Anyone try BRY-97 yet

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24 hrs post pitch. US05 is chugging along nicely. Not full rock n roll but it has about an inch of krausen and is bubbling steadily into the blow off.

As of yet, nothing from the BRY97.

Both fermenters reading 65-66f on the therm strips. So far, BRY97 is behaving consistent with what a lot of people have experienced in terms of lag.

Sometime between when I went to bed last night at 10:30, and when I checked on the beer this morning, 7 am, the BRY97 developed a small krausen. There is still no positive pressure through my blow off tube, but I have about 1/4 inch of krausen on the BRY97 beer.

The US05 has about a 2 inch krausen and is going strong.

Both beers are registering between 66-68F on the stick on thermometers. I'm going to call lag on the BRY97 30-34 hours. I am sure there was fermentation going on before I saw the krausen. But it definitely lagged about a half day (or a little more) behind the US05
 
winvarin said:
Sometime between when I went to bed last night at 10:30, and when I checked on the beer this morning, 7 am, the BRY97 developed a small krausen. There is still no positive pressure through my blow off tube, but I have about 1/4 inch of krausen on the BRY97 beer.

The US05 has about a 2 inch krausen and is going strong.

Both beers are registering between 66-68F on the stick on thermometers. I'm going to call lag on the BRY97 30-34 hours. I am sure there was fermentation going on before I saw the krausen. But it definitely lagged about a half day (or a little more) behind the US05

That was exactly my experience, even without rehydrating. Then 10-12 hours later it was going strong and had shockingly gotten up to 72F... 12 more hours and the bubbling was all but gone. Now I'm just letting it sit on the yeast cake another couple days to clean up, then cold crash and keg.
 
As of this morning, both beers are going strong. The krausen on the US05 is what I typically see. Dense, almost like whipped cream. There is a thin tan layer on the top that I normally get with my US05 fermentations. It's pushing gas through the blow off tube pretty strongly.

The BRY97 is more "frothy" or bubbly. I was in a hurry this morning and didn't grab a pic. But if the krausens look the same this evening, I will post pics. The BRY97 has filled the space above the beer, up to the neck of the better bottle. It is not as dense as the US05. While it is off-gassing, it does not appear to be pushing the same volume of air the US05 is.

When I got home last night, the temperature on the US05 had ramped up to just a touch over 70F. The BRY97 was sitting at 68F. I draped a wet t-shirt over each and turned on the vent fan in the bathroom I have them sitting in. Over a period of about 3 hrs, I'd brought the US05 to 68F and the BRY97 to 66F. I'd wanted to keep the US05 a little warmer than I usually do to avoid that fruity/peachy flavor that it can sometimes develop if fermented too cold.

As of this morning, they were both still sitting at 68 and 66F respectively and going strong.

One decision I have to make on this beer is dry hopping. I already have 4 ounces of Citra in this beer (an ounce each at 45, 20, 10 and an ounce whirlpooled at 170F for 15 min after knockout). I have one more ounce of Citra and am not certain whether I want to keg hop or not. I am thinking dry hopping may further cloud any subtle aroma differences between these 2 beers when I keg them.

I may just put them on the gas as is, carb up, and do a taste test for a side-by-side on the 2 yeasts. Then drop a half ounce of the last of the Citra on each to polish them up for the long haul.
 
I pitched 2 packets of rehydrated BRY-97 into a 10 gal Ranger IPA clone (2 Better Bottles) at 1.065, Sunday at 2:45pm. It is cool in the basement and both fermenters were at 62F. Nothing doing, no krausen, just a few random bubbles at 40hr mark. Warmed them using an electric space heater controlled by a BCS-460 (2 temp probes attached to BCS tapes to side of fermenters covered in bubble wrap) to 68F and both took off with an hour. Now close to 48hr mark and both seem to be going strong.

I think I will use BRY-97 during the warmer summer months when temps in the basement are warmer.
 
rcrabb22 said:
I pitched 2 packets of rehydrated BRY-97 into a 10 gal Ranger IPA clone (2 Better Bottles) at 1.065, Sunday at 2:45pm. It is cool in the basement and both fermenters were at 62F. Nothing doing, no krausen, just a few random bubbles at 40hr mark. Warmed them using an electric space heater controlled by a BCS-460 (2 temp probes attached to BCS tapes to side of fermenters covered in bubble wrap) to 68F and both took off with an hour. Now close to 48hr mark and both seem to be going strong.

I think I will use BRY-97 during the warmer summer months when temps in the basement are warmer.

That sounds like a good plan. I think someone posted earlier this week that Morebeer or one of the other large outlets tested with this yeast and found it clean up to 75F.
 
This yeast does like it warmer, thats why I think it's a great suggestion for new brewers to use. They are less likely to control temps well, and this will allow some wiggle room to make a good beer in the end.

Aside from the lag, and the length of time it seems for the krausen to drop.. Once it drops, it's clears pretty well. Better than US05, and while it's cloudier longer I think, the end result, is a more brilliant looking beer once I serve it on tap.
 
winvarin said:
That sounds like a good plan. I think someone posted earlier this week that Morebeer or one of the other large outlets tested with this yeast and found it clean up to 75F.

Northern Brewer ;)
 
Preface:
I work in the LHBS and get things free like old cans of LME or special run/test items. I try hard to use them while I am working a full shift in the store for obvious reasons.

We just got this yeast in and I wanted to try it. I was gifted 2 cans of Briess golden light LME and 2# of steeping grains. I had Pacific Gem hops that needed to be used (never used PG hops before) so I made up a hoppy pale ale. The wort smelled great while I was brewing it. I plan to add blackberries with the last oz of hops into the serving keg while I force carb it.

The beer was brewed Monday the 4th. I allowed the temp to stabilize overnight (I over chilled it which gave me a GREAT cold break and clear wort!) and then pitched the yeast, dry, into the wort the next evening. I am also fermenting this under pressure so I can see how the yeast like the 12-15psi range, which is how I make most of my ales. So about 12 hours in and have no positive pressure showing on the gauge but I am not concerned as others have had slow starts as well... Will report back as there are things to report.
 
I have been drinking my two hearted clone fermented with this, it isnt bad, I am doing a batch now with us05 to compare, the aroma may be lacking slightly, but it won't keep me from drinking this.
 
I don't know if i'm to blame or the yeast is to blame, but i probably won't use this yeast again: the batch i made with it has a terrible "chemically" flavor.

I don't do a good job of controlling fermentation temps and I suspect that I've let them get too high, which has caused some flavors in many of my beers that I'm not happy with.

This beer may have gotten a little higher than others (but not much), so maybe that's where the bad flavor came from (my fault).

But really, nothing about this batch was much different from any others, so I'm gonna blame the yeast and stick to my us05 and notty in the future.

I've been sitting on the bottles for about 2-3 months and they're starting to improve (or i've convinced myself of that), but they are pretty much undrinkable. Even if they become palatable later on, nothing about this yeast will convince me to try it again in the future.
 
I don't know if i'm to blame or the yeast is to blame, but i probably won't use this yeast again: the batch i made with it has a terrible "chemically" flavor.

I don't do a good job of controlling fermentation temps and I suspect that I've let them get too high, which has caused some flavors in many of my beers that I'm not happy with.

This beer may have gotten a little higher than others (but not much), so maybe that's where the bad flavor came from (my fault).

But really, nothing about this batch was much different from any others, so I'm gonna blame the yeast and stick to my us05 and notty in the future.

I've been sitting on the bottles for about 2-3 months and they're starting to improve (or i've convinced myself of that), but they are pretty much undrinkable. Even if they become palatable later on, nothing about this yeast will convince me to try it again in the future.

I definitely haven't used this yeast, but even you know that's a bad reason to stop using this yeast. After dissolving sugar in water, temperature control is the most important thing in beermaking.

Get your ferm temps under control with a swamp cooler or water bath (literally zero cost to you) and do a real experiment.
 
Fair enough, but i'm more interested in making drinkable beer than experimenting (at least at this point in my brewing life), so why not just stick with yeasts that work for me? I gave it a shot, made the only beer my wife has declared undrinkable out of 30 batches, so i'm okay with not using it again.
 
NeedsMoreHops said:
But really, nothing about this batch was much different from any others, so I'm gonna blame the yeast and stick to my us05 and notty in the future.

Surely if you're getting drinkable beers using Notty that means you've got Fermentation temps reasonably well under control, doesn't it?

I mean, I thought that Notty was supposed to function really well at lower temps (57 f), compared to quite a few other strains, and throw some pretty nasty off flavours above 72, or so.
 
Well I transfered this yesterday because I wanted the yeast to pitch into a new batch2.
ha2.jpg
......
 
Surely if you're getting drinkable beers using Notty that means you've got Fermentation temps reasonably well under control, doesn't it?

I mean, I thought that Notty was supposed to function really well at lower temps (57 f), compared to quite a few other strains, and throw some pretty nasty off flavours above 72, or so.

That was my thought. If this guy is getting drinkable beers with Notty and letting the temperatures fly all over the place, then SURELY he could get BRY97 to make a good beer. Notty is absolutely disgusting if you even get the temp up for just a day. One of the worst offenders. US05 will throw some hot fusel notes and some esters that will be a bit fruity, and can toss a cold crisp peach note if fermented really cold. It's pretty forgiving, much like BRY97 is.

97 has to be one of the most forgiving yeasts for higher temps, and not throw out any largely detectable off flavors. Sure, it mutes some hop flavor when it drops with a crash, and it's got a longer lag time. But for brewers who simply don't care, aren't smart enough, or new to brewing and don't know, this yeast will make a solid beer at a higher temp than normal.

Infact- this yeast doesn't want to work really well at normal ale temps of low/mid 60's. It's slow and sluggish. A bit warmer and it works perfect.
 
I kegged my BRY97 Brown. It tasted fine at that point, it should be well carb'd by the time I'm home from vacation next week ;)
 
I used this over the weekend in a recipe I've made a few times. I didn't notice an unusual lag compared to us 05. The airlock started popping like crazy in less than 24 hours. Last time I used 05, it didn't take off for 48 hours. Another thing I've noticed is a very fragrant fermentation so far. I don't know how else to describe it, but It's stinking up the place in a good way. I got lots of notes from the other times I brewed this recipe, so I'll report back soon after I bottle.
 
My Brown Ale is still a tad green, but the BRY97 is super clean at this point.
 
I'm doing my third batch ever so take all of this with a grain of salt (or a shaker) but here's what I observed with BRY-97 on a half batch of 1.071 OG Bock using maple sap instead of water.

* Got a really strong smell from BRY-97 while rehydrating. It was fairly sour smelling. I don't remember anything that strong from my previous batch that used S-04 and it concerned me but I don't have enough experience to know if it's meaningful.
* Pitched into 70F well-aerated (lots of shaking at least) wort that immediately went into a 64F temperature controlled water bath.
* About 12 hours after pitching I had what I know as the start of a good fermentation: the occasional bubble from the blowoff tube and foam starting to form on the surface. Basically most of the surface was covered with a thin layer of bubbles.
* 48 hours after pitching everything looks the same - I was expecting a higher krauesen by now

After reading through this whole thread I have a theory that fermentation started while the wort was still cooling from 70F to 64F and as it got to 64F it stalled out a bit. I raised the temperature controller to 66F on my way out this morning in hopes of restarting.

My question for the collective wisdom of HBT is "does this sound like a reasonable assessment of the situation?" Does it sound like it started and stalled a bit? Or is it just still in the lag phase, busy doing things I can't really see? The slight amount of surface bubbles suggests to me the former, but I'm a noob.
 
I brewed a porter about 10 days ago and pitched BRY-97 instead of Nottingham since it was new and the same price as the Notty. I experienced the same lag as many others have, took about 2 days to really get going. I had about 5.5-6 gallons in a bucket and achieved a good krausen, but nothing explosive. Maybe it's because my basement is in the mid-60's and fairly stable.

I just transferred this porter to secondary to let it sit for a while and further clear up. It transferred very cleanly, one of the cleanest transfers I have ever had using my auto-siphon. Ended up with 5 gallons in the carboy and about a half gallon plus trub left in the bucket.

It smelled very bready, very yeasty when I opened the bucket, but I did not get that at all when I tried it. This is a very basic porter with some 2 row pale, a little Maris Otter (since I had it in the house), chocolate malt, carared, and a bit of English Crystal II. OG was 1.044, finished up at 1.010. Fuggles are the only hops in it, 60 minute, 15 minute and 5 minute aroma addition. The beer tastes very good and not overly hoppy, which is why I used this yeast. I thought it would do well with the style and it didn't disappoint. I transferred the yeast cake to a sanitized mason jar so that I can possibly pitch it into a big stout to age until next winter.

I will probably bottle this one instead of kegging it since I don't know how fast I can drink a keg of a roasty porter, but who knows. It will be a couple weeks before I do anything with it and maybe I will change my mind. I will try to post an update once it's carbed and chilled.
 
I'm doing my third batch ever so take all of this with a grain of salt (or a shaker) but here's what I observed with BRY-97 on a half batch of 1.071 OG Bock using maple sap instead of water.

* Got a really strong smell from BRY-97 while rehydrating. It was fairly sour smelling. I don't remember anything that strong from my previous batch that used S-04 and it concerned me but I don't have enough experience to know if it's meaningful.
* Pitched into 70F well-aerated (lots of shaking at least) wort that immediately went into a 64F temperature controlled water bath.
* About 12 hours after pitching I had what I know as the start of a good fermentation: the occasional bubble from the blowoff tube and foam starting to form on the surface. Basically most of the surface was covered with a thin layer of bubbles.
* 48 hours after pitching everything looks the same - I was expecting a higher krauesen by now

After reading through this whole thread I have a theory that fermentation started while the wort was still cooling from 70F to 64F and as it got to 64F it stalled out a bit. I raised the temperature controller to 66F on my way out this morning in hopes of restarting.

My question for the collective wisdom of HBT is "does this sound like a reasonable assessment of the situation?" Does it sound like it started and stalled a bit? Or is it just still in the lag phase, busy doing things I can't really see? The slight amount of surface bubbles suggests to me the former, but I'm a noob.

To follow up on this, when I got home this evening the Bock was foaming away like a champ. That means it started in earnest sometime between 40-48 hours after pitching. Could have been the temperature increase, but it also fits in the 48 hour lag that a lot of people have reported. Either way, I figure 66F is still well low enough to prevent off flavors and it's looking good now. :mug:
 
As of this morning, both beers are going strong. The krausen on the US05 is what I typically see. Dense, almost like whipped cream. There is a thin tan layer on the top that I normally get with my US05 fermentations. It's pushing gas through the blow off tube pretty strongly.

The BRY97 is more "frothy" or bubbly. I was in a hurry this morning and didn't grab a pic. But if the krausens look the same this evening, I will post pics. The BRY97 has filled the space above the beer, up to the neck of the better bottle. It is not as dense as the US05. While it is off-gassing, it does not appear to be pushing the same volume of air the US05 is.

When I got home last night, the temperature on the US05 had ramped up to just a touch over 70F. The BRY97 was sitting at 68F. I draped a wet t-shirt over each and turned on the vent fan in the bathroom I have them sitting in. Over a period of about 3 hrs, I'd brought the US05 to 68F and the BRY97 to 66F. I'd wanted to keep the US05 a little warmer than I usually do to avoid that fruity/peachy flavor that it can sometimes develop if fermented too cold.

As of this morning, they were both still sitting at 68 and 66F respectively and going strong.

One decision I have to make on this beer is dry hopping. I already have 4 ounces of Citra in this beer (an ounce each at 45, 20, 10 and an ounce whirlpooled at 170F for 15 min after knockout). I have one more ounce of Citra and am not certain whether I want to keg hop or not. I am thinking dry hopping may further cloud any subtle aroma differences between these 2 beers when I keg them.

I may just put them on the gas as is, carb up, and do a taste test for a side-by-side on the 2 yeasts. Then drop a half ounce of the last of the Citra on each to polish them up for the long haul.

I went ahead with a dry hop in the last week. Kegged them both yesterday. 3 total weeks in primary. I dry hopped with a half ounce of citra in each beer for the final week.

Here are my notes from the transfer, kegging and tasting yesterday.

Kegged both and placed in kegerator at 12 psi. Both had some yeast kicked back into suspension when I moved them to the kitchen for transfer. BRY97 was at 1.013. US05 was at 1.014 but there was quite a bit of trub in the hydrometer sample so that could have affected the reading.

The BRY97 settled out well while I was sanitizing prior to transfer. The first few seconds of racking it was cloudy. After that, it ran clear for the remainder of the transfer. My transfer hose would not seal properly and I pulled a little air throughout the transfer where the hose attaches to my auto-siphon. There was evidence of a good blanket of CO2 in the fermenter and the keg had been purged with CO2. I am hoping this prevents any oxidation. The hop flavor and aroma were nice, but not quite as prominent as I had figured they would be given the whirlpool and dry hop. This seems consistent with what others have experienced. It was moderately bitter and had a very clean taste. Citrus up front and you can really taste the Maris Otter in the finish.

The US05 was still a little murky and got even more so when I moved it to the kitchen for transfer. It stayed a little cloudy throughout. I changed transfer hoses between batches and did not have any O2 takeup while racking. The US05 appeared to have a more pronounced hop aroma and flavor. It definitely had a higher perceived bitterness when tasted side by side with the BRY. The Maris Otter was not as evident in the US05 beer.

At this point, it would be hard to tell the 2 beers apart if I weren't tasting them side by side. There are differences when I taste them in the same sitting. But if I were to have them a few days apart, I think it would be more difficult to see the differences as starkly. I can definitely see a place for both yeasts in my day to day brewing. I think the BRY would work well in a malt forward beer.

I have a nut brown recipe that usually gets WLP002. Since I stepped up to 10 gallon batches and still only use 5 gallon fermenters, I have started trying different yeasts on the same beer just for comparison. It might be nice to do this beer with BRY97 just to see what it does.
 
I used this yeast in Mo/Cascade SMaSH. After 17 days, the beer was cloudy and the hops flavor and aroma was minimal even though I used a fair amount of flavor and aroma hops. (This is a 2.25 galon batch and I used 2 ounces in the boil.)

So I dry hoped another ounce and got my flavor and aroma back (it's pretty tasty,) but the beer is uber cloudy after 10 days dry hoping. I'm currently cold crashing with gelatin to get it clear.

At this point, US-05 or Notty seem preferable, but I'm reserving final judgement until I taste the finished product.
 
I just tapped my BRY97 Brown Ale, so it's now next to my WLP002 batch. The BRY97 is clean, very American, and generally tasty. My BIL prefers the BRY97, I'm partial to WLP002. Good yeast... but I'll stick with WLP090.
 
I bottled last night. After a couple of bottles, the bear was crystal clear. There was a mountain of trub and I suspect some of it had gotten into the spigot, causing cloudy samples. I probably could have skipped the gelatin. Also the hop flavor and bitterness is there. Yesterday's pessimism about this yeast/beer has been replaced by anticipation.
 
I kegged my porter that I fermented with BRY-97 yesterday. Not an overly hoppy beer to begin with, but it was very clean. I had it in secondary for 4-5 days and it flocked out very well. Nice clean roasty flavor in the sample I drank. Will update after its carbed up.
 
I tapped my porter today. I only had to pour off a few ounces to get a clean pour. Very nice taste, no yeasty taste even in the first pint. I will definitely use this yeast again.
 
I bought some and am going to make an English/American Summer Ale with it and then use the dregs to make two recipies based on a Fat Tire and Redtail Ale.

I wil post my results in about a month..
 
I used this yeast on a IPA and I get a yeasty taste I dont get from nottingham or S05 I wont use this again
 
As my ipa aged, I get a dry yeast aroma but a generally nice beer taste overall and great appearance with goood foam retention and lacing, althouth its not crystal clear. I would say its pretty minerally/dry yeasty overall.Has a nice mouthfeel and taste but pretty standard like notty/05. Seems hit or miss depending what style-I guess. I would use it intermittently. I think Im pretty sold on liquid yeast and starters for my homebrews maybe as far as yeast. Dry yeast seem to take on what it wants with age,which seems to be dry and their dry character.
 
Has anyone experienced any diacetyl off favors with BRY-97? Many of us from the homebrew club have experienced this flavor in the beers fermented with this yeast. We all direct pitched the yeast. We've since rebrewed those beers and rehydrated the yeast before pitching. Results still to follow but curious if anyone else has experienced that.
 
Has anyone experienced any diacetyl off favors with BRY-97? Many of us from the homebrew club have experienced this flavor in the beers fermented with this yeast. We all direct pitched the yeast. We've since rebrewed those beers and rehydrated the yeast before pitching. Results still to follow but curious if anyone else has experienced that.

I've only used it once, and I overpitched. (I used a whole pack for a 2.25 gallon batch.) Zero diacetyl and almost no esters. Very clean fermentation for me.
 
Petey said:
Has anyone experienced any diacetyl off favors with BRY-97? Many of us from the homebrew club have experienced this flavor in the beers fermented with this yeast. We all direct pitched the yeast. We've since rebrewed those beers and rehydrated the yeast before pitching. Results still to follow but curious if anyone else has experienced that.

None at all-- direct pitch into 5 gallons of Brown Ale... almost too clean
 
No diacetyl here either. I got a touch of banana in my first pour from the keg. But that one had the first pull of sediment in it. No off flavors or aromas here.

Did a side by side, split batches. One got us05, one got the 97. The 97 is a little more estery and lower in hop aroma/flavor. It performed more like WLP 002 than a Chico strain for me. Although it definitely didn't drop brite like the 002 does.

Fermented both at 68f.

I may try this in a more malt focused beer in the future
 
Just bottled up a pale ale over the weekend. I have brewed this recipe before with Wlp 001 and us 05. First, there was no hop aroma. Just earthy, yeasty, maltiness which was unusual for this beer. Flavor was similar to aroma with a bit of candy/ caramel flavor. Definitely had a lot more yeast chunks floating around, even after 4 weeks in primary. I'll give this plenty of time in the bottle before I make my final decision, but so far, I'm not really liking this yeast.
 
I pitched with 97 after a us-05 that I killed did not tale off. Turns out I didn't kill the 05 just got scared. Anyway the over pitchingare for a 12 hr fermentation. Now I have a funny smelling xtra pale.
 
Brewed a 1.070 IPA on Saturday, with the resultant 24 hour lag phase. Last Sunday kicked off an agressive fermentation (no blow off) which seems to be primarily finished now Tuesday morning :confused: I know its conditioning, but krausen has already dropped. Not even S-04 finished this fast!

I like this yeast so far. Lag sucks, but starter type agressive fermentation in the chamber I havent seen from a dry yeast before. And one that happens fast. I also ferment in 5gal carboys, so the minimal headspace required seems to make this a winner so far.
 
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