What is your "Go To" yeast and why?

[Zepth]

Haven't sampled the waters a whole lot on different strains but I'll weigh in anyways.

For hoppy beers, be it bitter or flavour I'm after I'll go US-05. Recent convert.

For anything else I'm in the "Can't go wrong with Notty" camp. Generic ales, pale ales, stout, it just works. Unless specifically intended to be hoppy or need a hefe strain, Notty is where it's at.

I tend to harvest and re-use even dry yeast because I'm a cheapskate. Also I started homebrew in the hopes of saving money, and happen to have a lot of equipment to amortize

 

[Renoun]

Nottingham for ciders and Wyeast 1396 (Belgain Strong Ale) for mead. I'm sure I'll get around brewing with them both eventually.

 

[BarleyStanding]

S-04 and S-05 are my workhorses for the sake of simplicity and ease, but WLP002 and Wyeast 3711 are the ones I use when I have the time to spin up a starter.

 

[Backslide]

Wyeast 1217 and 1056

 

[Brewmex41]

Mine is Rogue Pacman.
I brew mostly dry beers, IIPAs and such, and Pacman is a beast. I've gotten well into the 80s for %attenuation. Very clean and lets the hops come through for me.
Maybe if I rub some beer in my beard I can eventually harvest some yeast and brew my own beard beer


Of course I like certain yeasts for certain brews, like the weihenstephaner weizen yeast for hefs for example.

 

[user 141939]

Notty is actually pretty forgiving of higher temps... it's the lower temps it doesn't like. That said, I always have 05 on hand as well.

This is the opposite of what I usually read about notty


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[Devin]

I still have many to try and I do experiment, but my favorite "standby" so far is WLP007 - hands down. I always have Safale-05 on hand also. But, the WLP007 is very aggressive, and always seems to drop fast. Good stuff.

 

[Zepth]

Notty is actually pretty forgiving of higher temps... it's the lower temps it doesn't like. That said, I always have 05 on hand as well.

This is the opposite of what I usually read about notty


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I heard that it is quite clean and crisp at "the higher end of lager range" being around 60F if memory serves. I've used Notty to make some quite good beer with 73 ambient without a ferm chamber. Not that such is an ideal scenario but merely playing the cards I'm dealt.

 

[ICWiener]

WLP001 and 1056 for hoppy beers or anything that needs the yeast to get out of the way.
WLP Saison II for saisons.
3787 for tripels/dark strongs/golden strongs.
Lalvin 1116 for cider.
Haven't settled on one for English beers. I'm all over the map on those.

 

[user 141939]

I heard that it is quite clean and crisp at "the higher end of lager range" being around 60F if memory serves. I've used Notty to make some quite good beer with 73 ambient without a ferm chamber. Not that such is an ideal scenario but merely playing the cards I'm dealt.

I think I've just read that at higher temps it makes nasty apricot flavors. I have no experience with that myself. I've always fermented it low 60's just because of what I've read.

 

[Shred]

The ambient temps in my ferm chamber are almost always between 64-68. The chamber holds 5 fermenters so at times I'm doing a D-rest at 68 while another brew might still be in active fermentation. Given, it's not 75-80, but with the exothermic activity, I'm likely at 70 or better in those active brews and I've had no bad marks from judges for stressed yeast.

 

[govner1]

Depends on the beer- 1056, 1217, 1028, 1098

1056 is always reliable. In a jam maybe S-05 or 04.
For Saisons 3711 or Belle Saison


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[thegreatmaibockaddict]

I am no master of WPL numbers, as I refer to all White Labs yeasties by name,,,

Ales I go to the English Ale yeast. Flocculates well, tolerates just enough alcohol, and has a rather pleasant fruity character.

For lagers, it begins and ends with the German Bock Yeast, which is supposedly Ayinger yeast. Very forgiving strain with few off notes below 58 F, and has enough tolerance to go to 9%

 

[fbold1]

US-05, 34/70 for dry yeasts. For liquid yeasts it varies, but those dry yeasts are definitely my go-to's. 34/70 is just an awesome yeast with a wide temperature range and ferments clean. Love that stuff. US-05, I've kind of been disappointed with. It's okay, but not the greatest. I keep some on hand all the time just in case or for the random/spontaneous brew day.

Another vote for Saflager 34/70, well balanced and clean flavor, it is my favorite to use in the cooler months. It is a strain of the Weihenstephan from Germany. Speaking of Weihenstephan, if you have never tried Wyeast 3068, get the blowoff hose ready!

 

[jbsg02]

WLP002 for me. That yeast plus temp control is like having a flavor/aroma dial for your beer.

Low mash temp plus a ferment in the low 60s gives a well attenuated, "clean" beer with just a little yeast derived character I don't get from 001.

Fermenting at 64-65 gives a nice nutty malty flavor to Brit ales but still keeps the esters restrained.

66-69 gives a nose and mouthful of British character.

I have a mild in the fermenter right now with 002. I started at 65. Kicked to 66 at 12 hrs, then went to 67 this morning, about 36 hours in.

My plan is to use those flavors and esters to add some depth to the beer's relatively small gravity (1.039 OG).


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I'm also a fan of this strain, I usually get Wyeast's smack pack (1968). I was surprised of how clean this yeast can really be and leaves a great malt backbone to beers like pale ales.

I brewed a ESB/Pale Ale hybrid last year with it and after a month or two of cold conditioning in the keg I could have passed it off as a lager.

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

My go to is US-05; reliable, cheap and easy. Also, for me using dry eliminates a variable in my brew process.

I was surprised to see so many using 1469 West Yorkshire Ale as a go to. I don't see it mentioned much on discussion boards. I used it in Norther Brewer's Innkeeper recipe and it was great. I have a big starter going right now (second step up) - going to pitch 2/3 in a batch of Innkeeper this weekend and keep 1/3 to step up and use later.

 

[serum]

I love Blond beer and Saisons and I tend to go with Wyeast 3522 / WLP550 for Blonds and 3711 for Saison. Both are very reliable and get the job done quickly. There are loads more I want to try though.

 

[wobdee]

I like Wyeast 2124, good all around lager yeast and it also has a higher ferm temp range up to 68 degrees so it can be used for ales as well.

 

[chewse]

I'm a dry yeast guy (because I'm lazy). US-05 is/was my go to yeast. However, I used Danstar's American West Coast Yeast for a hoppy pale ale and it turned out so much better than other pale ales I've brewed using US-05 and I'll probably use the BRY-97 on all my hoppy ale going forward. For my standard stouts/porters/scottish ale, I use Mangrove Jack's Newcastle Dark. It's been good to me except in once instance with a coffee stout I brewed.

 

[bobeer]

sa05 for all my hoppy beers. For some darker beers I'll use sa04 but I'm starting to use Irish ale yeast too. I'm also experimenting with gigayeast vermont ipa yeast for ipa's.

I used to just use sa05 for pretty much everything because I love hoppy american beers. If it was a stout I'd mash a little higher to get a sweeter/thicker beer or use the sa04. I'm starting to branch out more with yeasts and experiment and see what different profiles other stains will give me.

 

[Zepth]

Just had notty fail to clear easily the second time. 2 weeks in the keezer didn't crash it (though 8c, little warmer than most fridge). Added gelatin yesterday which I shouldn't have to. About to give it the middle finger and use US-05 in its place. Have yet to have a problem there. Stay tuned for not-so-exciting updates!