SMaSH yeast question

All -

New brewer question...

I'm brewing a few one gallon SMaSH beers to try and isolate some hops and get the hang of BIAB brewing. I have a MO/Chinook ready to go, and want to branch into some better yeasts versus the typical dried yeast packet I use. Any suggestions for a more advanced, better option?

Thanks in advance...

 

It really depends on what you're looking to accomplish. A Scottish yeast would go great with that, or even a super clean strain like pacman.

 

I guess I'm looking for experience using a better quality yeast, but one that will compliment the MO and not have too much of an impact on taste so I can compare and contrast the hops in the three SMaSH brews (chinook, willamette, cascade).

Sounds like pacman is the answer since it's "super clean"?

 

Yes, pacman would be a good choice if you're looking for the malt and hops to shine through. Ferment cool if you can. It works down to 55 or so, but anywhere around 60 will be crazy clean.

 

awesome! Thanks for the info.

 

1056 american ale is very clean too

 

I did Golden Promise and Chinook with White Labs English Ale yeast. I really liked the yeast profile, especially when the beer was young, but Chinook could have used another hop to play off.

Flocculent strains like WLP002 are usually fast to finish, drop clear quickly, and are easier to harvest (unless you have a conical, I guess).

 

If your looking to compare and contrast the different hop varieties you want to keep all the other variables the same. I'd use wyeast 1056 for all of them b/c it will give you a clean profile that will let you compare the differences between the hops.

If you wanted to the explore the effects of using different yeasts I'd brew a 5 gallon batch then split it between a few different fermentors and pitch different yeasts into each of them.

 

He mentioned wanting to do a brew with a yeast different than the dry packets available.