Blend yeast or blend batches?

[Tuckerl]

So a couple months ago I did a little experiment with one of my wheat recipes. I brewed a 10 gal batch split into two carboys and tried two different yeasts, WLP300 and WLP320. After comparing the two, what I surprisingly found was that I liked best an almost 50/50 blend of the two beers.

My question is, can I replicate this by pitching the two yeasts directly into one batch or would I need to reproduce it the same way by blending the fermented batches?

Thanks,
Lee

 

[Brewbien]

So a couple months ago I did a little experiment with one of my wheat recipes. I brewed a 10 gal batch split into two carboys and tried two different yeasts, WLP300 and WLP320. After comparing the two, what I surprisingly found was that I liked best an almost 50/50 blend of the two beers.

My question is, can I replicate this by pitching the two yeasts directly into one batch or would I need to reproduce it the same way by blending the fermented batches?

Thanks,
Lee

Pitching both yeast would almost certainly give you a different result. Blending is going to be the only way to make that beer again. Although, you may get a beer, albeit a different beer, you like by pitching both.

 

[benj]

I'll second that blending beer is probably the way to go. Inevitably one of the two strains will out-compete the other in your wort during fermentation, meaning one will propagate well, while the other will not. You might get something new and interesting from pitching two yeast strains together though, it won't be the same as the blended beer but might be pretty awesome.

I think an experiment is in order. Make one batch, pitch the blended yeast on one half, and then pitch each yeast individually onto a quarter of the batch. After fermentation blend the two quarters. Carb up both halves and let us know what the results are!

 

[dangerbrew]

I'll second that blending beer is probably the way to go. Inevitably one of the two strains will out-compete the other in your wort during fermentation, meaning one will propagate well, while the other will not. You might get something new and interesting from pitching two yeast strains together though, it won't be the same as the blended beer but might be pretty awesome.

I agree, although I will also be very interested to hear the results of the experiment. Please post when it's done!

 

[Tuckerl]

Thanks for the help! I'll give it a try next time and see how it goes.

 

[beergolf]

You can blend yeasts but the results are not always predictable. If you want predictable results blend the batches.

For example I have brewed a trippel twice using 1214 and 3787. The first batch I just pitched a pack of each. The beer was very good but mostly had. 3787 flavor and just a smaller flavor addition from the 1214. Since 1214 is know for taking longer to start this makes perfect sense. The second brew I made a 700 ml starter with the 1214 and then pitched that along with a smack pack of 3787. This brew had about balanced flavors of the 1214 and 3787.

Both brews were very nice and slightly different.

 

[kingwood-kid]

If you blend batches, you may get some additional fermentation, as it's likely one strain will be a little more attenuative than the other. It won't greatly change the character of your beer, but if you're bottling, you need to let it happen before you bottle, or risk foamy volcanoes and exploding bottles.