34/70 in a Stout?

[BaylessBrewer]

I currently have a Schwarzbier fermenting with 34/70 and my wife just bought me a Buffalo Sweat clone kit so I was thinking that when I'm ready to keg the Schwarzbier I'll brew the Buffalo Sweat and dump it on the 34/70 cake.
Good idea or bad?

 

[BaylessBrewer]

12hrs and no opinions. Slow around here.

 

[McKnuckle]

I'll provide an opinion... I brewed one English style dark beer, a Northern Brown which is normally an ale of course, with lager yeast. It was technically well done and I could taste the malts in a clean sort of way, but it was kinda boring. I missed the English yeast esters and character. This was true even after it had aged for 8 months on tap and was crystal clear like a proper lager.

So with that single data point, I probably won't ferment ale recipes with lager yeast again. That's not to say it didn't work or that it wasn't enjoyed. It just wasn't that impressive.

 

[EazyMcBreazy]

Ive had good success with 007 but does tend to supply too many cells and leads to excessive fermentation ie character blowoff. Shouldnt be an issue if you can control temp. I know most would recommend washing the yeast cake first, especially with dark trub. Swash sanitary water on the cake. Let trub settle (arbitrary amount of time) then pour into sanitary jar. Cap and cool in fridge, decant water off top and your left with predominantly healthy cells. Some keep canned jars of water around just for this purpose. I dont know Buff Sweat but if its any lighter than your schwarzbier it'll def be color impacted by that trub

 

[BaylessBrewer]

I'll provide an opinion... I brewed one English style dark beer, a Northern Brown which is normally an ale of course, with lager yeast. It was technically well done and I could taste the malts in a clean sort of way, but it was kinda boring. I missed the English yeast esters and character. This was true even after it had aged for 8 months on tap and was crystal clear like a proper lager.

So with that single data point, I probably won't ferment ale recipes with lager yeast again. That's not to say it didn't work or that it wasn't enjoyed. It just wasn't that impressive.

I was afraid that that would be the opinion I would get. I guess I'll just save a pt/qt of the cake and make a Doppelbock or a Munich Dunkel and spin up a fresh starter of something English for the Buffalo Sweat.

 

[BaylessBrewer]

Ive had good success with 007 but does tend to supply too many cells and leads to excessive fermentation ie character blowoff. Shouldnt be an issue if you can control temp. I know most would recommend washing the yeast cake first, especially with dark trub. Swash sanitary water on the cake. Let trub settle (arbitrary amount of time) then pour into sanitary jar. Cap and cool in fridge, decant water off top and your left with predominantly healthy cells. Some keep canned jars of water around just for this purpose. I dont know Buff Sweat but if its any lighter than your schwarzbier it'll def be color impacted by that trub

Buffalo Sweat is a Oatmeal Cream Stout so color impact is not a problem.

 

[FVillatoro]

You can go for a Baltic Porter style with it.
Since you're not getting much character from the yeast, you have to get it from the malts and hops. Plenty of Munich malt with some German crystal and roasted malts work well.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I would use British Ale I yeast for an oatmeal stout. It's a style that should have a robust body and that is not what 34/70 would do.
By the way, I brewed a Munich Dunkel with 34/70 it is a beer to remember. It's the Old Dark Bear recipe from "Classic Styles" book.

 

[schematix]

I've done a couple ale styles with lager yeast for fun, but then stopped because they don't taste right. Overall too clean and don't bring out the fullness that ale yeasts do.

I would put this in a definite NO category, but if you really want to try it, at least ferment it on the warmer side, like 60F.

I don't think it hurts to experiment because it'll make you a better brewer, but don't set your hopes high that you're going to invent some great new beer style because it's probably going to only be mediocre.