I hadn't considered Brewferm might also be M54 until you mentioned today that it's cerevisiae.
Just thinking about it, Brewferm has been around a while so it's not going to be some new-to-dry strain like New England, and it won't be from a new supplier. And making yeast is not Brouwland's main business, so it would be likely that they're repacking. It's certainly suggestive that the three
Brewferm yeasts are :
Top - "Fast fermentation with low residual sugar. Formation of fruity esters. Flocculation: medium to high Final gravity: low Fermentation temperature: 18-25°C"
Lager "A sturdy lager yeast, delivering a consistent neutral fermentation with little or no sulphur components or other undesirable by-products.Flocculation: high Final gravity: medium Fermentation temperature: 10-15°C"
Blanche "selected for its formation of typical wheat beer aromas. Very suitable for production of witbier, wheat beers, etc. Flocculation: low Final gravity: low Fermentation temperature: 18-24°C"
and
Mauri has three main yeasts :
English Ale 514 "Mauribrew Ale can ferment from 15°C up to 32°C. Desirable flavour characters result with this strain through the 16-24°C temperature range...rapidly attenuates fermentable sugars with typical wort falling from a gravity of 1040-1045 resulting in a beer of less than 1008...generally very good settling properties even at warmer ambient temperatures 20-30°C."
Lager 497 "Saccharomyces cerevisiae Bottom Fermenting Lager Brewing Yeast...Desirable flavour characters result with this strain through the 10-16°C temperature range...OG 1040-1045 is fermented normally to low final gravity....very good natural settling properties and results in a green beer of good clarity and compacted yeast deposit" (note that a "yeast for brewing lager" is not necessarily a "lager yeast"!)
Weiss 1433 "produces large quantities of fermentation aromas (esters, higher alcohols) that contribute to the complexity of German-style wheat beers...Desirable flavour characters result with this strain through the 15-30°C temperature range...OG 1040-1045 is fermented normally to low final gravity...Good settling properties at cool temperatures."
Overall it looks a pretty close correlation, particularly for that warmth-loving, fast-fermenting, high-attenuation English Ale. And the way that Mauri have withdrawn from the UK market, at least, in recent years might suggest that they feel they have alternative representation in place via someone like Brouwland?
And obviously given the antipodean connections, Mauri would be an obvious source of yeast for NZ-based MJ. When you see
M21 Belgian Wit described as "A traditional top-fermenting yeast that has a good balance between fruity esters and warming spice phenolics. The yeast will leave some sweetness and will drop bright if left long enough...For best results, ferment at 18-25 degrees C...high attenuation" that sounds vaguely familiar, no?
And I always thought
M15 Empire Ale was a bit of a weird name, but could perhaps be explained if it had been in the Antipodes since colonial times - attenuation might be a bit low though?
So if you're looking for a high-attenuation, well-floccing yeast for making warm lager, that
could be M54, then Mauri 497 must be a contender. Which would mean that WLP810 and 2112 are perhaps less interesting for warm lager than we thought (but surely worth a go), and that Brewferm Lager is definitely worth a try even if it is an ale yeast? Another advantage is that is widely available (at least in the UK) and dirt cheap (particularly from
Geterbrewed - no affiliation).
OTOH, I'm not sure about the K-97 link to Mauri 497 - Mauri are sophisticated enough not to need to repack stuff, and I suspect the flocculation is too different (although admittedly it is one of the more variable aspects of yeast biology). But it would be fun if 497 or M54 turned out to be very close to WLP036 - those Mixed group yeasts tend to be interesting from a biotransformation point of view.