American Ale 1056 - is it THAT good?

It seems a lot of the American brew recipes I come across call for AA 1056 or California Ale WLP001.

Are they That good or are they just a default for your average beer???

It is a good clean netural yeast that can be used in many different beer styles. I like it in IPA's and it lets the hops come through nicley.

I've also experienced that it attenuates like a mo-fo, making it versitile for big beers, as well.

It is a very versatile strain- a local brewery (and sponsor of our rugby team) uses 1056 as their house strain for nearly everything from their smoked porter to their house pale ale. It can be manipulated to an extent through wort fermentability and fermentation temps to get different flavor profiles.

Is it the Chico strain?

Cistercian said:

Is it the Chico strain?

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Yeah, it's actually the house strain of at least half the breweries who I have gotten to tell me what they use.

What is a Chico strain ????

Grinder12000 said:

What is a Chico strain ????

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Not a Chico strain, the Chico strain- as in Chico, California. This is Sierra Nevada's strain.

Grinder12000 said:

What is a Chico strain ????

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Probably a reference to certain brewery in Chico CA, I'm not sure though.

I got away from the white labs California common ale yeast after trying the other varieties. For one thing it is good to try out other varieties and see what they are like. I especially enjoy their English Ale yeasts, I think they make the beer taste better. I am currently trying the Burton yeast for my pale ale which is in the fermenter.

It's also the strain that was used by Ballantine's, isn't it?

Safale US_05 is the dry version of this (the famed Chico) strain as well.

Grinder12000 said:

It seems a lot of the American brew recipes I come across call for AA 1056 or California Ale WLP001.

Are they That good or are they just a default for your average beer???

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That yeast strain is a nice clean fermenting yeast strain good for most American beer styles. It is just the default yeast strain chosen for an American style. Other strains will give different characteristics that you may or may not desire.

If you want a clean yeast flavor or are still working on brewing techniques, 1056 is a safe choice. When you are ready to experiment with the complexities provided in different yeasts then you can try some of the other strains.

Craig

I used to use US-05 for everything. I still like to use it for big beers I want to attenuate completely, but I have started using the various English ale strains for everything else since I usually want a stronger malt profile than the Chico strain gives.