Foreign Extra Stout Yeast Choice

[Shenanigans]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I'm thinking of brewing a Foreign Extra Stout this weekend based on the following recipe from Craft Beer and Brewing.


https://beerandbrewing.com/make-your-best-foreign-extra-stout/
Anyone here ever try to brew it?

I will just sub brown malt for the Special Roast as I don't have that here.
I don't want to order anything new at the moment so I will use whatever yeast I have on hand instead of the Irish Ale yeast.

I'm leaning towards US-05 to keep the esters low but I do also have S-04, Nottingham, WLP007 and Wyeast 1275 Thames Valley.

Which one would you suggest to use?

Thanks for your input

​

 

[AlexKay]

I used to go to US05 for neutral fermentation; now I find that Nottingham gives me the same result more reliably and over a wider temperature range. Honestly, I think you’d be fine with either.

You didn’t ask, but the Briess Extra Special the recipe calls for is hard to substitute for. If you’re just working with what you’ve said you’ve got on hand, I’d go with half a pound of English crystal (darkest you have, and in addition to the other crystal in the recipe) and half a pound of brown malt.

 

[hotbeer]

Well the person that wrote the article suggested WY1084. And the substitutes for that according to BeerMaverick is WLP004, A10 or GY080.
Yeast Substitution Chart - Beer Maverick

Or are you specifically wanting to limit it to what you have on hand?

 

[mashpaddled]

It's been a lot time since I've found one in the wild but usually it seems they use British isle derived strains fermented on the warmer side so there are some esters present. I think any of those strains would work fine. Pick which one you like best that has the alcohol tolerance for the recipe and go for it.

 

[Shenanigans]

Well the person that wrote the article suggested WY1084. And the substitutes for that according to BeerMaverick is WLP004, A10 or GY080.
Yeast Substitution Chart - Beer Maverick

Or are you specifically wanting to limit it to what you have on hand?

Yeah I really want to use what I already have.

 

[Shenanigans]

I used to go to US05 for neutral fermentation; now I find that Nottingham gives me the same result more reliably and over a wider temperature range. Honestly, I think you’d be fine with either.

You didn’t ask, but the Briess Extra Special the recipe calls for is hard to substitute for. If you’re just working with what you’ve said you’ve got on hand, I’d go with half a pound of English crystal (darkest you have, and in addition to the other crystal in the recipe) and half a pound of brown malt.

Thanks for the tip with the Extra special.
I might just give that a go as I have 3 pounds of Warminster 400 (ECB) crystal which is about 200 SRM.

 

[Shenanigans]

It's been a lot time since I've found one in the wild but usually it seems they use British isle derived strains fermented on the warmer side so there are some esters present.

You are probably right with that but I would like to keep a clean fermentation character like the author suggests.
So I'm still leaning more towards US-05.

 

[hotbeer]

US-05 for me has been a good performer. But I don't know that it lends anything to a beers flavor other than it stays out of the way and lets everything else show.

You might do this for a first batch and then see what S-04 or another yeast adds to it for future batches.

 

[kevin58]

I've made it a couple of times and used Wyeast 1099 both times. Both turned out great.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Keep this in mind about the author, Jeff Weikert. He writes his recipes to do well in BJCP competition, not necessarily as an accurate example of the style in the wild. That's not saying they're bad beers, I've got one of his in the fermenter right now I've made twice before.

Also, 1084 does have some esters. Check out his dry Irish stout. IIRC, it's fermented with 1007. Maybe that his Scotch ale.

I'd go Notty before 05. Reliable, relatively clean, but not completely neutral.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

If it were me, WLP007. Yes, it's English, but it is quite neutral for an English and it will chomp down whatever you throw at it.

 

[Shenanigans]

I've made it a couple of times and used Wyeast 1099 both times. Both turned out great.

Good to hear someone has tried to brew it with success.
1099 is on the list for my next order in a few weeks as I want to try it in a porter but I'll be brewing the stout this weekend.

 

[Shenanigans]

If it were me, WLP007. Yes, it's English, but it is quite neutral for an English and it will chomp down whatever you throw at it.

Well I have made two starters this morning.
1 with a fresh pack of WLP007 and 1 with US-05 from bit of yeast slurry of a session stout I brewed last month.

I'm brewing 4 beers in total so two per yeast.
Now I'm leaning more towards WLP007 for the Foreign Extra Stout.

 

[dmtaylor]

Now I'm leaning more towards WLP007 for the Foreign Extra Stout.

Great choice. I would use that over US-05. But any of those would turn out good. Stouts are affected by the yeast, but it is the malt character that shines more than anything else.

 

[kevin58]

Good to hear someone has tried to brew it with success.
1099 is on the list for my next order in a few weeks as I want to try it in a porter but I'll be brewing the stout this weekend.

1099 is also great for Porters. It is the Whitbread strain and they along with Barclay Perkins were the largest porter brewers in the world at one time.

 

[Ninoid]

I regularly make a Stout with US-05 in the winter, but recently I used LalBrew Belle Saison and it turned out great. It has a richer taste and less bitterness than roasted barley. I intend to do it again soon with the same yeast.

 

[GoodTruble]

I regularly make a Stout with US-05 in the winter, but recently I used LalBrew Belle Saison and it turned out great. It has a richer taste and less bitterness than roasted barley. I intend to do it again soon with the same yeast.

What? What inspired that choice? I am curious to try it, but I am very skeptical.

 

[Ninoid]

What? What inspired that choice? I am curious to try it, but I am very skeptical.

First of all, because it has a much larger temperature range, and also because in the summer I use it for APA/IPA and I get beers with a fairly clean taste, almost like with US-05.

 

[Shenanigans]

There's a thread on here where someone mentions using Belle Saison for that great Yeti RIS recipe from Beersmith

https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/12542
Apparently it turned out quite good too just a lot drier.

Edit - found it here but also read it somewhere else before that:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/belgium-style-yeti-stout-clone.294292/
I brewed it with US-05 in the end and it turned out great (the Beersmith version)

I still have that out-of-date pack of Belle Saison in the fridge
However I don't dare use it again after I got what appeared to be a diastaticus infection somewhere in my system after using it last time.
All my beers for about 5 batches ended up eventually being gushers.
Only fixed it by bleaching everything for 24 hours.

 

[Ninoid]

There's a thread on here where someone mentions using Belle Saison for that great Yeti RIS recipe from Beersmith

https://beersmithrecipes.com/viewrecipe/12542
Apparently it turned out quite good too just a lot drier.

Edit - found it here but also read it somewhere else before that:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/belgium-style-yeti-stout-clone.294292/
I brewed it with US-05 in the end and it turned out great (the Beersmith version)

I still have that out-of-date pack of Belle Saison in the fridge
However I don't dare use it again after I got what appeared to be a diastaticus infection somewhere in my system after using it last time.
All my beers for about 5 batches ended up eventually being gushers.
Only fixed it by bleaching everything for 24 hours.

I spray the fermenter with Starsan ten minutes before I pour in the wort from the brewing pot and just drain it right before. A little Starsan in wort doesn't hurt anything, and the insurance against infection is great.