Yeast Question on Black Butte Extract Clone

I'm brewng an extract clone of Black Butte Porter:

6 lbs. Gold LME
1lb. Light DME
.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
.5 lb. Caramel 60 L

.25 oz. Cascade 60 min.
.75 oz. Cascade 30 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 15 min.

I want to use a dry yeast if possible. The original recipe calls for Wyeast 1318 London Ale III. Which would be a better substitute, Safale S-33 Ale Yeast, Safale S-04, or Danstar Nottingham? I'm leaning towards the Nottingham or S-04. Any opinions?

samie85 said:

I'm brewng an extract clone of Black Butte Porter:

6 lbs. Gold LME
1lb. Light DME
.5 lb. Chocolate Malt
.5 lb. Caramel 60 L

.25 oz. Cascade 60 min.
.75 oz. Cascade 30 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 15 min.

I want to use a dry yeast if possible. The original recipe calls for Wyeast 1318 London Ale III. Which would be a better substitute, Safale S-33 Ale Yeast, Safale S-04, or Danstar Nottingham? I'm leaning towards the Nottingham or S-04. Any opinions?

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Taste wise...S-04. Attenuation wise, Nottingham.

If I HAD to choose, I would choose nottingham.

I'm not a fan of the flavors produced by English ale yeasts. I prefer the clean profile of American yeast. I recommend the us-05 or wlp-001 or wyeast 1056.

maida7 said:

I'm not a fan of the flavors produced by English ale yeasts. I prefer the clean profile of American yeast. I recommend the us-05 or wlp-001 or wyeast 1056.

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Except Deschutes beers use an English style yeast.

dkershner said:

Except Deschutes beers use an English style yeast.

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They don't distribute out this way. So I had no idea.

There is a while labs dry English strain WLP007 but I see you want to avoid using liquid yeast. This is a favorite strain of brew pubs because it works super fast, attenuates well and has great flocculation. I bet you could bottle that porter after 5 days if you pitched a healthy starter of this strain.

ok... this is a reformulated extract based on the "Can you Brew it" BB Recipe:

I decided to go with Safale S-33 yeast.

6 lbs. Light/Pale Malt Extract Syrup
.8 lbs. American Crystal 80L info
.8 lbs. Chocolate Malt (UK)
.8 lbs. Chocolate Malt (US)
.8 lbs. American Dextrin (Cara-Pils)
.8 lbs. Dry Wheat Extract

.25 oz. Centennial 90 min.
.75 oz. Centennial 20 min.
1 oz. Tettnang 5 min.

According to beer calc., 5.7 ABV, and 32 IBU .

What do you guys think about the Wheat DME specifically? Will it add anything similar to brewing with wheat(increased mouthfeel and head retention) as a specialty grain or should I just sub regular DME in for that?

samie85 said:

What do you guys think about the Wheat DME specifically? Will it add anything similar to brewing with wheat(increased mouthfeel and head retention) as a specialty grain or should I just sub regular DME in for that?

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Personally I would ditch the wheat DME and add some CaraFoam instead. It adds body and head retention just like CaraPils, but is a little bit sweeter.

NorCalAngler said:

Personally I would ditch the wheat DME and add some CaraFoam instead. It adds body and head retention just like CaraPils, but is a little bit sweeter.

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So should I ditch the wheat DME and Carapils? It was my understanding that Carapils and Carafoam were different brand names for the same thing. Some digging around on the internet has me very confused as some people believe they're the same and can be substituted for each other, and others feel that they are very different.

Oh I missed your CaraPils in the grain bill. I think that's all you need. CaraFoam is very similar to CaraPils. It is marketed as having some crystal malt characteristics so it tends be a bit sweeter. This is all from research though without any first hand knowledge of the difference.

These "CaraX" names are all simply trademarked names for the malted grains. Knowing how marketing works they could very well be identical, but a creative marketing department says CaraFoam is sweeter in order to differentiate itself the same way Monster Cable says its cables give a superior picture or cleaner power.

NorCalAngler said:

Oh I missed your CaraPils in the grain bill. I think that's all you need. CaraFoam is very similar to CaraPils. It is marketed as having some crystal malt characteristics so it tends be a bit sweeter. This is all from research though without any first hand knowledge of the difference.

These "CaraX" names are all simply trademarked names for the malted grains. Knowing how marketing works they could very well be identical, but a creative marketing department says CaraFoam is sweeter in order to differentiate itself the same way Monster Cable says its cables give a superior picture or cleaner power.

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Well, thanks for the clarification. I think I'm going to drop the wheat malt extract as the projected ABV without it is closer to the commercial beer anyways. Also, thanks to everyone else for their help.

I know this is an old thread but what was the volume of here, 5 gallons? What were the taste results?

JBDive said:

I know this is an old thread but what was the volume of here, 5 gallons? What were the taste results?

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Volume was 5 gallons... I was satisfied with the taste. I had a topping up error where I diluted with way too much water, but save that mistake, I think it would have been almost exactly what I was trying to brew.