Should I be pissed at my LHBS?

So I went to my LHBS asking for Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast (*edit*3787), and they said 'oh, we don't have that, but the white labs 550 is a perfect substitute. So I say 'ok' and buy it.

...From what I can tell, WL550 is Belgian Ale Yeast, and not a 'perfect substitute' for trappist high gravity, which should have been WL500 (Trappist Ale Yeast). I didn't realize this at the time, and used the yeast.

So 3 weeks later, I taste the hydrometer sample and it's *dead on* for Ommegang (i.e. nasty footy Belgian), not what I was expecting (i.e. a Belgian Triple that's very malty and not foot-tasting).

...Is this right? #1 is 500 a good substitute for trappist high gravity? #2 Should I be pissed at my LHBS for giving me yeast that turned my beer into Ommegang (which I wasn't going for and don't really care for)?

As far as I can tell, the WLP 530 yeast is the closest sub. for the trappist high gravity yeast. However, 550 can give you a very nice tripel if fermented in the right temperature range. In the 75 degree range it can give you some very earthy (read: foot) characteristics. In general though it should give you some light phenols with a subtle spicy/fruitiness in the 67-70 degree range. Is it possible your beer just fermented too hot and the LHBS was just trying to sub a pretty decent belgian workhorse strain for your beer?

The beer fermented between 67-70 AFAIK. I was hoping to get more malty and alcoholic hotness, and less fruity/footy.

Didn't mean for the last line of my post to sound rude. I was just trying to say that your LHBS was probably trying to get you what they thought would still give you a good tripel. In any event, it's also good to keep in mind that some of the Belgian yeasts may not have "perfect substitutes" for each other. For example, certain yeasts from WL and Wyeast are thought to have possibly come from the same Belgian or Trappist brewery. I would hazard a guess though that both strains are not the same as the brewery they once came from anymore and that they are probably noticeably different from each other. Yeast are smart little buggers, and they tend to adapt to a different environment. Cheers and I hope your beer is still at least drinkable even if it's not what you were expecting.

Didn't take it as rude at all. I appreciate the feedback. I guess I'm mostly disappointed since it isn't turning out like I had hoped (I know, i know, it's still green, etc.). To be fair, it'll probably be an award winning foot-tasting Ommegang clone, but since that's not how I roll taste wise, I'll probably re-brew with the correct yeast (or maybe even 570 - Belgian Golden).

Do you mean 3787? Yeah, 530 is best substitute.

Should you be mad? Nah, you should take responsibility for sourcing your ingredients.

Next time if you need to sub White Labs for Wyeast or vice versa, consult this chart:

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

Your yeast strain numbers appear to be off. The Wyeast strain for Trappist High gravity is 3787, not 1797. And you say that they gave you 550, but then ask if 500 is a good substitute.

According to this comparison chart wlp 530 is the closest comparison to 3787 as illinibrew04 mentioned:

http://kotmf.com/articles/yeastcomp.php
(I can't speak personally to its accuracy personally and can't even remember who referred it to me I bookmarked it so long ago, but it's at least claiming to be written by a BJCP member for what that's worth)

In any event, if you end up with 5 gallons of a beer anywhere even close to any of the Ommegang brews I would be more than happy to take it off your hands if your not inclined to drink it.

chrispykid said:

In any event, if you end up with 5 gallons of a beer anywhere even close to any of the Ommegang brews I would be more than happy to take it off your hands if your not inclined to drink it.

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+1 to this!!!!!

I wouldn't be mad...I mean when we go to the lhbs and want cascade and they are out of it, do we get mad if they flip open a book, and look up the substitue and sell us that? Or Grain? It may not be exactly the same..but it will be close.

It sounds like they found the best match for the stock they had. Would you rather have had them order it and delayed your brewing...or worse sell you something like Us-05 and convince you that THAT would work...

It sounds my friend like you got a reasonable substitute...you wanna see bad advice check out some of those bad lhbs advice threads and count yourself lucky.

Yes, I meant 3787, fixed in original post.

I was using this chart for substitutes: http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=44592 (Not sure if I can post links from other brewing BBs?) and it mentioned 500, along with a footnote that 530 is a good sub as well.

Honestly I probably would have preferred them telling me that they don't have anything really similar (i.e. A high gravity trappist), but that XXX would be the best they have in stock. I would have said 'thanks' and then asked them to order the one I wanted originally and waited.

Oh well. I have friends who like Ommegang a lot, so maybe I'll just have a bunch of xmas gifts lined up in advance.

I know, I know, count my blessings. Though I probably would have liked the taste with US-05 better

Ksosh said:

To be fair, it'll probably be an award winning foot-tasting Ommegang clone

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Thats pretty funny. I really like the Wyeast 3522 (which is also sourced as Achouffe). You can send some my way

remilard said:

Do you mean 3787? Yeah, 530 is best substitute.

Should you be mad? Nah, you should take responsibility for sourcing your ingredients.

Next time if you need to sub White Labs for Wyeast or vice versa, consult this chart:

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

Click to expand...

I agree with this guy.

Pat