Help me choose the better yeast.

[misterVT]

So I've got a Rogue Dead Guy ale kit from Costco that does not come with yeast. I'm aware that there's a proprietary yeast that they recommend using, but I don't feel like ordering and waiting or searching locally. I want to brew now! So here's some spare dry yeast I've got sitting around, unattached to any kit. Will any of these work well enough? I'm not looking for authentic Dead Guy Ale so experimenting might be a little fun. I'm leaning towards Coopers, thinking it might match well with the fruity characteristics of the Dead Guy. Fermentation will occur in the high 60's.

Safale S-33 (Edme) - A very popular general purpose yeast, displaying both very robust conservation properties and consistent performance. This yeast produces superb flavour profiles and is used for the production of a varied range of top fermented special beers (Belgian type wheat beers, Trappist, etc.).
Coopers Ale Yeast - All-purpose dry ale yeast. It produces a complex woody, fruity beer at warm temperatures. More heat tolerant than other strains, 65-75¡F; recommended for summer brewing. Medium attenuation and flocculation
Munton & Fison Ale - All-purpose ale yeast.

Thanks!

 

[the_bird]

Well, the deal with the Pacman strain is that is very clean and attenuates like a mo-fo. I'm not sure that any of these is necessarily a sub; certainly not the S-33. If you could find the estimated attenuation characteristics of the Coopers and Munton & Fison, that might point you in the right direction..... but ideal would be if you could get your hands on some US-05. Rumor is that Pacman's an offshoot of either an altbier strain or a mutation of 1056 (which is *basically* the same as the US-05).

 

[misterVT]

Ok, so both the Coopers and the Muntons look to be a medium attenuation. Muntons is high flocculation, while Coopers is medium flocculation. So since I'm just learning more about yeasts...for this style of beer I want a yeast that will convert more sugar to alcohol and at the end of fermentation settle on the bottom? But it also sounds like when choosing a yeast I should consider more about its contribution to flavor of the beer, which is why I can understand the US-05 with it's clean crisp palate and fermentation characteristics make a better all-around choice. Maybe I'll reconsider and suck up sitting in traffic to make the trek to my not so local LHBS.

 

[david_42]

Pacman contributes almost no flavors to the Rogue beers and has the highest attenuation of any yeast I've used. US-05, 1056 and Nottingham come close, if you ferment in the mid-60's. If you're making the trip, you might as well get a couple extra packets.

Rogue doesn't pasteurize or micro-filter, so you could culture Pacman if you are planning more Rogue beers.