WLP002 English Ale yeast.. I like this stuff

I was going to put this under product reviews, but didn't really see a place for it.

As the subject states I like WLP002 English Ale Yeast.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp002.html

It flocculates like crazy. A bit less attenuative than WLP001 Cal Ale yeast, but I like emphasis on the sweetness, even with a hoppy beer. Cal Ale is decent, but too me takes a while to clean it self up more so than Eng Ale

The first beer I brewed with it was an Amer Brown. I liked it and thought it might be a good yeast to try in an APA, and an Amber. Again I like the sweetness it leaves behind. The malt plays off the hops nicely. I just brewed a brown again today.

The Amber I brewed last weekend is crystal clear already, and has a fairly clean taste already. It amazes me everytime how clear it drops.

One thing to note for anyone who has not used it. Its looks different in the vial, starter, and fermenter. It almost has a curd like look in the vial. In the starter and ferementer it tends to clump together and almost looks like wet paper floating around after being roused. By the way I rouse this yeast multiple times each day to make sure it attenuates well. I read to do that somewhere. I'm not sure its needed but its worked so far, so I'm not going to stop now.

If you like that try safale-04.

The best part of 002 is how it plops out of the vial in a big lump. I made a starter from it just this morning. None of this waiting around for the dregs to slowly drip into the flask. It just plops out clean in one lump like the best turd you've ever had. It's awesome stuff.

I love the stuff too. I use it in my house ESB.

+1 for this yeast strain. Did a delicious job when I brewed the Moose Drool clone, great malt aroma and just the right amount of residual sweetness. I have brewed brown ales and porters with S-04 and I think the flavor profile is very different. Always get a bready-type aroma that I don't really care for.

I too, love this yeast. I usually have 2-3 day fermentations with it. Needs 1-2 extra days to clean up some diacetyl, but for turn around time it almost can't be beat.

Is that the same strain as Wyeast 1968? 1968 looks like curdled milk the way it clumps together. It also falls out very quickly and occasionally needs to be re-roused.

This is my house English yeast, love the stuff.

Its good stuff, have you tried Burton Ale yeast?

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp023.html

Packed with character is an understatement.
Makes a awesome IPA and Barleywine that will age oh so well....

Definately a diacetyl rest is a good idea, but even with that it still cleans up quick as someone mentioned.2-3 days and the active fermentation is complete.

I try to rouse it quite a lot. My last Brown had a touch of diacetyl. I fermented cool then crash cooled to soon. I think the cool fermentation didn't help the diacetyl much. It still cleaned up but took a month in the keg. The last 2 gallons were fantastic. I get just over 70% attenuation each time I use it.

EDIT:
Anyone ever notice slight fusel?

Haven't tried wlp023 yet.

I've had brown's brewed with 1056 at my Homebrew club and I've liked them. I like the wlp002 much better though and that's the only yeast I've used to brew my brown.

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm says wlp002 and wyeast1968 are the same.

I've had a very hard time with the fuller strain WL002/Wyeast 1968. I brewed 3 batches of beer using this yeast and they all took 4-5 weeks to finish. The good news is that the beers turned out great anyway. I'm suspecting that I got a bad pack of yeast to start with and just continuously was underpitching making fermentation take longer. I definitely want to try again with a fresh pack of this strand.

Mithion You pitched 3 beer on the same vial or you used the cake from one batch to the next?

As I said previous I've had nothing but fast starts and finishes it also attenuates slightly above the advertised.

What temp are you feremnting at? Are you using a Starter?

I had great luck with 1968/002 on my pumpkin ale a few months ago. It started quick and didn't have any issues finishing the job. It tastes amazing too!

The gruit I have brewing now has been a bit more troublesome. 1968 took it down from 1.070 to 1.040 over two weeks and then fell out. I stirred it back up and it has been going for a few days. I may be fermenting on the low side, however; it's sitting at 63F now.

bigjoe said:

Mithion You pitched 3 beer on the same vial or you used the cake from one batch to the next?

As I said previous I've had nothing but fast starts and finishes it also attenuates slightly above the advertised.

What temp are you feremnting at? Are you using a Starter?

Click to expand...

The first batch I brewed was a simple ESB with a starting gravity of 1.054. I didn't do a starter on that one since the OG wasn't that high. I left it in the primary for 3 weeks and then bottled, but it was clear there were too many residual sugars left. I then proceeded to wash the yeast from that batch. With the other two beers, I made starters (1 qt. of water and 1 cup of DME) 24 hours prior to pitching. All three beers fermented in the 66-67F range. I'm just thinking that the initial pack of yeast was bad and had an unusually low count of healthy yeast cells. And then it got diluted furthermore when I washed it (my first experience washing yeast).