Add all of that with different fermentation temps and some lactose&carafoam to un-dry out the beer and It would be either one complex beer or just plain funky!