Two Yeasts?

I have a couple Muntons Ale yeast packets lying around and was wondering if I should use a packet along with the quality yeast that I will be using. Are there any positive things that could come from this, or is this completely pointless?

Thanks,
Slappy

From what I understand, multiple yeasts are used in a couple of different instances.

The first is when you want some of the flavor profiles from a couple of different types of yeast, so you put them both in to get the combined flavor profile.

The second is if you want to use the first yeast for a certain flavor profile, but it won't ferment as far as you want, so you can throw in the second yeast to dry out the beer a bit more.

I think Muntons is a pretty flavor neutral yeast, so I don't think you'll get a whole lot special out of using it with another yeast, but I really don't have any experience in using multiple yeasts, so I can't really help you out as far as whether or not it's pointless to try.

This is a cool idea! But not with Muntons. Dump that pack in some cider from the local farmers market and make some hard cider to warm up at christmas time.

I read somewhere that using a neutral yeast such as Muntons along with the yeast with the flavor profile that you want works similar to a starter, which I'm not sure how that makes sense. Maybe it was referring to a more active fermentation. I just want to get some use out of my Muntons crap yeast.

BigK: I already have about 20 packs of montrachet dedicated to apfelwein and cider.

you could always use the muntons to make experimental 1 gallon brews like a hard ginger ale or lemonade

Loup said:

you could always use the muntons to make experimental 1 gallon brews like a hard ginger ale or lemonade

Click to expand...

Haven't thought of that. I think I'll give some of that a try...got any recipes of something off-the-wall to try?

I have used two strains before. The thing is that 1+1 does not = 2 in that case. But it is still perfectly fine to experiment to see what you get, as long as you do so without throwing caution to the wind.

When you did use two strains what was the purpose and how were the results? Also what strains were they?
Thanks

Slappy White said:

When you did use two strains what was the purpose and how were the results? Also what strains were they?
Thanks

Click to expand...

I wanted to have something unique that would yield both fruity esters and big phenolics from one yeast, plus I wanted to ensure I had enough alcohol tolerance which is where the second strain came in. It turned out excellent, but took some time to clear in the bottle because one was a Wheat strain. It was some time ago, so I don't remember exactly which Wheat strain I used, but the dry yeast was Edme.

I recently used two yeasts in a Belgian Quad. The forbidden fruit strain and a high gravity trappist strain. I can detect some of the characteristics of the forbidden fruit and the trappist allowed the beer to finish waaaaaaaaaaaayyy dry.