WLP001 or WLP002

I'm planning on brewing a normal pale ale using a partial mash, but I'm not sure which yeast is best suited for my recipe. I'd like it to have a nice hoppy flavor and aroma, but I don't want it to be too bitter. Here's what I've got planned so far.

3 lb American 2-row
1 lb Vienna
0.5 lb Crystal 20L
0.5 lb Carapils
3 lb DME

0.5 oz Cascade (60 min)
1 oz Columbus (15 min)
0.5 oz Cascade (2 min)
1 oz Columbus (Dry hop)

WLP001 or WLP002

I like the idea of WLP001 since it accentuates the hop flavors, but WLP002 has been known to leave some residual sweetness, and I tend to like a little sweetness in my beers.

Curious to know what people's thoughts are.

Well, your beer is very much in the American style with those hops, so I would go with the WLP001, a clean ale yeast which will really help with your hop flavours. WLP002 is an excellent yeast too, but I tend to use it in lower gravity English style beers where you want a bit of fruitiness and body. With your recipe, you should get enough sweetness from the Vienna, carapils, DME and crystal to balance out the hops. Good luck with it.

Incidently, are you sure you meant Cascade for bittering? At a glance it looks like you might want to swap around your 60 minute & 15 minute additions.

Yeah, I played around with the hop additions in Promash for a while. Using the Cascade at 60 gave me a much less bitter beer, which is what I'm shooting for. I've heard some people rave about the flavor and aroma of Columbus, which is why I'm adding at 15 min and dry hopping.

If that's a bad idea, then please let me know.

WLP002 is awesome yeast. I've used it with great success in several extract batches, and I'd venture to say that it could almost be used as universally as Nottingham and US-56 in ales.

The residual sweetness is likely due to a slightly incomplete fermentation because this yeast really likes to flocculate early and often. As I understand, it can also be the culprit in stuck fermentations, especially in high gravity beers. Agitating the fermenter from time to time should rouse the yeast enough to keep it going. I didn't see any issues with this yeast quitting early when I used it.

If you like the subtle fruitiness of Anchor Steam (especially in the hop notes), use the WLP001.

I'd go with the WL001 if you're going for an American style pale ale.

Also, if you're worried about it being too bitter, make sure you adjust your recipe if the AA% in ProMash is different from the AA% of the hops you buy (I learned this the hard way on an English Brown).