Mixing yeasts

[robbase9]

Is it possible to put 2 or more different kinds of yeast in one batch of beer? I would assume you could, but I don't know if they would battle against each other or produce some funky byproduct.

 

[david_42]

Yes, a LHBS owner did a 10 malt, 10 yeast, 10 hops, 10 fortnight, 10% barleywine for the store's 10th anniversary. I like to use an ale yeast and champagne yeast in high gravity ales.

There are also a couple blends available. A guy that works at Wyeast says there are some combinations that will bind together and drop out in a few hours without fermenting much.

If you're talking a Belgian/Hefe mix, let us know how it works.

 

[jesse]

I've just tried an american ale (1056) and an Irish red (1084) 4 different ways with one batch. I dumped one of each seperate, one of each in together after starter, and one of each before starter.. It was a twelve gallon batch that i split up into 4- 3 gallon carboys.. It was a pain in the ass.Never again. Can for sure tell the difference between the seperate yeast strands...But when they are mixed together i can't tell what is what. I do know that they work better with eachother. I will update when i get every thing all sorted out.

 

[Bosh]

I think people usually use different strains for the same beer for the following two reasons:
1. To have one fermenting strain and one bottling strain (with the bottling one being more nuetral).
2. To get a big beer started with an ale yeast that has a tasty flavor profile and then to add more fermentables and some stronger yeast to finish things off and jack up the alcohol percentage.

 

[davefleck]

I really question the value doing that. I'm sure a few yeasts might work in harmony but most often you'll have one take over and dominate the other. For instance... you can order up some SF sourdough yeast to use at home. But what they won't tell you is after a while your local yeasts will take over and eventualy replace them. There has got to be someone out there that has tried blending several and examined it moluculary to see what remains after it 'setteles'
otherwise i think you'd just be blowing $ on yeast. Now if you were washing your own yeast it would be cool to do some experiments on blending and comparing with small 1 gal. batches.

 

[robbase9]

Yeah i was just thinking of brewing an IPA with a little bit of Belgian yeast flavor, just for experimenting. Maybe i could just use a low powered beglgian yeast.

 

[jdoiv]

I was listening to a Jamil podcast about Saison's I think and he had a guy on from one of the yeast labs (Wyeast of WL, I don't rememeber which). They talked about one of the Saison strains not finishing out well and the yeast guy recommended adding a second strain to finish the ferment. Also said that several of the Belgian strains are good for mixing with each other. Maybe one day I'll play around with it.

 

[Madtown Brew]

I was listening to a Jamil podcast about Saison's I think and he had a guy on from one of the yeast labs (Wyeast of WL, I don't rememeber which). They talked about one of the Saison strains not finishing out well and the yeast guy recommended adding a second strain to finish the ferment. Also said that several of the Belgian strains are good for mixing with each other. Maybe one day I'll play around with it.

It was White Labs, IIRC. They also have two other blended strains that were recently released - a cream ale and a belgian saison.

http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/newstrains2.html