WLP545 - Belgian Strong Ale Yeast (Platinum Series)

Have searched here (couple threads) and the rest of the interwebz, doesn't seem like theres really alot of information on this yeast strain. From what I have found it seems to finish quite dry and have alot of fruity - plum like flavors.

Anyone have any first hand experience with this strain?

Currently doing a bastardized dark Orval-ish clone, LHS didn't have the yeast I was looking for so I picked this guy up. OG was at 1.085, did a 1/2 gal yeast starter, krausen on the top pretty quick but it seems like its fermenting pretty "politely", not alot of bubbles coming out of my blowoff tube.

I'd love to hear something too.. I'm considering it for my 40th bday beer.

Racked to secondary after 3 weeks @ 72F, ended up at 1.03, which isnt as low as I had hoped...sample had a very strong banana nose, then a slightly solventy chocolate/plum flavor in the mid & after taste.

wish I knew what strain or strains of yeast this is (corsendonk maybe?)...going to age this for a bit and see how it smooths out.

Put me in the camp of wanting to know who/where this strain comes from.

Just used this strain for a tripel style brew. Should reach terminal in a few days. I let the temp free rise then to finish it up I have it sitting at 75. The starter tasted phenomenal so I have high hopes for the beer.

I am curious if there is any more feedback on this strain. I have a vial in the fridge I got for $3 bucks because it was past expiration. I have not been able to find much information on this strain, and am wondering if it is worth trying to coax it into a usable pitch.

Grow it up into a usable pitch. I have my tripel in the bottle and I am waiting a little bit to pop one still. I bulk aged the carboy for about a month and then bottled. I ended up with 10.5%abv so it might be antoher 2-3 weeks until I pop one. The flavors at bottling were great. I haven't really used other strains like WLP500 or 530 to compare it to when I made this. Now I've brewed with 500 and I'm about to brew with 530. The main difficulty in comparing is that I'm not brewing similar recipes.

I used it for a belgium strone ale OG gravity was 1.080 and finished at 1.018. It does have a nice dry finish and has a tropical/mango flavor not sure if this is due to the new hop i used which was falconers flight or the yeast also my first time using this belgium yeast. Overall i was very pleased with the results

I was wondering if anyone had any feedback on the WLP 545 they tried?

I really like the tripel I made with the 545. It is a very fruity strain it did not attenuate as I thought it would. The beer finished at a higher gravity, 1.016, than I would have liked. I was hoping for closer to 1.010 or 1.012 but I have a feeling it was more on me and not the yeast.

I use 545 for all my Christmas Brews. Excellent yeast, a real pleasure to work with. It is a shame that White Labs doesn't make this yeast a year round release.

Just brewed a Belgian IPA to build up the yeast for the Series of Christmas brews I make. Tapped the BIPA on two days ago and extremely pleased. 545 is a yeast that lends a lot of fruit as well as a nice amount of spice. If you can get your hands on it, grab it.

Some posts mention attenuation issues... I typically get around 90% Apparent Attenuation. Read the book "Brew like a Monk" and you will learn how to make Belgian yeast perform. Basically cool, then let it free rise, and really heat up. Also, the yeast loves simple sugars (try up to 20% candi sugar). Even with High Alcohol beers, this yeast goes below 1.010

Enjoy!

I finally had a chance to experiment with this strain, and here is my take. If you are looking for a fruity yeast, this would fit the bill. It smelled like it had some banana, but tasted more dark fruit (cherry/plum) to me then the banana I usually think of with Belgians. I could see this working nicely in darker beers where the fruit flavors would work well with either a crystal or roasted malt profile. It did leave the beer sweeter in taste, so I would go more malty beer then hoppy beer. I don't think it would express hops as well. If you are looking for fruity dubbel or quad strain, this would work well.

I know this is an old post but I'm new to brewing and I just put my Belgian triple in primary with this 545. It's been two days and has good activity, planning on taking a reading at 2ish weeks and leaving on primary for another 2 weeks after. Then going to secondary. Hope it turns out good!

I agree with Wolv on the banana nose but I guess since I ferment my Belgian beers at the upper end of the range, I did get some banana and peppery notes. This my go to yeast for my Golden Monkey clone and works like a champ. I think this yeast is much more efficient if you add simple sugars at the end of the first part of the primary and let it feast on the simple stuff last. I think I maxed the attenuation using this method.

To me, it makes a perfect triple. Banana-y, light peppery, and smooth. Awesome that it is now available all year.

Just fyi. Friend of mine brewed an IPA with this yeast could be the best IPA I have ever tasted. The fruitiness of the amarillo and simcoe hops seemed to harmonize beautifully with the yeast.

Used this strain to ferment a Belgian golden strong ale recently. 1.5L starter. 1.070 wort down to 1.012 after 1 week. Down to 1.001 after 2 weeks. Fermented around 23 degrees. Bumped up to 25 after 1 and 1/2 weeks. Grain bill was just wyermann's Pilsner and dextrose. Mash temp in the low range of 64 degrees. Around 12% dextrose which could attribute to the dryness. Esters and phenols seemed to be well balanced. Sample on bottling day (today) tasted great. Into bottles now conditioning to 3.2 vol (~25 degrees) for 3 weeks. Will let you know how the finished product tastes. Harvested a couple mason jars worth to re-use