Imperial Stout- 005 or 022

[y2jrock60]

I plan on making an Imperial Stout this weekend and I'm stuck choosing between WLP022 Essex Ale and 005 British Ale yeast. According to Whitelab's style chart they're considered two star for the style, while the only four star yeast is WLP007 Dry English Ale. I don't have time to make a starter for such a big beer, but I'll have a nice yeast cake ready to go of either 005 or 022. I would like to make a very roasty and slightly bitter Imperial Stout, possibly with the additions of coffee and chocolate. If you had to choose between those two yeasts which would you choose?

 

[BarefootFriar]

This reminds me of a story my friend told me the other day.

He and a couple others were in some little tiny town in west Texas quite a few years ago -- I think it was in the early 70s. Anyway, they had stayed overnight in the local motel and got up before the sun. They went to the office and asked the night manager where they should eat breakfast.

"We've got two restaurants here. Whichever one you pick, you'll wish you'd picked the other."

All that to say, whichever yeast I picked, I'd probably wish I'd picked the other.

 

[BarefootFriar]

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[kingwood-kid]

22 attenuates better and will give a more neutral beer. 005, from what I'm told, can produce wildly different flavors depending on temp. How many of those flavors you'd notice in an Imperial Stout, I'm not sure. To me, Imperial Stouts aren't really a yeast-driven beer anyway. I'd probably just choose whatever would give me the final gravity I wanted and was easier to work with (22 in this case). I split an imperial once between 006, 013 and WY1335. I never did a head to head, but I couldn't discern any difference between them.