Whats your favorite IPA yeast?

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Amalgamation Brett mix from the Yeast bay. Makes lots of fruity esters in primary, more so then any Sacc I've experienced. Also really like using RVA orchard Brett.
 
It depends on the style I'm brewing, i.e., West Coast 1272 or 1968, English 1098, Belgian Ardennes or Belgian Pale, of course 1056 is always good.
 
WLP090 is awesome and ferments out fast and clean, but make sure you dry hop with this for an IPA. From my experience it blows off a lot of the hop flavors induced in the boil though it's extremely vigorous fermentation.
 
Wlp090 is pretty good Imo. It's so clean you get a really pronounced hop pop
 
Started out making Stone IPA clones with 1968 - made great beer but I wanted a drier finish.

Ran with 1272 for many batches - highly recommended.

Last few have been with San Diego Super - cleaner, drier.
 
I realize I am resurrecting this thread but I brewed an IPA yesterday with wlp 644 and am blown away by the fruity smells coming out of my fermenter this morning! I have brewed A LOT of IPAs over the years and this is by far the most unique fermentation aroma I have come across.

I really wanted to try Imperials 'dry hop' yeast (a blend of the sacc trois and Conan) but my lhbs was out so I went straight sacc trois.

Anyone else have experience with this yeast in an IPA or another lesser known yeast they like in their IPAs? The yeast options available these days are staggering...

Keep us posted cuz to me that just yell's scrubbed aroma's that aren't going to be in your beer anymore.
 
subbed to hear peoples favorites.

I primarily use Conan and love it.
I just used wlp644 for the 1st time, in my NEIPA recipe. Kegged yesterday, still a bit flat but tastes great so far.
 
Not too worried about 'scrubbed aroma' since I am planning on a huge dry hop but I will definitely post an update on how the yeast does for me.

I guess I should have added "flavors" as well to my original post. but you get where I'm coming from. :)

Carry on.
 
1272
The yeast has fruity undertones over the whole range. Between 60-64F it is more citrusy, orange and pomelo. Between 68-72F more toward fruity esters, passion fruit, pineapple, mango, playing well with hops. It's subtle and very smooth.

Nice yeast for IPAs. Slow flocculator though. Definitely needs a cold crash for a few days to a week to settle most out, but remains hazy for a long time. If you want it crystal clear use gelatin. Then dry hop.

There is no trace of banana or bubblegum.

I'll also sing the praises of Wyeast 1272, although I've never had any trouble with flocculation. And I dry hop first and then cold crash with gelatin.
 
I'll also sing the praises of Wyeast 1272, although I've never had any trouble with flocculation. And I dry hop first and then cold crash with gelatin.

After a few generations of use I noticed most of my yeasts started to become more powdery/low floc. Some of those were 3-4 years old from the original pitches by that time. Even ranched yeast from overbuilt starters showed the problem, not sure what caused it.

Replaced with fresh packs, problem solved. Behaviour is again as expected.

I usually dry hop in keg (using a fine mesh muslin bag), hence the gelatin fining before transfer (and dry hop). I read somewhere that hop oils can stick to suspended yeast and particulates and precipitates with them during fining/cold crashing. Not sure if this has been debunked yet.
 
I'm curious that nobody here has mention the yeast harvested from Bell's Oberon or THA. Do we even know what it is? I'm playing around with it right now in several styles.
 
I'm curious that nobody here has mention the yeast harvested from Bell's Oberon or THA. Do we even know what it is? I'm playing around with it right now in several styles.

As has been mentioned, Yeast Bay appear to be selling the Bell's yeast as Midwestern Ale (but it would be cheaper to just harvest it from a Bell's bottle, supposedly Oberon is the beer they use to multiply the yeast in the brewery). I've never had their beer, and not used the yeast, but given the history and what I've read my guess would be that they took one of the Ballantine yeasts (BRY-96 or BRY-97) and it's evolved at the brewery. People seem to think it's not quite as clean as Chico but drops better, which sounds more like a descendant of BRY-97/1272 - perhaps @Biobrewer has done some fingerprinting of his Midwestern yeast, even if he obviously can't comment on Bell's. :)

Here's one review of it versus Conan : https://processbrewing.wordpress.com/2015/12/18/yeast-comparison-conan-vs-bells-yeast-bay/

But I'd argue with the basic premise of this thread - are we talking West Coast IPA, NEIPA, historical British IPA or Belgian IPA? Only one of those would have a clean Chico-type yeast as the "best" yeast for the style.

[Actually I don't really agree with the whole concept of Belgian IPAs with POF+ yeast, but a useful cheat if you're ever asked to make one is to use WLP515 Antwerp or 3655 Schelde - or (I've not tried it) de Koninck bottle dregs - which have impeccably Belgian credentials but which are POF- and more Chico-like in character.]

Another question would be are you trying to maximise hop expression at all costs, or do you want a little biotransformation which will reduce the hop intensity but give you more complexity? Conan tends to leave hops untouched, 1318 will biotransform them somewhat. As does T-58 - you may not want to ferment 100% with a POF+ yeast like T-58, but it seems to be a bit of a thing for the coolest kids on the NEIPA scene to use S-04 with 5-10% T-58 for a hint of spice and hop complexity.

I'm in the middle of a load of yeast trials, which will probably take years to complete :) but for less common yeasts, I'd give a shout out for WLP041 which I enjoyed in the one beer I've made with it - although connected to Redhook it's a relative of WLP002. Still waiting for someone to try Mangrove Jack M15 or Brewlab F40 in a NEIPA though...
 
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