Educate me on British yeast strains

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jmo88

jmo88

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I will be expanding my brewing repertory with liquid strains after the new year thanks to a stir plate. So I'd like to discuss british yeast strains. I know that I will eventually stumble on a house british yeast that fits my needs, but I'd like to be steered in the right direction.

The flavor profile I am looking for is Samuel Smith. I know that the Yorkshire yeast is a seasonal strain, so I am wondering if another yeast provides similar qualities. Any thoughts on a similar and more accessible liquid strain?

One concern I have after researching the short blurbs from Wyeast and White Labs is that British yeast attenuates rather low. Most of the yeasts with stronger esters have lower attenuation and cleaner yeasts have a higher attenuation (like Nottingham). I don't plan on making ales lower than 1.050 and I will frequently make beers in the 1.065 range so a low attenuating yeast might not fit a higher gravity beer.

Lastly, I am less interested in making recipes true to English styles and more interested in a yeast with a Sammy Smith flavor profile capable of a wide range of possibilities.

I don't know where to start. Where do think a good place to start would be?
 
jmo88 said:
I will be expanding my brewing repertory with liquid strains after the new year thanks to a stir plate. So I'd like to discuss british yeast strains. I know that I will eventually stumble on a house british yeast that fits my needs, but I'd like to be steered in the right direction.

The flavor profile I am looking for is Samuel Smith. I know that the Yorkshire yeast is a seasonal strain, so I am wondering if another yeast provides similar qualities. Any thoughts on a similar and more accessible liquid strain?

One concern I have after researching the short blurbs from Wyeast and White Labs is that British yeast attenuates rather low. Most of the yeasts with stronger esters have lower attenuation and cleaner yeasts have a higher attenuation (like Nottingham). I don't plan on making ales lower than 1.050 and I will frequently make beers in the 1.065 range so a low attenuating yeast might not fit a higher gravity beer.

Lastly, I am less interested in making recipes true to English styles and more interested in a yeast with a Sammy Smith flavor profile capable of a wide range of possibilities.

I don't know where to start. Where do think a good place to start would be?
Click to expand...

Dude, I love Wy1968. It under attenuates just a little bit (wyeast says 71%) but it leaves slight esters and flocs really well after a couple weeks.

With a stirplate I bet you could grow up a nice culture of sam smith's yeast from the bottle. think they use the same one for bottling and fermentation?
 
I know Ringwood yeast is a very very Brit style of yeast. Its also a yeast that will no settle to the bottom as well. Very strange stuff. I believe Shipyard Brewing is a Ringwood brewery.
 
+1 on the 1968 - love that yeast. It really brings out the maltiness in any beer.

Why don't you just brew up a big batch of a typical brown ale, split it up into 1-2 gal testers and pitch with every yeast you want to test?
 
Ringwood seems like a lot of work. I think I need more experience before heading that direction.

I'll have to research if Sammy smith bottle conditions with the same yeast. I might have to try that. Save a few bucks while I'm at it too.

Is there a British yeast that can do 72-75% attenuation that still has a strong ester character?
 
jmo88 said:
Ringwood seems like a lot of work. I think I need more experience before heading that direction.

I'll have to research if Sammy smith bottle conditions with the same yeast. I might have to try that. Save a few bucks while I'm at it too.

Is there a British yeast that can do 72-75% attenuation that still has a strong ester character?
Click to expand...

Hey, did you ever have any luck researching is samuel smith yeast can be grown from the bottle? did you attempt yourself? was one variety of their beer particularly good?

sorry for the barrage of questions, i'm trying to clone their nut brown and want to get as close as possible.

if you didnt get from the bottle, is there a yeast that got you close?

any info you might have would be greatly appreciated.

thanks!
 
1469, the tim taylor yeast is the closest in ester profile to the samuel smith strain ( I actually prefer it, sometimes the sam smith strain throws some slightly strange esters, that need more aging time to mellow out, 1469 is hassle free), and is probably what you want. Its a medium attenuater, but remember you can adjust mash temp, or add sugars like many british breweries do, to help attenuation on larger beers.

Also with the sam smith strain or 1469 tim taylor, sometimes its so floculant, you have to give the carboy a gentle swirl 4 days or so into fermentation to help it finish.
 
I really like ringwood, for me it's never been any trouble. I got 85% attenuation just by rousing the yeast a couple of times, and letting it warm up a bit after a couple of days. Great flavor, good flocculation.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
One of the British yeasts that I love to use is a seasonal from White Labs, its WLP022, Essex Ale. It's supposedly from the now closed Ridley's Brewery in Essex. It works fantastic in lower gravity beers and produces great flavors. Sadly, it's only available in January and February, but worth giving it a try next winter!
 
I've only used Nottingham, us-04 and wlp007 for my British ales (which I love!). The 007 comes thru in early tasting of my English pale ale. Notty is just a clean, awesome yeast and probably my favorite.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 

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