Yeast affects flavor?

First I want to say this is an awesome forum. I have yet to brew my first batch. Emphasis on yet. I am reading Mr Charles Papazian's book-The Complete Joy of Homebrewing, Dave Millers Homebrewing Guide and trolling/reading this forum like mad and just learning everything I can before I light the first fire. Got interested last year but five kids, college and a new job kind of slow any progress at anything remotely considered a hobby or "me" time.

My question is this. Two batches of equal style/contents, one using an ale yeast and one a lager yeast, what kind of flavor difference can you expect? I understand yeast does make a difference, but how much does it affect flavor?


Side note:
Charles Papazians book ROCKS!! So simple to read and easy for a complete homebrew virgin. Stark contrast to Dave Millers book. Dave's book is full of info but kind of rough for a newb to stay interested because it is a little bit "above" what a newb would understand.

Depends on what strain of yeast used in each. Even between ale yeasts, all things being equal, you can come out with 2 different tasting beers

Oh yeah, wait til you play with different yeasts, and with the same yeast at different fermentation temps....ypu will find out just how amazing our little friends really are, and how much they actually contribute to flavoring the beer...

When most of us start out with kits, or with basic recipes, we usually use neutral or clean ale or lager yeasts...they contibute very little...they ferment the beer but let the grain and hops sign through...when you start playing with different yeasts, or pushing the limits of the yeast, you find this whole dynamic range of flavors....kinda like the the sauce on the icecream sunday.

One thing to consider doing is to brew what we call a SMASH...a single malt and hop beer.....and pitch different yeasts....and compare the flavors...

you could take a five gallon batch, split it into 1 gallon jugs and pitch 5 different yeasts...even 5 different dry yeasts....Us-05, Us-04, Nottingham, windsor, and saflager (stick that gallon jug in the fridge since it is a lager yeast)...and compare all five beers...

If you are an extract brewer and not an all grain, could STILL do a smash....get yourself 5 or 6 pounds of extra light dme, and some of your favorite hops (and calculate the numbers for a balanced beer) and have fun.

Yeast has a huge affect on flavor. The best way to get to know the different flavors is to experiment.

All other things being equal, a beer that is fermented with Wyeast 1056 - American Ale will have a clean profile, while the same exact beer fermented with Wyeast 3724 - Saison will taste COMPLETELY different.

It also a good idea to read up on some product information from the major yeast vendors. You can find all of this information on their websites. Pay attention to temperature ranges as well.

amazing is right. yeast contributes a ton of flavor to many, many beers. i was shocked to find out that yeast is the major player in flavors in hefeweizen, belgian wit, other belgian styles, and a lot of ales. the difference you will see in the ale and lager comes with temps. lagers are fermented much lower, thereby decreasing the flavor production from the yeast. but they are different species too, so that has a lot to do with it.

if you are in to reading, i would highly recommend randy mosher's "Tasting Beer", it has a ton of good info on tastes and where they come from.

How to Brew - By John Palmer - Introduction

Here is a link to the online version of John Palmers book "How to Brew". It is a very good resource and widely used and referred to around these forums. Why pay for the cow when you can get the milk for free

What Revvy said...I'm too lazy to add anything constructive this morning...

Me too. And I know I've read this somewhere: "Always, always, listen to Revvy!"

Absolutely it matters.


Friendly advice: Stay away from lager yeast for right now. Temperature control is more important and you also need to ensure that you get the beer as clear as possible, because S. uvarum tastes real funky in suspension. Kindof a sour gym sock flavor. The beer tastes great once the yeast drops out, but to do that you generally need at least a reasonable lagering period.

None of that should matter for a first time, really, except that it makes it difficult to bottle-condition with lager yeast. Since you'll likely be bottle-conditioning your first few batches, lager yeast is going to give you a little more difficulty than you might want to deal with.

Incidentally, the easy way around it is to finish the beer, let it drop clear and then use a different yeast for bottling.


Charlie is a great homebrewer and leader and his words won't steer you wrong. There's a lot more to learn, if/when you choose to do so, but I can't think of a better introduction.


I think the information you're looking for, though, is a recommendation to select your yeast to fit the style of beer you're brewing. Use either liquid or dry yeast and just be sure to check out the directions both on the packaging and what you know from reading.

Most kits you buy contain a dry yeast that doesn't affect the flavor of the beer too much. If you're OK with that for a first batch, then by all means go for it. If you find that you want to add more flavor to your beers, yeast is a great place to start.

Good luck!

A tip: yeast, as indicated above, are temperature sensitive. Find out what the temp of your 'fermentation room' is! I have a pretty simple electronic oregon scientific thermometer which displays date time & indoor & outdoor temps using a wireless unit for the outdoor. I can take that downstairs to my furnace room, I mean my fermentation room, and track the max & min temps of a daily cycle using the memory function. Or, I go down there to visit the beer a couple times daily, and I check my brewing thermometer (big floating mercury type) a couple times during the day to see how much it moves. It's about 64f steady these days. Wintertime it dipped into the upper 50's and into the lower 60's when the furnace fired.

Armed with this data you can pick a YEAST that matches your fermentation room temps. Please note that fermentation of the beer seems to be exothermic (a little warmer, about 5f+ than your ambient temp). You can find the yeast lists here on HBT's wiki link @ the top of the page. Read thru that till you think you might have a good temp match, and then find a beer style & recipe that goes with that yeast, mind your sanitation processes on boil day & bottle day, and you should be successful!

I guess the one other thing to mind is your gravity. With most beers, you might begin with a basic schedule (plan) of ~2 weeks in primary, ~2 weeks in secondary, ~2 weeks in the bottle and try it. But check the gravity right before you pitch on your boil day, again at each juncture above so you know. Higher gravity recipes need more time and Hefeweizen - Weissbier needs only ~10 days in fermentation and just a few days to carbonate in the bottle and it's fully ready. But in any case, you can't rush your gravity, don't get jumpy.

I just did my first wheat beer. An extract with some specialty grains. I was told that with the hefe yeast i was using, that different temps would give me different flavors. They said, lower temps for fermentation, around 62 degrees would give me a banana smell and taste to my beer. Higher temps, low 70's, would impart clove, spice flavors. This was my first time experimenting with yeast. For the first week I fermented at 62. The beer smelled of banana and tasted like banana as well. It was awesome!!! The next week i put the fermenter in a place that was hotter. Prolly around 69-70 degrees. A week later, I have a cinnamon banana flavored beer. It's awesome. Try varying your temps to get some really neat resulting flavors. The taste is very perceptible.

Yeast can make a huge different. Not always in a good way. Certain yeasts at the wrong temp. can make a really nasty beer. I had a beer come out tasting like bubble gum and not in a good way. Please heed this advice: if you can't control your temperature, choose your yeast wisely. Cooper's ale yeast is cheap and it will forgive you if your house gets too hot (within reason). I would strongly recommend using a yeast strain like that for your first few batches, that way you can test your cooling methods. Once you can keep your fermentation temps under control, then go out and spend some extra money on specialty yeast.

It's harder to control the temperature then you may think. Yeast generates heat during fermentation. So if you pick a yeast that works best under 70, and your house is 70F, your fermentation will be several degrees hotter.

Foolproof way to keep your fermentation temperatures lower:

Get a big Rubbermade storage container, fill it with water, put your fermenter and some frozen water bottles in the water. Change the bottles at some regular interval. I change mine out twice per day.

It's simple and it works. For a little amount of effort, your beer will turn out much better.