Safbrew WB-06 for a Belgian Golden Strong ale

[Mark yeah]

It's Friday, and despite the best efforts of a major cyclone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Gabrielle
and a pretty reasonable earthquake:
https://www.geonet.org.nz/earthquake/2023p122368
I've managed to survive. So tonight's the night! I'll be tasting the beers and reporting the results. Stay tuned!

 

[Mark yeah]

All beers poured with a massive white fluffy head, carbonation being no issue. The Duvel was, perhaps, slightly lighter in hue, but not a lot of difference in appearance

 

[Mark yeah]

So here are my tasting notes without any editing:

Blind 1
Aroma: fresh, yeasty, slight lemon
Taste: bready, light esters, tartness, slight esters (pear/lemon)


Blind 2
Aroma: mild grain, slight lemon, slight pear
Taste: bready, light esters (pear), slight yeast bite, tart


Duvel
Aroma: pear, slight lemon, esters
Taste: Stronger pear and lemon esters, zingy, slight caramel/diacetyl

 

[Mark yeah]

Beer 1 is WB-06
Beer 2 is WLP-570

There really is very little separating these beers, they are almost interchangeable. I would say I preferred the WB-06 slightly over the WLP-570 as it didn't have the slight yeast bite, which was down to my brewing rather than anything wrong with the yeast.

The Duvel was superior to both my beers (which was not unexpected) and contained more of a "zingy" ester profile. It also had almost no bready/grainy flavours and what I can only describe as a plasticky, estery flavour which I find a common trait in commercial beers vs homebrew (anyone else find this??)

I would certainly recommend WB-06 for this beer style and would be curious to see how others get on with it. I'm also curious to see how time affects these beers, and will update this thread as they change.

 

[beervoid]

Beer 1 is WB-06
Beer 2 is WLP-570

There really is very little separating these beers, they are almost interchangeable. I would say I preferred the WB-06 slightly over the WLP-570 as it didn't have the slight yeast bite, which was down to my brewing rather than anything wrong with the yeast.

The Duvel was superior to both my beers (which was not unexpected) and contained more of a "zingy" ester profile. It also had almost no bready/grainy flavours and what I can only describe as a plasticky, estery flavour which I find a common trait in commercial beers vs homebrew (anyone else find this??)

I would certainly recommend WB-06 for this beer style and would be curious to see how others get on with it. I'm also curious to see how time affects these beers, and will update this thread as they change.

Give it some time, probably they centrifuge at duvel

 

[Protos]

Nice blind tasting comparison!
I noticed you mentioned tartness in both your homebrewed beers but not in Duvel. Does Duvel taste significantly less tart than the WB-06 beer?

 

[Mark yeah]

Nice blind tasting comparison!
I noticed you mentioned tartness in both your homebrewed beers but not in Duvel. Does Duvel taste significantly less tart than the WB-06 beer?

No - and I did realise this afterwards. They were all similar in this respect, WB-06 no more than the others

 

[beervoid]

Any phenolic banana flavors?

 

[Mark yeah]

Any phenolic banana flavors?

None whatsoever on any of the beers. The commercial beer was a little more forward with esters, but they were all fairly subdued compared to other Belgian yeasts

 

[Miraculix]

Thank you!

 

[jimdkc]

Just stumbled across this remarkable thread. Duvel is a favorite of mine. Will have to try brewing a batch with WB-06!

Thank you!

 

[Mark yeah]

Just stumbled across this remarkable thread. Duvel is a favorite of mine. Will have to try brewing a batch with WB-06!

Thank you!

Please report how you get on! I'm very interested to hear how others get on using WB06 with this style

 

[GoodTruble]

I plan to give this a try this winter.

 

[AlcheMania]

So here are my tasting notes without any editing:

Blind 1
Aroma: fresh, yeasty, slight lemon
Taste: bready, light esters, tartness, slight esters (pear/lemon)


Blind 2
Aroma: mild grain, slight lemon, slight pear
Taste: bready, light esters (pear), slight yeast bite, tart


Duvel
Aroma: pear, slight lemon, esters
Taste: Stronger pear and lemon esters, zingy, slight caramel/diacetyl

Awesome. Thanks for sharing. Ill definitely be giving this a try