Brown Ale from an 'American Wheat' cake?

[nutty_gnome]

So I have a beautiful cake of American Wheat yeast (Wyeast 1010) from a mild wheat beer. I want to pitch on it. The next recipe I have on the slate is a Southern English Brown. Setting aside what is called for by the style.... What impact would this have on the taste of the Brown Ale?

 

[Suthrncomfrt1884]

I've never used a wheat yeast on a non-wheat beer. I'd imagine you'll have a fairly cloudy beer.

 

[philrose]

If the rest of your recipe is to style, your of would be pretty low for dumping onto the yeast cake. So. English browns top out at 1042.

To make that style, makes sense to go with fresh, English, yeast. Easy pitch one tube/pack for near optimal rate, get a little fruityness and some yeast reproduction.

Now American brown might be good for your cake. More flexibility for high gravity...

 

[nutty_gnome]

Thanks for the reminder about the cloudiness. And I hadn't thought to compare the gravities. Good point.

 

[bknifefight]

I just did a bastard ale where I used a weizen yeast and technically brewed up a strong IPA, since I have no wheat DME. I did it to test the yeast since I got it from a local brewery and they weren't positive if they collected it without infection. I only brewed up 1.5 gallons so we will see how it is!

 

[jja]

"American wheat" yeasts are just clean, well attenuating ale yeasts (originally from Dusseldorf altbiers). They are not spicy Bavarian wheat yeasts. A "mild wheat beer" won't have stressed the yeast too much and any leftover wheat beer cloudiness will probably be disguised by the color of the brown.

So, this yeast would work fine in a brown, but the beer may be a bit cleaner and drier than one might expect from something described as Southern English.