Can you use any ale yeast for any ale recipe?

My buddy and I have been debating whether or not you need certain yeast for each recipe. We live in Miami where the average room temp is 77-80. I suggested we should use saison yeast with which ever recipe we are dealing with but he disagrees and I am concerned that the yeast we are using is at to high of a temperature. Our fermenter houses an Irish Red extract kit with Nottingham yeast. Any words of wisdom out there? Thank You, Ogie

Use a yeast appropriate to the style of beer you are brewing. Build yourself a fermentation chamber out of an Igloo cube cooler and some styrofoam, and you won't have any problems with temp control for ales.

Some ale yeasts could be interchanged for a given recipe but you cannot use any ale yeast for any ale recipe. Each strain will impart certain flavours to the beer depending on the recipe and fermentation conditions. Given your temperature conditions you are fine using a Saison yeast - as long as it is a Saison recipe you are brewing. Using a Saison yeast at 80F to brew an English Bitter would NOT work however.

GT

Using a Saison yeast at 80F to brew an English Bitter would NOT work however.

GT[/QUOTE]

Well, it wouldn't work if you're set on brewing an English Bitter. If you use a Saison yeast, it won't make a bitter, it'll make... something else. Something that might be good, average, or bad.

I'm planning some experiments with one-gallon jugs where I'll pitch five different yeasts into the same recipe. I'm sure that pitching a Weizen yeast into a Pale Ale will make something a little unusual, but hey, it'll still make beer. :fro:

But for the OP: the relevant fact is that every yeast is different and will produce different flavor profiles. Some more dramatically different than others, but different. If you're after a particular style, use the "right" yeast.

Yeast is, IMO, as important as using the right grains or the right hops. Like hops and grains, you can often substitute somewhat close varieties and get a close end-product, but using more distantly related varieties will hurt a lot more.

In short, Yes.

But, you won't achieve the characteristic yeast profile for the textbook style. Yeast are paired to styles based on the profile of their biproducts and mapped accordingly through a temperature range.

Will any Ale yeast create an Ale? Sure!

This is typically reffered to as a "House Yeast" and the brewer who uses it has painstakingly experimented with it to determine it profile at specific temperature points and matched it with a complimentary grist. Adn yeast across the board are known to produce a more robust biproduct profile the warmer they are when they eat, and fart. Less so when they are cooler or cold.

Matter of fact, Papzian is known for using a single strain for both his house ales AND lagers. "Cry Havoc" it is called.

Here are the images for the fermentation cooler I mentioned:





Quite inexpensive, and invaluable for fermenting anything successfully in the southern U.S. during summer.

I also use towels wrapped around my carboy in the bathtub to keep my fermentation temps in the low 60's. YMMV, especially living in a humid climate (I am out in AZ where our humidity is very low).

There is also Son of Fermentation Chiller on the internetz toobs that may also work for you...

I think everyone else has answered the yeast question...

Let me know the results of your experiments MSAstoria. Thanks

No problem. I'll post them on the "5 yeast experiment" thread.