American vs. English

[bonamfortuna]

A week ago I brewed my first 10 gallon all grain batch. I separated the wort into two separate carboys. One was a 6 gallon, one was a 6.5 gallon. I used two different yeast strains. One was an American, one was an English. They were both Wyeast smack packs. I let both packs sit on the counter for 3 hours after smacking them, before I pitched them. I noticed that the pack with the American strain seemed to be a little more "inflated" than the English, so I put that one in the 6.5 gallon carboy. My beer with the American strain is fermenting very well. I had to put a blow-off tube on it. The English strain is doing so-so. It didn't need a blow-off tube, even though it is in the smaller carboy. I am seeing plenty of activity in it, but when it is side by side with the American, it seems a little lacking. Does anyone have experience with these strains? Any insight would be much appreciated.

 

[azscoob]

I have had vastly different fermentations from one batch of the same beer to another.

I have had American ale II ferment like gangbusters in one batch belching out the blowoff tube, and ferment out with only a 2" head, both batches tasted the same to me.

similarly I fermented 10 gallons of English mild, split evenly into 2 fermenters, I pitched a smack pack of 1968 each, they both swelled about equally, and were fermented at the same temp. I had one go nuts and blowoff, the other was fairly subdued. They both hit FG at about the same time and couldn't tell the two apart visually or taste-wise.

Who knows why they ferment out in different ways, all I know is they all seemed to make great beer!