what would happen if you added two types of yeast?

[size]

let's say i make a standard ale:

10 lbs two-row
1.5oz Hallertau @ 60

but then i used say... 1056 and 1214 yeasts...

what would happen? would you get characteristics of both strains?

i'm assuming this is one of those "if it worked it would have been done by now" situations, but i've never even heard the question raised.

would it just be terrible? or would the yeast fight each other?

now i'm very curious....

 

[BenS]

I think if you use 2 very different yeast strains(irish ale yeast & weizen yeast) you might get some interesting results but I've done US-05 and nottingham combo a few times with no special results.

 

[JefeTheVol]

I used to research on Ecological Competition in college and we used protists and population counts to track populations over time. Im sure someone has published a paper recording the same with multiple yeast populations but I would bet that they used different species of yeast and not different strains of brewers yeast.

Here is an extrapolation of what I learned about protists and Im going to apply that to yeast:

Each strain has its own particular characteristics. Its resource usage rate, its doubling time, its waste tolerance, and what is termed its Competition Coefficient. The competition coefficient is a measure of how well each strain of yeast competes for resources to further its own population. A yeast with a higher competition coefficient will utilize more resources in the microcosm(your wort) and therefore theoretically have a higher proportion of the total population.

I am unaware of these numbers in yeast but Im sure there is some ecology grad student in the US who is. Anyway, you could have any number of different combos of yeast, from some combos where one strain completely out-competes the other for resources and you get a skewed population curve or you could have a situation where the population curves are biphasic, and you could have anything in between.

Another factor in competition microcosms that effects the overall outcome is the initial population counts of your organisms. A huge population of one strain compared to the competing strain could choke out the smaller population but the same two strains, when pitched at equal populations, could reach an equilibrium in the environment and coexist evenly as long as resources are abundant.\

I think qualitative experimentation is the easiest way to figure this one out. maybe do a bunch of 1 gallon batches.\

Sorry to nerd out on you a little but this was my undergraduate research project for 3 years in college...of course I didnt work with yeast but the ecological principles translate pretty well between species.
-Jefe-

 

[Beernik]

I tried it once with English and Belgian yeasts. My conclusion is that one yeast outcompetes the other and dominates the profile.

 

[RichBenn]

Funny you should mention this. I'm drinking a mirror pond pale clone that I started with Safale S-04 (English Ale yeast). But it wasn't starting in the usual timeframe, so I pitched the only other yeast I had available, some US-05 (Chico strain). The ferment took off, and after a couple of weeks, I dry hopped. Then the ferment seemed to pick up slightly and drop the S.G. a bit more. I didn't keg until about 4 weeks total.

The beer is fine, very clean, and the attenuation is pretty high, typical of what I'd get with US-05. So I wonder if the S-04 actually did start and the US-05 kicked up and finished a little lower.

Hard to know, as this was the first time I did this recipe and the first time I used S-04, AND I fermented at a pretty low temp, which is supposed to reduce the esters S-04 can produce at higher temps, AND it's a fairly hoppy Pale so it tends to mask more. But I'm guessing it's more US-05 than S-04.

 

[NorCalAngler]

Two yeast enter, one yeast leaves!

 

[demonrichie]

mad max right? ive heard 2 yeasts may give you a bit of characteristics of both but that made me wonder would it be consistant batch by batch

 

[Pick]

I am thinking of doing a wheat with WLP400 and maybe half a packet of Notty. Then I would not have to make a starter for the WLP400.