Wlp001 questions

I just got back from a week in Sturgis where I found Ranger IPA from New Belgium and love this beer. After browsing the forums looking at clones and adding my own touches I have a recipe I am ready to try, the questions comes in about the yeast selection. Locally I can only get White Labs and Safeale.

I want a yeast to accent the hops and finish dry, hope to get around 75-80% atten. Talking to the guy at the LHBS he recommended WLP001 and us-05, I have had bad luck so far with the dry, fruity almost peachy esters (60-63 F). After reading up it seems that these are actually the same strain, is this true? If so are there any recommendations as far as fermentation temp? Any other strains that would fit what I'm looking for better?

tl;dr are us-05 and wlp001 the same strain?

Some say they're the same strain, some say they're different. Either way, they're very close in performance/flavor. As far as those ester, you might try upping the temps to 65-68 (wort temp, not ambient).

They're absolutely the same strain. I vastly prefer US-05 since you get more yeast for less money.

KISS Brew said:

They're absolutely the same strain. I vastly prefer US-05 since you get more yeast for less money.

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+1. us-05 is 1 of my favorite yeasts. i ferment it around 66-68

I've always heard to keep yeast low in their range for the cleanest taste. I mostly use s-04 and love it fermented low (59-63).

Is that why I'm getting these fruity esters? I had assumed it was just the yeast.

Musky01 said:

I've always heard to keep yeast low in their range for the cleanest taste. I mostly use s-04 and love it fermented low (59-63).

Is that why I'm getting these fruity esters? I had assumed it was just the yeast.

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I've heard that US-05 does get fruity and peachy in the low 60s. It's clean enough at 65-68 that I've never tried fermenting it much cooler, myself.

KISS Brew said:

I've heard that US-05 does get fruity and peachy in the low 60s. It's clean enough at 65-68 that I've never tried fermenting it much cooler, myself.

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I've not only heard it, but had it systematically (almost) happen to me on multiple batches fermented with different packs of us05. I've gotten nasty almost Belgian (but in a bad way) phenolic esters when fermenting us05 at low temps (60-63) that to me, completely covered hop character, which was the opposite point of using this yeast.

So I swore off us05 and used Nottingam at 59-60 and really do like that yeast at those temps still. Fast forward a few batches and I figured F it, I'll revisit us05 and fermented NB All grain Tongue Splitter pale ale kit with us05 at 67 for 2 days and then 68, then 72 by day 5 or so and my faith is about restored in it. Super clean, bright hop character, and I didnt have to cool in on brew day down to 59f.

So, after all that, I'd try us05 and ferment it at 67-68 (fermenting beer temp, not ambient) which although seems counter intuitive, makes for a super clean beer. As always, ymmv

Thank you all for the info, I'll go ahead and use the 001. It would save me a ton of effort to ferment warmer since I'm changing out ice bottles 3 times a day to keep it in the low 60s. My crawl space where I set up a swamp cooler stays 68 so maybe just a water bath could be enough.