Baltic Porter yeast?

[Paradigm]

Hi all,

I'm (kit) brewing a Baltic Porter this weekend and need to get yeast. The place I'm getting my kit from recommended three yeasts:

Saflager S-23
Wyeast 2206
Wyeast 2308

I'm 100% new to caring about yeast strains, but I did some research into them and I think the wyeast 2206 is what I want. It's a little confusing, because porter's are ales, but I see a lot of baltic porters suggesting lager yeasts. This beer's predicted ABV is 10.7, but all the recommended yeasts have a tolerance of <=9% ABV.

Will I need to double pitch? Should I make a starter?

Any other yeast suggestions?

 

[progmac]

WLP 810 (San Fran Lager Yeast) is another great choice. You should make a starter and ferment below 60 deg if you can.

 

[MichaelBrock]

Baltic Porters are usually lagers or cold-fermented ales (as with the WLP810 yeast).

http://www.bjcp.org/2008styles/style12.php#1c

 

[Paradigm]

Luckily I live in New Hampshire and have a basement with a stable 60 degree basement, so the temperatures for lagering won't be too hard to reach.

 

[progmac]

Luckily I live in New Hampshire and have a basement with a stable 60 degree basement, so the temperatures for lagering won't be too hard to reach.

especially this winter. good luck with your beer.

 

[motorneuron]

Just noting that I'd second the SF/California lager strain. It has a malty, slightly sweet, and faintly estery finish (though it cleans up a bit with age) that works well for this style. And it's cleaner the lower you go, if you want that.

 

[ghpeel]

Honestly, if you are using kits and unsure about yeast management, then trying to brew a 10% ABV Baltic Porter is a terrible idea. That's a really hard beer to nail properly. You would need a HUGE starter for this, probably around a gallon.

My suggestion would be to buy 3-4 packets of Saflager S-23 or 34/70 Dry yeast, if you are sure you want to use Lager yeast. And make sure you ferment it at 50F, and thats NOT the room temp the carboy is in. Buy a stick-on thermometer for your carboy if you don't already have one.

If you want something that won't be quite as crisp as a real Baltic Porter, buy 2 packets of US-05 dry ale yeast and pitch that instead. Ferment at 65F and let it age in the bottle for 2-3 months.

 

[Paradigm]

Yeah, I made another post about my yeast math that grew pretty quickly. Ends up being a 9.7ish liter starter and about $56 worth of wyeast. The plan is to brew some medium-difficulty beers to get our yeast management down, then brew a half batch of something like a dunkle and then use the cake as our starter for the baltic. The goal is to have a big beer fermenting by the end of the year. Definitely was about to bite off more than we could chew, haha.

 

[rahmdog]

I recently brewed a kit from my local home brew shop which suggested I use Kolsch yeast. I am a beginner at this so I just ran with something I heard on one of the podcasts; start the ferment cool, then raise the temp slowly to help attenuation. This is the first time I have attempted to temp control and my heating element took the beer from 16 °C to 25 °C overnight. I was not sure what to do at that point so it has remained at that temp for a week. I checked the gravity Sunday and it was off by 0.008, but still bubbling slowly and did not smell or taste awful ( a little acidic but I am blaming star-san). Any thoughts on what I should expect from a Baltic Porter fermented this hot? I assume fusels and esters from what I have read. Any idea about this yeast strain? (WLP029)?


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