Bell's house ale yeast - Beersmith inputs?

I recently cultured some of Bell's ale yeast from their Amber Ale. :rockin:

I'd like to add it to my inventory in Beersmith, but I was hoping somebody could help me out with the properties:

Attenuation %: Min and Max?
Flocculation: (I'm pretty sure this is low or medium, based on my experience with stepping up and crashing the steps of the culture)
Temperature Range: ?

I've never brewed with this yeast before, so hopefully some people with some experience with it will chime in and help me out. Thanks!

 

There has been a lot of talk in the forums about Bell's yeast, but I have never seen the attenuation and flocculation #'s. If you send them an email through their website, they might tell you. Its worth a shot at least. I would be curious to know myself as I brew the Oberon clone a lot.

 

IME, it's numbers are a lot like Wy 1272. low to medium floc, mid to high 70s for AA%, i'd say typical american ale temps, 60-70 degrees. flavor profile is similar to 1272, clean, dry, a touch fruity, accentuates the hops at lower temps.

 

I think that is pretty close. I have harvested Bell's yeast and the info on 1272 seem pretty accurate. It will get you close.

 

Flocculation is pretty medium low for sure, it doesn't like to drop easily even with some colder temp coaxing.

I would say fermentation temps are in higher range 67-72; you could probably push it a little warmer than that without too much worry. even at 70 in a homebrew sized batch the fruity esters are pretty subtle but definitely noticeable next to the chico strains (adds the finishing touch on bell's clones where 001/1056 is close but something is missing). Colder side of ale temps you would probably have to watch for diacetyl at low levels.

I have gotten 75-77% apparent attenuation with 152 degree mashes, and closer to 80% apparent attenuation with 147-148 degree mashes.
Hope that helps you out!

 

I did go this route today; hopefully i'll hear back from them. For now, I'll probably go with the suggestions from this thread. If Bell's ever answers me, i'll post their reply here.

Thanks for the input!

 

Subscribed, crossing my fingers for a reply. Love me some Bells!

 

some good info from guys brewing with this yeast here.

 

I use this as my house yeast now. I average 75-80% attenuation, have had no issues with it chewing up to 10%, going to use a cake of it for an 11.5% barleywine tomorrow. As far as temperature ranges, I generally ferment mine between 58-62 and it has no problem working its mojo. I can't speak for how it performs at higher temps as I have never let it get there.

 

Hey Brewinator howd that barleywine turn out? What kind of attenuation did you get? Im deciding between a bells yeast cake and US-05 for my 1.092 barleywine I brewed yesterday.

 

It turned out well, I haven't tasted it since I racked to secondary to bulk age but my first taste told me it should turn out pretty darn good after aging 10-12 months.

I got 80% attenuation or so (don't have my computer with beersmith handy) and the barleywine finished at 11.6%, I didn't need to swirl the fermeter or anything, it didn't even bat an eye at chewing through that one. I'd go with the Bell's cake.

 

I've noticed that if you let it sit in a keg at a cold temp for say 2 months that the yeast will finally drop out and be almost crystal clear. Check out my 2-hearted:
http://cdn.homebrewtalk.com/attachm...-yeast-harvest-bells-amber-photo-640x480-.jpg

Mine is on the right. I did an extended boil (almost 2 hrs) to get down to final volume which is why I think my color is slightly darker than the real thing.

 

Sure takes it's sweet time to drop though, huh?! I have a simcoe IPA bottled that I used Bell's on, it's not gonna drop bright. One thing I've noticed about this strain, as with 1272, if you rack to a secondary after FG is stable, it seems to encourage the yeast to drop, it actually drops clear pretty quickly (4-7 days) after the transfer. I talked about this on this thread, and it seems others have seen the same thing.

 

Ha that's the thread I started. Bell's strain = Best. Yeast. Ever.

 

Yeah, it's a great strain. Quickly becoming my go to for IPA.

 

Just checked the numbers on the barleywine. 1.108 down to 1.020 so about 81% attenuation if my calculation is correct.

 

Thanks for the update. I threw nearly the entire bells cake into about 4 gallons of my barleywine last night around 10 PM. This morning the fermentor (7.5 gallon tall sanke) was nearly full with krausen!

 

This sounds like the perfect moment for an experiment. Take some DME, and make 3 worts, say a liter or two each (all the same), low, medium, and high gravity. Do a forced ferment test (grossly overpitch, ferment extremely warm, and stir/shake each) on each and see what kind of numbers you get. I would love to see that data.

 

This is the newest Bell's yeast strain thread I could find, so I thought I should add some information. I pitched a 1.5L starter of Bell's yeast (harvested from the Pale Ale) into a 5 gallon IPA (1.067). The fermentation bucket got down to 61 overnight, and the yeast wouldn't do anything. Warmed the room a bit, brought the bucket back up to 68, and it's going. So low 60s doesn't sound like a great option for this yeast.

 

What was your method of harvesting and stepping up? This is the important stuff. I've run that yeast lower than the low 60's with no issues. It's incredibly similar (if not the same) as 1272, which is quite tolerant of low temps. There's a thread here called "yeast harvest: Bell's Amber" that has a lot of info.

 

Sorry. The yeast was harvested from a 6-pack of Bell's Pale about a month ago, added to a small .5L 1.02 DME solution, stepped up to a 1l 1.05 DME solution, but then put into a sanitized jar. Added into a ~1L 1.05 DME starter w/ 1/4 tsp yeast nutrieent, and then pitched.

 

Hmmmm.... how long was it not kicking off at the lower temps? It could be that, yeast are slower when cool. But my regular temps for ales is 62-63, and I've never had it not kick off. Good yeast, either way. Great in IPA!

 

Agreed, definitely looking forward to how this turns out. It was about 24 hours, so it's possible I just wasn't very patient. If so, I definitely defer to those with more experience on it.

 

I'd never sweat 24 hrs, but it is longer than I like to see. I haven't used Bell's recently, but I used 1272 at 63-64 in my last brew. It was off in under 18. Probably the temps though.

 

So after 8 days (with the beer between 62-68), I checked the gravity. 1.020 is where I'm at right now, and I'm getting some strong banana ester aroma. I can't tell if I should increase the temperature to let the beer (hopefully) finish the fermentation, or if I should keep it low and wait, hoping to not increase esters further.

Thoughts?