WLP037 Yorkshire Square... hmm

I'd really like to hear about others' experience with this strain. I used if in a Mild and am not a fan... but it's only been a month.

Did you use a lid on your fermenter?. I'd be inclined to leave it completely off with a yeast like that. What didn't you like about it??

I fermented in a carboy with foil over the top. There's just something about the flavor... I'm having a tough time coming up with words to describe it.

I've used it a couple of times on a simple bitter (OG 1040).

It seemed to ferment for a long time and attenuated down to 1007 on one batch. I thought it would flocculate out really quickly but that didn't happen and it remained in suspension for what seemed like a long time, at least compared with the other UK yeasts I've used (WLP002-London, WLP006-Bedford, Edinburgh).

Also wasn't too keen on the flavour, for want of a better description had something of a belgian character to it that I didn't care for. This eventually mellowed out and there was quite a good flavor underneath that. May try it again but think I would need a long time conditioning to mellow and clear. Certainly not what I expected and I'm hesitant to use again, although i do have it slanted and may try again.

This is almost EXACTLY my experience! Here's to hoping it mellows out over the next week.

Brulosopher said:

This is almost EXACTLY my experience! Here's to hoping it mellows out over the next week.

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I just fermented a batch of Oatmeal Stout with it, and have to agree.

I split a 15 gallon batch. 10 gallons with Irish Ale yeast and 5 with Yorkshire. Immediately after high krausen, the Yorkshire portion was amazing. Much maltier, a hint of sweetness, and nice roasted tones. The Irish Ale portion was dryer, and just lacked the complexity. A week later, though, the Irish Ale had developed all of that complexity while the Yorkshire was tasting like a wheat beer. There were definite banana/clove flavors.

It's been 2 weeks since and the Yorkshire still hasn't cleaned up the way I want. I suspect that longer term aging will improve it tremendously, but the Irish Ale portion is already an amazing beer.

Hmph.

I have the same experience. But, this yeast is not meant for quick turn around. It is for beers that will be aged. Also, Samuel Smiths(supposedly this is their strain) open ferments in a Yorkshire square where they consistently rouse the yeast by pumping from bottom to top. It will work without pumping like they do, but you will need to continuously swirl or stir to keep it going. Otherwise it will take forever. Mine finished in a week open fermenting, but I had to constantly stir it at least once a day.

@jalmeida, did you feel the extra work was worth it? i.e., did you get flavors from Yorkshire that were better for the beer you were brewing than you would have with another strain?

It was the allusion that this is Sam Smith's strain that made me want to use it. The only reason I split my batch was that the LHBS only had one vial of Yorkshire. Now I'm glad they did, because I love the results with the Irish Ale yeast and am disappointed in the Yorkshire.

If you think the Yorkshire is worthy of another chance, I'm game. I'll have to set up on open fermenter/bucket. I haven't fermented open in... decades. lol

Still to be determined. It is a porter so I am letting it age a while.

I just use an 8 gallon bucket fermenter. I don't like dealing with car boys.

I tried this yeast too, and thought it sucked. Odd flavors, odd aroma, excessive attenuation, weird mouthfeel.

This is not really what I wanted to hear about this years

I just made a Bitter with it and now I am wondering if I will have the same issues.

Brew-boy said:

I just made a Bitter with it and now I am wondering if I will have the same issues.

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let us know, I am curious about others experiences. I fermented on the cooler side for this yeast 65. at least I think that is the lower of it's range.

humann_brewing said:

let us know, I am curious about others experiences. I fermented on the cooler side for this yeast 65. at least I think that is the lower of it's range.

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It's over 2 months since I pitched this yeast, and I'm still not liking it. The banana/clove flavors have finally weakened a bit, but they're still prominent, and the flavor of the roasted malt has all but disappeared.

Like you, I fermented at 65 F. The temperature probe was taped to the side of the fermenter.

I don't think I'll use this yeast again, at least not until I hear some better stories of success and how to achieve it...

I've used it for a few beers recently. The first was a dark mild. It turned out very much like a low-alcohol nut brown. I fermented at 67. The mild had a unique aroma. I do get malt from it, and I get a nutty aroma. Then it was younger, I also got a distinct Bugles aroma. Not just corn, but those old Bugles corn chip things. In the following few weeks it's faded to a very faint sulfury aroma.

I also made an English IPA with it. The Bugles thing is gone, but it's also got a much more pronounced hop presence, which may be covering that up.

Both the IPA and the mild got over 80% apparent attenuation.

Finally, I have a coconut porter going that's going to be put on the coconut some time this week. I haven't tasted or measured it, yet.

Quick update. I racked my coconut porter to the keg this weekend. The apparent attenuation was 83%. So, on three pitches of the same vial of yeast I got WAY over the expected attenuation. I'm dissapointed. My beers have all been too thin and too alcoholic. I probably won't be using this strain again.

I've had the same. I've got 5 gallons of ordinary bitter which has been formenting for17 days and it's still going. It's down to 1.008 which gives an attenuation of 83% so far. It's got a strong banana aroma and weird taste which is very unpleasant. I definately won't be using it again.

I am thinking there must be something wrong with it. It's nothing like any Yorkshire beer I've ever tasted and I've drunk a lot. It tastes like it's mutated into a German hefeweizen yeast.

Can you guys post your fermentation temps? are you controlling temps?

I don't have hefe flavors. The flavors are more or less pleasant, but I wasn't planning on the level of attenuation I experienced. On all three beers I made with this, I fermented at 65 to 68 deg. F. in a controlled chamber.

Mine was a dumper. Attenuation was on the order of 83-85%. It was thin, had an intensely roasted nut flavor. Mash temp was 151F. Really awful yeast. Not using this again.

Just to chime in...I've used this yeast before, and I find it very interesting we all had the same problems and similar end products... it's probably not the case of the yeast sucking as much as it's probably very particular...I had weird off flavors in my Brown ale too, clove roast sort of thing...my research suggest that this yeast has a Belgian background, might have something to do with it. Idk. Love my Belgians. One of those things...mileage may vary...

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hadabar said:

Just to chime in...I've used this yeast before, and I find it very interesting we all had the same problems and similar end products... it's probably not the case of the yeast sucking as much as it's probably very particular...I had weird off flavors in my Brown ale too, clove roast sort of thing...my research suggest that this yeast has a Belgian background, might have something to do with it. Idk. Love my Belgians. One of those things...mileage may vary...

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I think if many people all have the same problem, the issues is the yeast. Perhaps something changed with it. The yeast used to be called Yorkshire Square yeast, now it's called N. Yorkshire.

highgravitybacon said:

I think if many people all have the same problem, the issues is the yeast. Perhaps something changed with it. The yeast used to be called Yorkshire Square yeast, now it's called N. Yorkshire.

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Perhaps...I just wouldn't imagine a platinum strain to be like that I guess...ive done the same brown recipe with 007 and it's awesome...so like you said common denominator is the yeast... I was hoping this would be something like 1469 from wyeast...I can dream

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As an update to my last post. Mine stopped fermenting at 20 days. I controlled the temp at 66 degrees. I ended up with an amazing 84% attenuation. It's still got a strange banana aroma but much less now. It tastes pretty good. It's very dry. I shall store it cold for a couple of weeks and see what it tastes like then. I think it'll be pretty good. Luckily, I like a good dry beer.

I did a Ruddles County Clone a month ago that I'm just now tasting.

OG - 1.046
FG - 1.008
Attenuation - 78%

Plenty of sulfur smell during active fermentation. I set the fermentation temp for the freezer at 64 F for the first 72 hours and then let it free rise to 68 F. After a week I brought it upstairs where the ambient temp is about 72 F to allow it to finish cleaning up. It was cold crashed a week later and bottled 2 weeks ago. The bottling sample had a slight cider quality that I attributed to the sucrose in the recipe, but, there were no off flavors I could detect. The bottles I opened this weekend were tasty without off flavors. It's not a very good clone, but, I'm working on it.

Recipe:

8 lbs Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.5 SRM) Grain 1 86.8 %
5.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 2 3.4 %
1.5 oz Black (Patent) Malt (500.0 SRM) Grain 3 1.0 %
1.0 oz Acid Malt (3.0 SRM) Grain 4 0.7 %

12.0 oz Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) Sugar 5 8.1 %
0.65 oz Challenger [6.60 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 6 14.7 IBUs
0.65 oz Northdown [6.60 %] - Boil 90.0 min Hop 7 14.7 IBUs
1.05 Items Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 15.0 mins) Fining 8 -
0.35 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.20 %] - Boil 10.0 min Hop 9 2.9 IBUs
0.28 oz Bramling Cross [7.30 %] - Boil 8.0 min Hop 10 2.0 IBUs
0.35 oz Goldings, East Kent [7.20 %] - Boil 0.0 min Hop 11 0.0 IBUs


I plan to dump the the Patent and Acid Malt. I'll change the c-60 to 8 oz and the sugar to 8 oz of caramelized sugar.

The major problem with the yeast so far is the super attenuation. It can put you out of the range for a given style. That is a problem I can adjust for.

A few thoughts on this yeast. This is supposed to be a clone of the North Yorkshire yeast. Samuel Smith specifically. Their are several things done in Yorkshire brewing that is likely not being done at home. These brewery open ferment in Yorkshire squares. This system is specifically designed so that in the first week of fermentation the wort will be pumped from the bottom of the fermenter and sprayed over the krausen numerous times a day as scheduled. This rouses the yeast. It may also be adding other factors such as oxidation which may effect the way this ferments out. Also, these breweries cask condition and age them. With this method we know that natural carbonation is utilized. This may be in the form of early racking or even pitching additional sugars like bottling. They most likely add more sugars. And the basements these cask are aged in are cold and dank. This with the additional conditioning allows the yeast to completely ferment and fall out.

My brown porter has been aging for 2 months after fermentation and still has the prominent Belgium flavor. The fact that the beer finished out at it's target gravity and was allowed additional time to ferment leads me to think their is probably still hungry yeast in suspension and no more sugar. This yeast may be best suited for either cold crashing or cask conditioning. My beer is still pretty cloudy and I would describe the flavor as a beer with a bunch of yeast in suspension. Just some thoughts to add to the discussion.


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Looking up possible beers to use the WLP037 I harvested from a Nut Brown ale I brewed recently and came across this thread.

So my Nut Brown was...
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.011
Apparent attenuation: 78%

It seems like it's going to be pretty good. Early sulphur and other off flavors have subsided. My fermentation profile was 18C (64F) until almost done (8 days, SG: 1.016) then raised to 21C (70F) for a few days. Then cold crashed. I'll try to remember to post how it turned out once I get it carbed up.

Nesto said:

Looking up possible beers to use the WLP037 I harvested from a Nut Brown ale I brewed recently and came across this thread.

So my Nut Brown was...
OG: 1.048
FG: 1.011
Apparent attenuation: 78%

It seems like it's going to be pretty good. Early sulphur and other off flavors have subsided. My fermentation profile was 18C (64F) until almost done (8 days, SG: 1.016) then raised to 21C (70F) for a few days. Then cold crashed. I'll try to remember to post how it turned out once I get it carbed up.

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Here's the report. The final product turned out fine, but there were some aroma and flavor notes that detracted from the beer.

I actually entered this beer in a competition (2 certified BJCP and one non-BJCP judge) and it got a score of 29. There were two things that jumped out from the score sheets. One was phenolics - both banana and clove were noted. I thought those definitely detracted from the beers. And the other was astringency.

Now normally, I would put astringency to letting my sparge water or mash out temp get a little too high. But since I did another version of this same beer with the same recipe and process just a couple months ago, I'm pretty sure the astringency is some yeast-related flavor. It's almost like there is some sharpness from the sulphur flavors early in fermentation that never really dissipated.

I harvested the yeast to use in a few other brews with some interesting results. Used it in a common cider - that has been successful. No off flavors. Great attenuation. Used it in an oatmeal stout. Can detect some clove phenolic and the astringency is there too. And finally, used it in an english barleywine. Jury still out on that one, but the Attenuation was quite good though - 1.096 down to 1.024.

Well, I just may an ESB and an Oatmeal stout using this yeast and had some really good results. My best results have been by fermenting between 60-62f. Also, leave in primary for 2 weeks minimum. Rack to secondary and leave for no less than 2 weeks at less than 60f. Cold crash the heck out it. This yeast oddly enough does not floc easily. Consider using cold finnings such as gelatin or isinglas. My brown porter was fermented warmer than my suggested temp and the final result was not near as good.


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jalmeida said:

Well, I just may an ESB and an Oatmeal stout using this yeast and had some really good results. My best results have been by fermenting between 60-62f. Also, leave in primary for 2 weeks minimum. Rack to secondary and leave for no less than 2 weeks at less than 60f. Cold crash the heck out it. This yeast oddly enough does not floc easily. Consider using cold finnings such as gelatin or isinglas. My brown porter was fermented warmer than my suggested temp and the final result was not near as good.


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Too much work when I could just use the fantastic 002... and every beer I've had with 037 has been really bad. Glad it worked out for you!

I used it on a dry stout this winter, fermented 61-63, and got good attenuation and pleasant, mild esters, upper end of style. If I did it again, it would be better, as I bottle conditioned and this yeast really does not floc out well, which made the bottom of e.g. a bomber pretty muddy.

jalmeida said:

Well, I just may an ESB and an Oatmeal stout using this yeast and had some really good results. My best results have been by fermenting between 60-62f. Also, leave in primary for 2 weeks minimum. Rack to secondary and leave for no less than 2 weeks at less than 60f. Cold crash the heck out it. This yeast oddly enough does not floc easily. Consider using cold finnings such as gelatin or isinglas. My brown porter was fermented warmer than my suggested temp and the final result was not near as good.


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I didn't even read this before posting mine, but it sounds like low temp is the key to controlling the esters. I'll try this yeast again soon, maybe some kind of brown ale that would compliment the esters (hazelnut, even, like rogue but fruitier?).

I did not secondary but a long cold crash with gelatin would do the trick if you keg it.

Brulosopher said:

Too much work when I could just use the fantastic 002... and every beer I've had with 037 has been really bad. Glad it worked out for you!

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Well, if you ferment under those conditions the beer will have a very unique British flavor prominent with beer like Samuel Smith's. I have not found a single home brew yeast that tastes like this one. And mine does not have the Belgian smell or flavor everybody experiences when fermenting at the typical 70f range. But to each their own.


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Yes, I did not experience Belgian-type esters. 037 gave me "fruitiness" so to speak but not flavors like actual fruit (unless you really use your imagination). It is very English, it's not meant to be clean.

fearwig said:

Yes, I did not experience Belgian-type esters. 037 gave me "fruitiness" so to speak but not flavors like actual fruit (unless you really use your imagination). It is very English, it's not meant to be clean.

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I noticed the fruity flavors more on my ESB, but I fermented that one a little higher than ideal or than ideal for this yeast. But it still fermented colder than most ales. But, the more noticeable fruit flavor may be overpowered on the stout. I did ferment that one right at 60f. Hard to say.


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