Yeast for Psuedo Maibock

I want to take full advantage of the cold winter months where I live, my garage is cold for the next 3 month or longer. I can lager beer in there. However, I don't want to brew lagers. I want to take lager recipes and use top fermenting yeast.

I am going to do something like this:

8 # german two row pale
4 # munich
4# vienna
1 oz pearle at 60
1 oz pearle at 10

Primary ferement cool at 60-62 degrees for two weeks

Lager for a month or two....carb and serve


I have narrowed it down to two yeast strains.

Nottingham and White Labs Kolsch


I am leaning heavily towards kolsch, but rogue dead guy uses a yeast that I think is somewhat similar to nottingham for the dead guy.

What do you all think? Nottingham or kolsch for a top fermented maibock...ish beer?

How about Pacman? Wyeast is selling is right now, or you can get it from some Rogue bottles. I just brewed mine on Saturday, threw in a 2L starter from 1 bomber of Shakespeare Stout, and by yesterday it had the best attenuation I've ever had.
Plus, it's what Rogue uses for Dead Guy, which originally was a Maibock.

jamesnsw said:

How about Pacman? Wyeast is selling is right now, or you can get it from some Rogue bottles. I just brewed mine on Saturday, threw in a 2L starter from 1 bomber of Shakespeare Stout, and by yesterday it had the best attenuation I've ever had.
Plus, it's what Rogue uses for Dead Guy, which originally was a Maibock.

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I wish I had some....I tried to harvest some from a bomber of brutal bitter, but no dice. LHBS doesn't have wyeast products in stock normally.......I have a fridge full of washed nottingham, US-05 and Kolsch.....so those are kind of my options.

Maybe Ill try a bomber of shakespear stout and try to make a starter from that.

Kolsch was my backup if the Pacman didn't come through, should work well. Otherwise, I'd say US-05, fermented cool.

Wyeast 1007 German Ale would also be a good choice for a what you're aiming for. It's fairly clean and can ferment around 60-62 without a problem. In that range, your beer will have lager like qualities which is what you're aiming for if your doing a simili Maibock. It's not one of either choices you were looking into, but it's something to consider.

EDIT: Mr malty says White Labs WLP036 is equivalent to the 1007 in case you prefer WL over Wyeast.

I would say the 1007

Kolsch floccuates like crap, so keep that in mind. You'll either want to filter or find some other method of clearing your beer because cold crashing and lagering isn't going to help you enough.

I have to pour from nearly ice cold and still leave like 1oz in the bottle or else it looks like a wheat beer.

pacman!!!!

they're selling it now, no need to harvest

Why pacman for a lager? Does it have lager characteristics in the low 60s?

petep1980 said:

Kolsch floccuates like crap, so keep that in mind. You'll either want to filter or find some other method of clearing your beer because cold crashing and lagering isn't going to help you enough.

I have to pour from nearly ice cold and still leave like 1oz in the bottle or else it looks like a wheat beer.

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I have not had that problem with my Kolsch beers feremented with white labs 029. Two weeks in Primary, two weeks in secondary at around 30 degrees, 3 weeks in the bottle at 70 degrees and the chill and enjoy. Crytal clear.


I am not sure if kolsch yeast will attenuative enough for what I am trying to do here. It may come down to nottingham or pacman if I can harvest some.