Which yeasts need the least cold conditioning?

[SMOKEU]

I bottle condition and am very short on fridge space, so unfortunately I don't really get the chance for any proper cold conditioning or lagering (I do have a brew fridge and STC1000 so fermentation temps are never an issue, but I need the space in the fridge to ferment the next batch).

I'm thinking of Kolsch styles, cream ales, etc. I usually only leave my beer in the fridge for 2-3 days at the most before drinking. So I basically want to make lawnmower beers with a quick turnaround that don't need a lot of time for the yeast to "clean up" and stuff at a low temp.

 

[TheMadKing]

I find that kolsch and cream ales benefit from a few weeks of cold conditioning

The quickest turnaround beer I can think of is a traditional Hefeweizen - grain to glass in 10 days or so. You could also look at a british pale ale, they can be quick as well with highly flocculant yeasts such as Wy1969

 

[brewpharm Hill]

Fermentis S04 drops like a brick - would be great for blond ales. I brewed an IPA with WLP001 cal ale yeast and it dropped surprisingly well too unlike US-05 which is known for taking a little longer. I dont brew a ton of lagers so I cant speak to a good floccing lager yeast but I know there is some out there.

 

[Bramling Cross]

Echoing the above remarks, I've found that kolsch yeast can be especially stubborn about dropping clear--I always seem to have a hell of a time getting WY's kolsch strain to drop clear.

Echoing once more, many of the UK ale strains were evolved to do (if not in exact detail, then broadly speaking) what you're describing. I maintain WY1968 and WY1469 cultures in part because they turn around clear, drinkable beer quickly and without fuss.

Diamond Lager Yeast might provide you with a means of producing something adjacent to the kolsch style. Based upon reports that Diamond was a more reasonably priced version of 34/70, I recently ran a series of beers with Diamond Lager. To my chagrin, I found that it isn't a 34/70 analogue, but if you keep it above 55F it's a very fast worker and when it decides to floc, it flocs at almost UK-levels of completeness. Unfortunately, it does need some time to mature, but if you can keep it in your fermentation chamber for 3-4 weeks, it should get you most of the way there. At any rate, it will drop fully clear far more quickly than any kolsch strain I've tried.

Hope this was useful.