House Yeast(s)

[aryoung1980]

After spending the last few years trying multiple yeast strains, I've found my three favorites.

US-05 for my American ales,

WLP-004 for my British & Irish ales, and

WLP-940 for my lagers.

I'm one of those people who builds a larger than needed starter and saves some for future use. I'm curious as to how these strains will change over time.

For those of you you keep house strains, what are your favorites? What kind of mutations, if any, have you noticed?

 

[catdaddy66]

From what I've read the harvesting that you do from the starter (which is what I do as well) keeps mutations from occurring. If you wash yeast that has been used to ferment a batch then you may experience changes in subsequent batches. By harvesting from the starter you keep the yeast in the first 'generation' where washed yeast are second generation. I also think that the protein and hop particles gleaned from washed yeast may change it's character.

 

[aryoung1980]

I've heard the same but my home is nowhere near sterile. Over time I'm guessing something gets in there.

 

[peterj]

Mutations and genetic drift occur regardless if you're harvesting from a batch or a starter. You're not keeping yeast in the first generation by making starters. Every time they reproduce they are creating another generation. They're going through the same processes whether they're in a starter (which is just a small batch of hopless beer) or in a full batch of beer. Though, if you're only harvesting from batches, you will be getting more reproduction and thus more chance for mutations.

I just started freezing yeast with glycerol and have started some house strains. Since I just started I'm not sure how many generations I can take them out and when they will start developing differences. I froze about 3 vials from the first starters I made and I'm planning on taking each one of those out to at least 7-10 generations (or until I start noticing something off), then going back to an original frozen stock tube and taking that out. I guess when I get down to my last frozen vial I'll repeat the process of freezing ~3 tubes from a starter. I'm propagating by overbuilding and harvesting from the starter as well.

I chose these yeasts because they're the ones I liked the best in their styles:
Wyeast 1318 London Ale III
WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast
WLP566 Belgian Saison II

 

[defrandj1]

To keep contamination to a minimum, light a candle near your working space. The flame from the candle will create a sterile "zone."

 

[william_shakes_beer]

To keep contamination to a minimum, light a candle near your working space. The flame from the candle will create a sterile "zone."

hmmmmm.. never heard that. Sure you aren't just being colonial? :fro:

 

[defrandj1]

I am a brewer and that's what our lab guy told me to do

 

[peterj]

To keep contamination to a minimum, light a candle near your working space. The flame from the candle will create a sterile "zone."

Voodoo!!!

Just kidding, that's a valid technique. The heated air creates an updraft that keeps dust and other floating things from settling onto what you're working with. I forgot about that. That would probably be a good thing for me to do in my dusty old basement! Thanks!

 

[bacgabe]

hmmmmm.. never heard that. Sure you aren't just being colonial? :fro:

Actually he is right. It's a common practice. The candle creates an updraft to keep dust particles, with nasties hitching a ride, from settling in your yeast samples.

 

[defrandj1]

*at a local brewery

 

[bacgabe]

Lol, peterj beat me to it by a hair

 

[Natdavis777]

My house strains are:
1) 1968 London ESB
2) 1056 American Ale

If I am making a lager, Ill use whatever lager yeast is most appropriate, but as for the majority of my beers, I stick with 1968 and 1056.

 

[william_shakes_beer]

I wasn't making fun of you, I just got this visual of Paul Revere sitting down at a rustic table with a candle in the middle of the night, looping a yeast cell.

On a serious note, I assume the candle tecnique is for those processes where you are building up colonies from small samples, say looping cells from a streaked plate. I build starters using 2 preforms of slurrey from a previous starter. I presume a relative large starter pitch like that would not benefit greatly from creating a mini environment using a candle. True?