Great article on yeast

[jb1677]

Read this great article today Strange Brews: The Genes of Craft Beer and the part that talked about how DRASTICALLY different the same recipe was when simply changing yeast got me thinking I am in a yeast rut.

My LHBS does not carry Wyeast products, they do carry White Labs and lots of various dry yeast. Somehow, without really planning this I realized that I have use nothing but US-05 in my last 7 or so batches. I really need to branch out!

 

[Ilan34]

Thanks for the link, that was a nice little article!

Try using different English or Scottish yeasts in otherwise American beers - try different ferment temps. That should help get you started with some variety.

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[Heavywalker]

Makes a lot of sense, you can do a lot of things wrong in your brew but your yeast will bail you out as long as you keep them happy. I have came to the conclusion that happy yeast makes good beer. I think that many home brewers focus on the grains, hops, water, etc... which are all important in the process, but once the yeast goes into the wort they let the yeast take over and go on auto pilot until it is bottle/kegging time.

I've talked to a lot of home brewers who only use one type of yeast, or don't worry about pitch rates (or even know what that means) or fermentation temp, ect... So if a few degrees in temp can drastically change a beer then certainly an entirely different yeast strain will yield different results as well.

 

[dobe12]

IMHO, yeast is the main factor when determining what a finished beer will beer. The attenuation will leave it dry or malty. Some will impart their own flavors or wont. All depends on the strain and how you use it (temp, wort density, pitching rate, etc). I love playing around with different yeast in the same batch. Occasionally I'll brew a 5 gallon batch and split it into two 3 gallon fermentors. I'll pitch different yeast into each batch. Bottle about 6 of each and blend the rest in a keg. I did this with my Belgian Wit a few years ago and it's now become how I make that beer. 1/2 gets Wyeast Belgian Wit and the other 1/2 gets Forbidden Fruit. I then blend them back together at kegging.

I'm kind of a yeast snob in that I truly believe you need the right yeast for the right beer. It always bugs me when someone posts that they're making a Hefe and plan on using US05 or similar. They question their grain bill, hop schedule, mashing schedule, but never thing twice that they aren't using a wheat yeast. The yeast makes the style more often than not.

 

[PLOVE]

+1 I once made a barley wine and accidentally added a hefe yeast. SOB - actually tasted like a hef. Blew my mind.

 

[catdaddy66]

I am just now feeling confident enough to start branching out with different yeast strains. My experience so far is with us-05 and 04 but have used Nottingham on an English brown. I have purchased Belle Saison for a wheat or IPA. Next beer will be a steam beer and I'll use wlp810...

Can't wait!


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[beergolf]

I read that this morning.

Yeast is a huge factor in the flavor of a brew. I have made several brews using the same recipe but different yeasts and the flavor is definitely different. I even made a tripel that used two yeasts and you could taste the two different yeasts. The first time they were mixed 50/50. The sexond time I used a starter of one and just a smack pack of the other and it was much different than the 50/50 mix.

Treat your yeast well and you will make good beer.