WLP002 for High Grav Brown Ale

Hey everyone.

I am piecing together a recipe for a pretty large (8% ABV) brown ale. I am aiming for all the malts you regularly looks for with a good helping of nut flavor. I have the recipe close to done, but I need to pick the all important yeast.

I didn't see much in the way of brown ale specific yeasts, but I did find White Labs 002, WLP002 English Ale Yeast.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp002.html

There are really good reviews on this yeast for brown ales but there are comments about how it can heavily mask hops. Any experience one way or another?

Would this work for what I want to do? Even if I want to put up an IBU of 38 or so? I can include the recipe if that would help.


Thank you in advance

I think this yeast would work fine for that gravity. However, it depends on the style of brown ale your shooting for. When I do english browns, I almost always use english yeast, including this strain. My english browns that I've used this yeast for came out very nice. High hopped, high gravity browns..AKA: american brown; I'd simply go with safale 05. Hope that helps.

WLP002 is a great yeast for all English beers and other too.

I have noticed the WLP002 tends to leave a higher FG compared to something like Wyeast American Ale II 1272. If you are looking to have your brown big/malty/nutty, I imagine this slightly higher FG would be desired right?

I've had it attenuate over 70%. The advertised high end is 70%. I mashed low. Not on purpose, but because I had something come up when mashing.

I've made a 6% brown with it when I squeezed 2 more percentage points of attenuation at 72%. It finished at 1.018 with a SG of 1.066. I kept the yeast in suspension as much as possible the first few days by rousing the fermenter.

I'd plan your recipe for no more than 70% attenuation with WLP002. My guess is that you'll end up with a very sweet beer with a an FG in the mid-20's if you plan to do an 8% beer with it. It does accentuate sweetness, but I wouldn't say it masks hops though.

It really depends on what you're looking for out of the final product.

The lower than average attenuation won't contribute to a dry, clean finished beer. If that's what you're looking for, you might want to look further yeastwise. Otherwise, a recipe change? Look to belgian brewing to look for the technique for dry, high gravity beers.

I don't brew high gravity beers, mind you; but, have looked into adjunct brewing as many British brewers (I'm a massive fan of British ales) use adjuncts.

according to my calculator, using WLP002 will give me
OG-1.080
FG-1.026
7.2% ABV
38.8 IBU (I know IBUs shouldn't really change, but I thought I would give it for flavor profile)

Now, if I use Wyeast American Ale II (1272) I would get
OG 1.080
FG 1.020
8.0% ABV

I am looking for some kind of balance here. I am not looking for it to be overly sweet, but retain that malty quality.
Then again if I was worried about the high gravity, I could always go with the Wyeast Trappist High Gravity yeast.

I haven't used the wyeast strain you mention. The IBU percentage to SG on my "normal gravity" brown is roughly the same as yours. But I think you end up with a sweet beer using wlp002. Try it maybe you'll like it. I personally don't like beers I've had that finish that high.

On a side note. I really like wlp002 in a brown ale. If you haven't used it I'd try it in a "normal gravity" brown first. White labs has another strain wlp005 I've heard talked about as being similar to wlp002 (haven't used it myself), but has a better attenuation. It might be worth a try and would give roughly the same attenuation as the 1272. Just to be clear I haven't used it myself.

I have experimented quite a bit with British Ales, and especially Strong or Old Ales - which is really a high gravity Brown Ale in my opinion.

For me Strong Ales that are 7.5% or higher, I have had the best luck with S-04. I am a huge liquid yeast fan and have a stock pile of various washed types in the fridge. That said, the S-04 really works well in those higher gravity brews. It cleans up very nicely, leaves a really nice sediment cake, and, lets the malts and hops balance well.

Another thing that is nice is that you can save a little money since you need about 2 packs per 5 gallon batch.

Just my two cents, but after using Wyeast British Ale, London Ale, and 1056 for my favorite strong ale recipe, the two batches that were made with S-04 turned out the best. Both beers were 1.074 for SG.

Cheers!