One (belgian) yeast to brew them all

[pricelessbrewing]

Alright, I have 7 recipes to brew in the next 2 months. 40 Gallons total.
Looking to save a couple bucks by using as few different hops and yeast as possible.
Almost all of them can be used with Nottingham/s05, except for two belgian recipes.
So the question is, if you were to pick one versatile belgian yeast strain what would it be?

Belgian pales, dubbels, trippels, strongs, strong darks, quads?
Leaving saisons out as they have a different yeast style...

Alternatively, any decent dry yeasts for a Belgian dubbel that could work for a belgian blonde, brown, trippel and dark strong?

 

[dobe12]

If I had to pick one, I'd say Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes. I think different Belgian yeast strains are needed for different styles, but this would be my go to and the one I'd trust for most Belgian styles if I had to choose only one. The temp range is also relatively wide (65-76F listed, but cooler will work too) and will lend different profiles.

I don't have enough experience with dry yeast to comment on that question.

 

[Jayhem]

I love Belgian Abbey II. It was nice in a Dubbel, Trippel and 2 different Golden Strongs I did. It was not nearly as hard to deal with as Trappist strains.

 

[beergolf]

I like 3787 a lot. It is pretty much the Belgian yeast I use most

There really is no good dry Belgian yeast choice.

 

[SaguaroMan]

I really liked Wyeast 3787, it was great in my tripel I did.

Only dry Belgian yeast I've seen is Belle Saison yeast and T-58. I used the Belle Saison in a Belgian IPA, it turned out ok but not quite what I was looking for. Never used T-58 but De Struise brewery supposedly uses it in their Pannepot ale.

 

[Austin_]

If I had to pick one, I'd say Wyeast 3522 Belgian Ardennes.

This is what I'd go with.

 

[pricelessbrewing]

Okay so not very definitive answers, I went through the recipes section and lots of them use wlp500 or 530 550 and 3787. Any more suggestions?? Will be ordering tomorrow!

 

[kingwood-kid]

530 and 3787 are the same yeast, just made by different companies. I've used this yeast in IPAs, quad, dubbels and a tripel, and been pleased everytime. 550/3522 is also quite good, just different, maybe a little milder. I used 500/1214 once and didn't like the cough-syruppy result, but a lot of people swear by it. T-58 gave me similar results as 50/1214. 540/1762 will throw a lot of banana flavors if you let the temp get too high, so I would avoid it. If you go to White Labs' website, click on "Belgian Chart" and you can see the differences between all of their strains.

 

[helibrewer]

There is no one-size-fits-all answer. There are multiple strains because there are multiple desires in style outcome. Your best bet is to read the manufactures description of traits and pick the yeast that has the traits you desire, understanding that a pale is not a tripel and a duppel is not a quad.

 

[pdxal]

As mentioned, my vote would be for Wy3522 as a great workhorse Belgian yeast that is versatile, easy to work with, and lends itself to manipulation with small adjustments for different flavors/styles.

 

[Conehead]

I second Belgian Abbey Ale II.