If you could only have 3 yeasts

[CascadesBrewer]

Interesting thread. My most used strains over the past few years have been:

• WLP001/WY1056/US-05: For making IPAs and APAs.
• WLP013 London Ale: For dark English beers (but might move to London Ale III or Verdant)
• WLP530/WY3787/Westmalle: For various Trappist/Belgian beers.

No, sorry, four is the absolute minimum.

• WLP565/WY3724: I have not settled on the Dupont strain, but it has made some good Saisons for me.

In 2021 I plan to give more dry yeasts a go. The quality and selection is pretty good these days and the long storage and ease of use is really appealing.

 

[Hanglow]

Assuming I could maintain them

Harvey's, for characterful bitters etc
Holts for a cleaner yeast, more hop forward ales
Dupont for saisons.

Would be annoyed I couldn't make weiss beers though

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

For the most part I've already simplified from liquid to dry yeast. I could further simplify to:
1) Nottingham
2) S-189
3) Verdant

And since Nottingham ferments down to 50 degrees F., I could actually drop the S-189 and trim this down to only Nottingham and Verdant, and then introduce Abbaye whereby to further expand my 3 yeast horizons. If then permitted an occasional fourth, it would be Munich Classic. Thus:
1) Nottingham
2) Verdant
3) Abbaye
4) Munich Classic (only if permitted)

Blends of these could also be utilized. Particularly blends of Nottingham and Verdant, whereby to tone down the fruitiness of the Verdant.

 

[BreeBrew]

I just love the dry yeasts of Mangrove Jack's. They always perform well but I have to say I use whatever Beersmith tells me to use, most of the times that is 2 packages on a 5 gallon batch, except for the M12 which I underpitch.
- M12 - Kveik Yeast
- M31 - Belgian Tripel
- M44 - US West Coast

 

[CascadesBrewer]

then introduce Abbaye

Have you used this yeast much? Dave Taylor's chart lists this as the same strain as WLP500 (Chimay). While WLP530 (Westmalle) has been my go to yeast for Trappist styles, the Chimay strain is also a pretty solid one.

Blends of these could also be utilized.

I am curious a bit about this as well. Dry yeast would make blending reasonably cost effective and easy.

 

[duncan.brown]

If I had to pick three, I say:

1. WY1318 London III for my English pub ales.
2. WY2308 Munich is my favorite lager strain, although I'd settle for 34/70.
3. WY1214 Belgian Abbey as it's good in a range of Belgian styles.

2565, 1056, and 1099 would all be close runners up.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

Have you used this yeast much? Dave Taylor's chart lists this as the same strain as WLP500 (Chimay). While WLP530 (Westmalle) has been my go to yeast for Trappist styles, the Chimay strain is also a pretty solid one.

I have not. But in an email conversation with a technician at Lallemand it was all but confirmed that Abbaye is from the Chimay strain. Albeit that within the same back and forth email conversation it was expressed that all of the claimed to be 'Chimay' strain yeasts (liquid and Abbaye) will reveal some level of slight genetic variations that (if you really want to be persnickety) make them technically different. So beware of their being called fully the same. But then even Chimay yeast cultured from the Monastery itself must mildly yet continuously change genetically somewhat with the passing of time and generations.

I've successfully used blends of Windsor and Nottingham a few times in the past.

Once when I found myself with only one pack of W-34/70 dry yeast for a Vienna Lager I tossed in a pack of Nottingham along with the W-34/70 and fermented at 53-54 F. In the end that one turned out to be as clean as expected, and I didn't detect anything unusual from the use of the Nottingham. I've yet to attempt Nottingham alone at 52-54 degrees F. for a Lager though.

 

[Ironkeybrewing]

my 3 would be
us-05
us-04
and 34/70 for lagers

I also just got some kveik lutra and im hoping to try it very soon

 

[AzOr]

It cant be done.
It goes against the laws of nature. You need at least 1 lager strain, one Belgian, one English and one clean ale. I'm already one over, and haven't got to Heffe, or Saison.

No, sorry, four is the absolute minimum. This is the hill I will die on. I would rather give up beer and start drinking Kombucha, (well, maybe not that far). Any way the four would be:

Chico for clean Ales, Scottish/Irish Ales, or anything else I cant put in a particular box.
Westmalle For Belgians.
Ayinger For Lagers.
Whitbread Dry for English Ales.

With an honorable mention to Weihenstephan, and Fullers.

Agreed. Choosing only 3 yeast varieties is barbaric.

Please, for the love of God, nobody ask the question, "pick only 3 hops". I will fight you.

 

[HopsAreGood]

my 3 would be
us-05
us-04
and 34/70 for lagers

I also just got some kveik lutra and im hoping to try it very soon

Sorry to be a stickler but why do people always call S-04 “us-04”? I mean, obviously it’s because the fermentis Chico strain is “us-05” but there is nothing US about S-04. It’s 1 million percent English.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Agreed. Choosing only 3 yeast varieties is barbaric.

Please, for the love of God, nobody ask the question, "pick only 3 hops". I will fight you.

Check the related threads below...

 

[monkeymath]

Please, for the love of God, nobody ask the question, "pick only 3 hops". I will fight you.

Much much easier than 3 yeasts.

I could brew basically everything I want using Mittelfrüh and East Kent Goldings alone.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Much much easier than 3 yeasts.

Same for me. EKG, Citra and Cascade would be my three (with EKG covering more than half). Tettnang close behind.

 

[NotSure]

Sorry to be a stickler but why do people always call S-04 “us-04”? I mean, obviously it’s because the fermentis Chico strain is “us-05” but there is nothing US about S-04. It’s 1 million percent English.

View attachment 730296

Speaking as a dual citizen. This is very un-American.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

For the case of 3 hops I might get by with these for the bulk of my brewing:
Magnum
Cascade
Saaz

 

[Kerry]

This is very tough.

I'd have to go dry and then:

US-05 for most any ale I brew.
34/70 for most any lager I brew.

and then flip a coin between 380/3068 and Abbaye/Belle Saison

 

[Kerry]

For the case of 3 hops I might get by with these for the bulk of my brewing:
Magnum
Cascade
Saaz

Mine as well

 

[Shermwormbrew]

34/70 All day for lagers
1318 for English Ales and Hazy Bois
Wyeast 2565 Kölsch strain for Kölsch and kettle sours

 

[kpsalerno]

I like it, nice and simple, I don't wash my saved yeast anymore, but I could still re-pitch a few times. Do you prefer Nottingham over S-O4?

S-04 was the first yeast I used, I made 70 batches with it over the course of seven years until I finally realized it attenuates too high (74% - 80% with temperature control in dedicated fridge, depending on recipe and mash process) always resulting in drier ales than I was intending. Re-pitching got slightly lower AA, but still not what I wanted. Call me stubborn, but for many years of spontaneous brew days relying on the long shelf life of dry yeast, I didn't consider liquid yeast until I got into saving and repitching.

I recently switched to WLP002 for english style ales and on its first run with a grist of 93% pale malt mashed single infusion at 150F and 7% invert suger added in the boil, fermented at 64F for seven days and 70F for three, I got 72% attenuation, exactly what I was aiming for (the invert pushed it up from 70% and I intentionally mashed low for this particular beer). The result was a slightly sweeter beer with more depth and aroma compared to what I would have gotten with S-04 that I know from experience would have fermented to at least 77% or higher with this recipe.

If you compare S-04 to an equivalent liquid yeast strain, it is categorized as a dry (as in high attenuation up to 80+%) Whitbread strain, while they offer a different Whitbread strain that attenuates lower like Fuller's strain I'm using, so there might be a misconception that S-04 is a general purpose English strain when it is probably more suited to styles you want to dry out, not so good for a style like bitter.

Long reply, but basically agreeing with the gentleman who pointed you towards Nottingham over S-04 as I believe Nottingham has a lower AA range. Also further proof for me S-04 is too high of an attenuator for most low gravity English styles, look for example how popular it is in NEIPA, an American style.

 

[soccerdad]

Two small half loops turn 3 to 8. Perfect!

 

[bwible]

Agreed. Choosing only 3 yeast varieties is barbaric.

Please, for the love of God, nobody ask the question, "pick only 3 hops". I will fight you.

I can only work with one yeast at a time anyway. Especially since I always try to re-use yeast at least 3 times. If I started running 2 or 3 yeasts in parallel I’d end with way too much beer way too fast.

Agreed there is no way I’d ever want to be limited to 3 hops. There must be 18 new ones I’ve never even tried.

 

[Silver_Is_Money]

S-O4 is very close in genetics, character (including tartness), and other properties (including apparent attenuation and flocculation) to Wyeast 1026.

For details on WY1026: British Cask Ale | Wyeast Laboratories

 

[deuc224]

WLP 001
Wyeast 3068
Kveik Lutra

 

[Tancred the Brewer]

After reading through this thread I have come to the conclusion my beer preferences must be fairly narrow. I tend to brew no more than 5 batches of beer a year with another 3 or so batches of cider. The beer styles tend to be APA, Barleywine, Stout, Brown Ale and then an annual wildcard. This covers my tastes and what I like to have a variety of.

With all of that said it would be a pretty easy decision of which 3 yeast strains to keep on hand, because I really only use 3 different strains for all of thee above.

US-05 for the APA, the Barleywine (American Style), and the Brown Ale (American style) and Cider in a pinch
Nottingham for the Stout, the Brown Ale (British style), Barleywine (English style) and Cider in a pinch
71-B or E-1118- Cider and Applejack

If we are not considering the cider yeast in the mix and I am allowed one more for beer then I would probably add a nice yeast for a wheat beer that could be used for a hefeweizen or witbier, maybe Wyeast 3942, as they would be a nice wild card style that I like to brew. Has anyone tried Kviek on wheat beers?

Call me simple.

 

[beersk]

Mine as well

I think I'd go with:

Mt. Hood (British, German, and Belgian)
Simcoe (just plain awesome)
Columbus (all purpose bitter plus great flavor/aroma)

 

[MaxStout]

US-05
WY3787
WY2308

 

[chessking]

Call me simple.

Nothing wrong with simple.
A basic truth in brewing is, brew what you like, and the hell with everyone else. If your tastes run to a small selection of styles, the you are blessed indeed.

For those who are more prolific in their brewing, the chance of variety, and being true to style, will lend one to be more discriminating in their yeast choices. I know many home brewers make their one "go to" beer most often, and that's fine, but Ive got an 8 keg keggerator to feed. That requires a pipeline aproach to brewing. What good is it to have 5 kegs of APA, and 3 kegs of Stout on tap? Each tap should be differing in some degree.
Therefore I have no less than 8 yeasts on my ranch, that are in constant rotation. When a successful beer is packaged, the yeast is washed and a selected portion is separated, labeled, and put in cold storage awaiting its next use.

This is a copy of my brew log for this calendar year ( sorry, my handwriting is crap). I have brewed 14 times and used a total of 8 different yeasts, with the Guinness on 28 Apr. being the only one purchased new this year.

I guess my point is that I don't need to conform to three yeasts. I have my own supply, and brother, life is good.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I've totally replaced all clean ale yeasts with OYL057 hothead, it's amazing

 

[Elric]

Verdant, voss, 34/70 would be my three if I had to choose but I sure would miss my belgians.. can't I just sneak in a fourth?

 

[T Murph]

Agreed. Choosing only 3 yeast varieties is barbaric.

Please, for the love of God, nobody ask the question, "pick only 3 hops". I will fight you.

I agree AzOr I recently planted my seven most preferred hops and I know I'll still be using hops that I don't have growing. After all hops are to beer what spices are to food. I surely don't want to be confined to only 3 choices. Yeast on the other hand could be minimized if absolutely necessary. But fortunately we don't have to do that.

 

[Snuffy]

I gotta have 5, minimum. I could live on IPAs, English and Belgians for a good while, but eventually a person needs something French or German to keep it interesting. Lagers, I could live without. Hops, I could maybe make it thru hard times on Goldings, Cascade and Saaz, but what fun would that be?

 

[@RoyalGallon]

Great thread.
I tend to use dry yeasts so I can have them in the fridge and am ready for spontaneous brew days.

I’d go US-05, S-189 and then a ‘Belgian’

although this is where I’d be interested in opinions as I’ve yet to settle-on a dry ‘Belgian’ yet. I do like Mangrove Jack’s M47 Abbey.

 

[WesBrew]

i haven't tried a lot of the ones mentioned. if i could only grab 3 on my way to the doomsday bunker: wlp001 cal ale, wlp005 english ale , and wlp838 southern german- or wlp810 san fran lager, 005 english, and wlp833 bock

 

[cmac62]

Great thread.
I tend to use dry yeasts so I can have them in the fridge and am ready for spontaneous brew days.

I’d go US-05, S-189 and then a ‘Belgian’

although this is where I’d be interested in opinions as I’ve yet to settle-on a dry ‘Belgian’ yet. I do like Mangrove Jack’s M47 Abbey.

I'd look at lallamand's abbey ale (this works with the BOMM protocol as well)

for me I'm liking the kveiks, so far have tried Hothead, Hornindal, dried Voss and WL Opshag (spelling). I still have Loki, Lutra and Oly Voss to try yet. So far I'd go with hothead. But my 3 right now is chico (US-05, WL001, BYR 97), Abbey Ale and s-04 or Notty, not sure which. I'll buy lager, I can't do it better than what you can buy that are available and cheep.

For hops citra, mitelfrue and EKG or cascade.

 

[Jako]

easy, Imperial Pub, Harvest and Cable car.

 

[duffy5018]

Hornindal Kveik, 3724/565, wlp830.

Hornindal works for almost any ale, giving it different profiles based on temp.

3724/565 cuz I brew a Saison about once every 2-3 months.

830 cuz you always need a good well rounded lager yeast.