Looking for Belgian Yeast Suggestion

I'm about to place an order for supplies and want to get another Belgian yeast, but don't know what to get.

I already have WLP550 and Wyeast 3711, so I'm looking for something a little different to add to my rotation.

I have no particular beers in mind. Want to get a yeast that has high attenuation, high alcohol tolerance, and lots of flavor. I like to ferment Belgians around 75F and push the temperature up as fermentation starts to slow down, but don't want much banana or bubblegum flavors.

The yeasts I have come down to are:

WLP530 (Westmalle strain)
WLP540 (Rochefort strain)
WLP545 (an Ardennes strain of unknown origin)
WLP570 (Duvel strain)

Anyone with any experiences or recommendations?

I've heard WLP530 can dropout below 66 F and not recover. Not sure that would be a problem since I ferment in a heated swamp cooler.

I've heard WLP570 can take forever to clear.

I recently did a Golden Strong using WLP570. Yes, it's a bit long to clear - I lagered for 3 weeks then gelatined in the keg and it was really clear after that.

I was very impressed with the attenuation and flavor profile. It took 1.088 down to 1.007 in less than a week. Minimal hotness after that - what was there dissipated in the remaining 2 weeks of room temp conditioning and 3 weeks of lagering.

The best advice I can give is to try the respective beers these yeast strains (purportedly) originate from, and see which one you like best.

I agree with the previous posts. It sounds to me like WLP 570 is what you are looking for. I too have had great luck with this strain.

I love the Rochefort strain but it does require quite a few months of aging before the distinctive "ethanol" as wyeast describes it, to mellow into acceptable even with properly done fermentations. So complex, so much dark fruit, just wonderful.

I have a Belgian Golden Strong fermenting right now with Wyeast 1214. It seemed to do a great job working quickly and now I just have it on clean up duty. Can't say how it tastes as I haven't tried it, but I got a good vigorous fermentation from it.

GuldTuborg said:

The best advice I can give is to try the respective beers these yeast strains (purportedly) originate from, and see which one you like best.

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That would be a good idea if I could find them all ....... I'd then have the yeasts too. I think Duvel is the only one I can find.

I'd written off the Duvel strain (WLP570) because of the reported low flocculation. I would like to hear if this is real, or if just a couple of additional weeks conditioning will solve that problem. I'm usually 6 to 8 weeks before I bottle.

WLP540 (Rochefort). I've seen comments that that needs a lot of work to make sure it attenuates well in higher abv beers. That is steering me away from that one.

Right now thinking of WLP545, or WLP500 (Chimay), which was not on my original list. Or maybe WLP570. I might just go for the WLP545 since it is limited release and I can get the others any time. My only problem with that is that I tend to use yeasts for years with freezing samples and harvesting cakes, and might not have room for another Belgian in my line-up for a long time.

Wyeast 3655
It's a special yeast strain from the De Konnick brewery, I think. It's a freaking great yeast for golden stron ales. I highly recommend it. It has a nice peppery taste with low esters. Falls out of suspension pretty quickly as well.