White Labs Yeast Vault

I pitched a starter of 611 into 5 gallons 8pm last night, when I woke up at 6am it was chugging along aggressively.

Also took a gallon of that wort and pitched Lochristi Brett Blend from TYB.

I'm very tempted to blend these two in secondary to see what the Brett does with these esters.

Really hoping the Saison blend gets released before it's 100º here.

Leipzig said:

The wheat I brewed with 611 and fermented @ 62 degrees had a lot of banana.
I'm about to keg my 611 Weizenbock which i fermented at 70... and it has less banana character, definitely a bit of apple tartness.

What temp did you ferment at?

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I fermented it at room temp which was between 70 and 74 if memory serves me right. I am going to try my first bottle this weekend. I will report back.

My Hefeweizen I did with the Nordic blend took silver in two competitions. Looking forward to getting my score sheets.

I'm using one of my Hansen blends this coming weekend and am making a big starter this week just in case the vials lost lots of viability due to it shipping warm. I think they'll be ok.

After listening to the Peter Symons interview recently I put in an order for the Melbourne Ale Yeast. I'll probably just make the Tooth's recipe that he linked.

Only 38 more orders for the saison blend. Come onnnn everyone! I've got some Logsdon dregs I've been meaning to split batch with another saison wort. Summer is on its way!

Well, I guess my fears of the warm shipped Hansen yeast were not needed. Made a 2.5 liter starter at 9 last night and by morning, it's in full bloom. I knew it didn't get HOT but you never know how warm it got and since they waited until late April to ship, it was already warm the NOLA area. I don't buy yeast online except for Dec-Feb as I can't trust it surviving.

Goal reached on the saison blend!

Psyched! I plan to do 10 gallons of saison wort and split it between the Logsdon dregs and this saison blend.

Looks like they fermented their tasting room batches at 65-68 degrees with this blend. Not sure if that's just the pitching temp or the temperature during the entire fermentation. I figure I'll pitch at 65 then let it rise into the low to mid 70's. Everyone make sure to report back with tasting notes!

My NEPA with WLP 075 Hansen Blend was in primary for 9 days, 64F pitch, bumped 1F after day 3 to 68F and held it. 1.063 to 1.010. This beer is terrific, nice tropical fruity aroma. This blend left some nice mouthfeel and more characterful then 001 alone. I plan to keep this yeast around for a few more batches.

I am kegging a Session IPA tomorrow with WLP075 as well, 20% Flaked Oats and 10% flaked Rye, Azacca, Citra, and Nelson. OG of 1.040 hoping to finish at 1.010 which will be around 4%.

khillian said:

My NEPA with WLP 075 Hansen Blend was in primary for 9 days, 64F pitch, bumped 1F after day 3 to 68F and held it. 1.063 to 1.010. This beer is terrific, nice tropical fruity aroma. This blend left some nice mouthfeel and more characterful then 001 alone. I plan to keep this yeast around for a few more batches.

I am kegging a Session IPA tomorrow with WLP075 as well, 20% Flaked Oats and 10% flaked Rye, Azacca, Citra, and Nelson. OG of 1.040 hoping to finish at 1.010 which will be around 4%.

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Very glad to hear this. I'm redoing my black IPA with this yeast to see how it differs from 001 and looking forward to it. What you describe was what I was hoping I'd see with this yeast and I have a few more brews planned using it to accentuate the hops and balance the malt.

As a follow up, the Black IPA is kegged and though its still carbing, I did try a bit and I definitely notice a nice, mouthfeel. I can't say that the hops shine in this yet but should know more when it's carbed.
I do like the balance of flavor the Hansen yeast brought out.
I think I'm going to use some in a RyePA and see how that plays out.

If anyone else has used the WLP075 and has opinions, I'd like to hear them.

I just made a starter with my WLP075 and it took off fast making a big foamy krausen. I was surprised how fast it settled too, pretty clear after 8 hours so I did not need to crash it. What was sort of weird was when I took a whiff of the starter I got a sort of nutty aroma which I have never noticed from other yeasts before. Anyone else get a nutty aroma from this yeast?

I am using the yeast in an equinox blonde.

WLP 611- New Nordic blend, I brewed up an American Wheat and that was okay, not anything I plan on brewing again.
I washed that and used it for a gallon of second runnings of an IPA. Don't like it at all. Has a weird estery flavor that I just can not get past.
I just dumped what I had left over. My wife said the yeast bottles are starting to take over the fridge. She allowed 1 shelf.

Just now drinking my Vienna/NB SMaSH pale with wlp075. Went four weeks in primary and dropped crystal clear on its own. Fermented in the upper 60's mostly, pushing it up to 72 for the last two weeks.

I used part of the cake for an all nugget IPA fermenting right now. Very small krausen that is starting to drop after 7 days in primary.

My WLP611 Nordic is having its high amount of esters get munched on by the Lochristi Brettanomyces Blend right now, with some Gooseberries in the mix.

Haven't tasted it's progress, depending on the resulting beer I may bottle straight up or use to blend in a few sours I got going.

I still need to get around to using my Hansen.

I just brewed a standard hefeweizen with my vial of 611 this past Sunday. The starter was maintained around 68F and the batch is currently temp controlled to ferment at about the same. The starter smelled gloriously banana-like, but different from what I'm used to from the classic franziskaner or weihenstephaner hefes. I would say it smells more ripe, like a banana with a few brown spots.

The grain bill was 60/40 Red Wheat/Belgian Pils but I got low efficiency with the wheat (I should have double-crushed it, that usually helps) so the real ratio is probably more like 50/50. Fortunately I targeted 5.5% ABV because I'm likely to finish at a more traditional hefe ABV of 5%. I also ran out of pils and subbed in 12oz of munich to make up the difference. Hops are hallertaur. mashed at 152. 60 minute boil (meh with 4LB of pils who's afraid of DMS?). Fermenter had krausen within 24hrs. Everything seems to be going smoothly.

My DIY kegerator died a week ago so this one's going in 22oz bottles. Should be cracking one in about 5 weeks.

Of the beers i've brewered with 611, the Weissbier was the best. Excellent banana ester.
The Weizenbock I brewewed turned out a bit odd.... the yeast definitely didn't throw off the same banana as the Weiss, despite being fermented in the same temp range. With both beers I noticed a slight souring (not in a bad way) over time, as I left them sitting kegged @ 45 degrees in my chest freezer... which makes me wonder if one of the 3 strains wasn't still slowly slowly chugging along at the lower temps. Every beer i've brewed has changed with time, but not like this.

On Monday, after sitting in primary for 6 months, I Kegged half and bottled half of my 10% Baltic Porter (Arctic Crude). I ended up with an FG of 1.025. I'm going to let it condition for another 4 or so months and start to dig in once the weather turns cold. First impressions: Incredible. I added roasted beets to the boil which has given the beer a velvety texture and earthy soil flavor.

These weekend I'm going to brew a festbier with the German Lager X I received several months ago.

In case anyone hasn't noticed, the early releases from the vault are back up for vote.

Got a shipment notification email today for the WLP564 Leewenhoek Saison Blend. Anyone have plans to brew with this yet? I'm thinking keeping it simple...80/20 Pils/Wheat, 1.045ish, Hallertau to 15-20 IBUs. Split 10 gallon batch between this and Logdson dregs

My wlp564 came in the mail today. It's quite warm, but I'm getting a starter going for it right now. I was able to catch the mailman just as he arrived.

564 went into a pils/strisselspalt SMaSH yesterday. Small, fluffy krausen and happily fermenting at 66º. I'll be ramping this up into the high 70's by the end of fermentation.

Festbier with an OG of 1.061 is fermenting nicely at 50 degrees with WLP835. Considering the yeast was several months old I made two separate starters and pitched them both @ 46 degrees before ramping up the temp to 50. Hoping for an FG opf 1.015-1.016. Really excited for this one.

I'm brewing with the wlp564 tomorrow. Made a starter last night, it was already showing active krausen at less than 12 hours. The plan is 76% Avangard Pils, 14% Wheat, 10% Vienna. 1.055ish OG, noble and noblish hops to around 20 IBU (Sterling, Tettnang, Saaz, maybe some Hallertau).

The starter has a strong spicy character I typically associate with saison. Maybe slightly earthy...unless I'm getting that confused with partially-fermented wort.

I'm a little depressed I only found out about these vaulted yeasts today from a zymurgy ad. Just pre ordered 3 of them though and now I have to wait...

Leipzig said:

Festbier with an OG of 1.061 is fermenting nicely at 50 degrees with WLP835. Considering the yeast was several months old I made two separate starters and pitched them both @ 46 degrees before ramping up the temp to 50. Hoping for an FG opf 1.015-1.016. Really excited for this one.

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I did a split batch of the 835 with some 860 I've been keeping alive (actually just made another split batch last week that should be ready in a few weeks). I found the 835 to be a bit cleaner and drier than the 860, so in my mind it was more geared to a German Pils or a Festbier than the 860 (since in a Festbier you'd be getting a portion of your body from the higher final gravity). If I ever have time again (starting business school in 2 weeks), I may try to brew a split batch of Festbier with the two.

gometz said:

I did a split batch of the 835 with some 860 I've been keeping alive (actually just made another split batch last week that should be ready in a few weeks). I found the 835 to be a bit cleaner and drier than the 860, so in my mind it was more geared to a German Pils or a Festbier than the 860 (since in a Festbier you'd be getting a portion of your body from the higher final gravity). If I ever have time again (starting business school in 2 weeks), I may try to brew a split batch of Festbier with the two.

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A week and a half later, the festbier is still slowly slowly fermenting. It started our strong about 18 hours after pitching. In these last few days I've raise the chest freezer temp from 49 to 51 degrees. Saturday I plan to raise it to 56 for a D-rest. Looking forward to taking a sample at the end of the week prior to lagering.

Your summation of the yeast sounds promising. I am hoping for a cleaner (sharper) festbier. It's a helles festbier, around 5.6 SRM.

Leipzig said:

A week and a half later, the festbier is still slowly slowly fermenting. It started our strong about 18 hours after pitching. In these last few days I've raise the chest freezer temp from 49 to 51 degrees. Saturday I plan to raise it to 56 for a D-rest. Looking forward to taking a sample at the end of the week prior to lagering.

Your summation of the yeast sounds promising. I am hoping for a cleaner (sharper) festbier. It's a helles festbier, around 5.6 SRM.

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I prefer the modern Festbiers to the Oktoberfest style you often get in American myself, so I think I am going to copy you sometime next year. Did you use only Pilsner malt, or did you use a little Munich in it as well?

FYI, for fermentation I have been using the quick lager method and it came out really well (48-50 for 5 days, ramp up to 65 over 3 days, hold for 5-7 days, the crash to 35 over 3 days, lager for 10-21 days).

I was just looking at my planned brew list and realized I will now need to make 2 lagers to keep both the strains going (I over build my starters and harvest from there). But a Festbier is a bit too light for the timeline it would be done in. So I think I am going to try a Schwarzbier with the 835 and a smoked Dunkel with oak with the 860. I did a Schwarzbier with the 860 last year, and it came out more like an American Black Lager, not as clean and dry as Koestritzer, so I'd like to see how 835 does. If 835 can do Schwarzbier and Pilsner, then I've got my two house lager yeasts.

gometz said:

So I think I am going to try a Schwarzbier with the 835 and a smoked Dunkel with oak with the 860. I did a Schwarzbier with the 860 last year, and it came out more like an American Black Lager, not as clean and dry as Koestritzer, so I'd like to see how 835 does. If 835 can do Schwarzbier and Pilsner, then I've got my two house lager yeasts.

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I still have yet to try my festbier with 835 (maybe tonight)... but the "clean & dry" flavor you mentioned in a previous post should definitely work well with a Köstritzer clone (my favorite Schwarzbier). Too many Schwarzbier these days are heavy with roasted malts and body... I prefer the crisp east German variety.

Ordered my wlp925 high pressure lager yeast to try. Now I just need someone to order 180 more so I can get it.

Damn. Still 180 more orders needed.

I just recently made a simple saison using WLP 564 (2 vials into a 2L starter due to age of vials at this point) with Jarrylo hop hash, some Belgian pilsen, a touch of wheat malt, and a pound of sugar. Got from 1.071 to 1.008 (about 89% attenuation) in about 12 days. Started fermentation at 60F and let it free rise to 78F where it held naturally until the last couple days when it dropped to about 76F. Monitoring gravities, I'd say day 2 or 3 was a bit stronger but overall very steady until the end of things. After 3 days of no gravity change and yeast dropping out heavily at about 76F, chilled everything to about 34F for 2-3 days. Yeast dropped out pretty well, not clear, but one could blame the wheat.

I have things carbing up in the keggerator now, samples have a nice light spice and fruit character. Jarrylo pear note is in there and quite nice with the yeast character. Overall, a pretty nice yeast to work with.

Just placed an order for the New Nordic Blend!

shanecb said:

Just placed an order for the New Nordic Blend!

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Yeah, i need to re-up on 611. Originally purchased 3 vials that went to good use. It makes an incredible weissbier. Across my beers the fermentation temps ranged from 56 - 70 degrees. Next time i get my hand on it, i'm going to try a saison or grissette fermented hot (80+)

Anyone else get any sulfur from 564? I did a split batch pils/strisselspalt SMaSH and the Chimay portion is at 1.005 and tastes great. The 564 portion is at 1.002 and tastes spicy, earthy, and a little fruity but has sulfur in the nose. I was going to bottle today but it looks like I'm gonna let it age a little longer.

I brewed an (1.095 OG) IPA last Wednesday with WLP075 Hansen Ale Blend. Pitched a 2 liter starter @ 67 degrees and let it rise to 69 over the next 24 hours. This weekend I was out of town and the AC unit went out. Upon returning Sunday afternoon, the fermentation room was 90 degrees....

Here's hoping the bulk of fermentation was complete in the first 4 days prior to the substantial heat increase. I've got the room cooled down again and plan to let the beer go another week at 69 degrees.

I was a little worried when I received my 3 vials of WLP 564 (in one envelope) although I paid $3 shipping for each vial and the vials were pretty warm when I opened the package.

However, I made saison on 8/13 and just to test it, I did not make a starter I just pitched the the vial into the wort at around 69-70 degrees. It was fermenting very strong the next morning. I like to ferment saison's at higher temps to get the spiciness from the yeast and White Labs just replied to an email I sent them saying this yeast can go up to 90 degrees. Might have to try a higher temp saison with one of the other vials.

Bottled my 564 Pils/Strisselspalt SMaSH. Finished at 1.002 and the sulfur I mentioned a few posts ago dissipated. I fermented at 70 and let it get up to 80º during the height of primary. Pitched the slurry into 9 gallons of Rye Saison (75% pils, 25% rye malt) with some Sonnet Goldings late in the boil and it's bubbling away nicely. I have this in two fermentors and one is in a water bath around 72º while the other is fermenting at room temp (75º for Nashville summers).

mxstar21 said:

I was a little worried when I received my 3 vials of WLP 564 (in one envelope) although I paid $3 shipping for each vial and the vials were pretty warm when I opened the package.

However, I made saison on 8/13 and just to test it, I did not make a starter I just pitched the the vial into the wort at around 69-70 degrees. It was fermenting very strong the next morning. I like to ferment saison's at higher temps to get the spiciness from the yeast and White Labs just replied to an email I sent them saying this yeast can go up to 90 degrees. Might have to try a higher temp saison with one of the other vials.

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I made a saison yesterday and pitched the yeast after reading this. Wort was about 70 degrees. Last night it was upto 77 and this am upto 79, so I am going hotter then I have before with any yeast and this thing is chugging away so fast!! Cant wait to taste it!!! SG was 1.070, I am making a Autumn saison!! t smells amazing as well!!!