Wyeast 1026PC

[Trail]

I'm brewing a batch of my house bitter, which I've always done with Safale S-04 with great results. This time, my LHBS's proprietor introduced me to Wyeast 1026-PC, and I subbed it in.

There is very little information about this yeast available, except for the description provided by Wyeast themselves. There's almost nothing about it from homebrewers, so I'm going to document my findings as I brew a pilot batch with the stuff.

My batch is currently bottle conditioning, but the entire fermentation has been quite unusual. Krausen was brief, and peculiarly aromatic. Large amounts of flocculation, both in the fermenter and the bottles, but clearing is slow. This isn't exactly unexpected: 1026 is a cask ale yeast, and a vast majority of the cask ale I've tasted is gloriously cloudy.

The bottles have miniature yeast rafts inside and a tiny krausen, some of which are partially sunken. It's cool to watch, but next to impossible to photograph: I'll try and get a shot outside next time it's sunny. The rafts are surprising, as the beer was only 1.037 OG and I'm carbing it to just one atmosphere in accordance with the cask style: I wouldn't expect there to be so much yeast activity in the bottle, but I "tested" a bottle and the pressure isn't excessive.

Flavor-wise, it's interesting how much the yeast affects the flavor: there's a chewy, yeasty tartness present that the S-04 didn't provide, and the flavor contribution from biscuit malt is muted. This could reverse once it finishes conditioning, though.

All in all, I'm looking forward to how this one comes out. I expect I'll be very happy that I saved the cake, as this could be the new star of the show for my low-gravity bitter pipeline.

 

[rcsoccer]

I've used this strain in a few beers over the past month and it seems to give off some diacetyl aroma/flavor. I'm pretty sure that it conditioned out after a couple of weeks in the keg, but it's a weird malty/diacetyl flavor. Also, it will clear with a bit of time. Not as fast as London ESB (1968), but it will happen eventually. I'm using a HUGE amount in a smoked porter that I made 2 days ago and there is a massive fluffy looking krauzen. It is very different to London Ale III (1318) which has a thick krauzen that lasts even at crash cooling temps.

Overall, this yeast is pretty good. I would suggest shaking the fermentor around every couple of days to get all the yeast back up into suspension. It has a tendency to flocc out very quickly as you mentioned.

Cheers!

 

[Taboot]

I used it in a Mild that I have had in the keg for about 2 weeks and it definitely dropped extremely clear. I can't speak to the attenuation, because I dropped my hydrometer, but my Mild has almost 20% specialty grains and it isn't overly sweet or dry, so I would guess that it came in about 70-75%.

I am not picking up the same flavors you are picking up and definitely not getting any diacetyl. I fermented at 68 for 7 days, let it rise to 72 for 7 days and then cold crashed and kegged.

There was also some additional information in this blog post...

http://thebeerengineblog.com/2013/07/03/boat-bitter/

 

[Trail]

I also didn't pick up any diacetyl - in fact, that's one thing I'm missing from the S-04 batches. It also didn't drop remotely clear, though I had two process issues that completely screwed me on brew day: firstly I forgot to add finings during the boil, and secondly the water pressure dropped to around a half-gallon per minute while I was running the wort chiller... it took over 40 minutes to bring it down to pitch temp. No cold break, at all.

Flavor's still good. Next batch will ferment hotter and we'll see if we can get a tiny bit of that buttery English character back.