WLP072 - French Ale Yeast

[Mr_Pear]

Thoughts, feelings, impressions?

I'm planning on brewing a BdG up this weekend and I have a vial of this to use but I haven't been able to find a lot of info on people that have used it before. Most people seem to be happy with it but I was wondering what kind of flavors and esters people are getting? I also haven't decided what temp I want to ferment at. Doing a pretty simple mash (pilsner, vienna and munich) and some melanodin malt plus a lbs of candi syrup so I'm hoping to get pretty good attenuation so I was leaning towards fermenting on the cooler side unless I'll be missing out some sort of secretly awesome esters/phenols from fermenting higher.

 

[GTG]

How did this come out? I see this is one of their Platinum offerings for this quarter.

GTG

 

[Brew-boy]

I used it last year and love this yeast. I have been waiting for it to come back again in May. Where did you get your already?

 

[GTG]

I used it last year and love this yeast. I have been waiting for it to come back again in May. Where did you get your already?

Didn't get any yet but saw it listed at White Labs - http://whitelabs.com/beer/2012_Platinum_Strain_Series_Release.pdf

Sorry, I guess it's not a quartely thing.

GTG

 

[joshs]

Does anyone know if there is a wyeast equivalent? Just curious.

Josh

 

[bluelakebrewing]

bump /\. can anyone answer the above? Is there a wyeast equivalent for white labs french ale?

 

[nolabrew85]

I know there is a queasy French saison

 

[bluelakebrewing]

Thanks. The french saison is a bit different than what im looking for but ill read up a bit more on it. Any personal experience with that yeast?

 

[TNGabe]

bump /\. can anyone answer the above? Is there a wyeast equivalent for white labs french ale?

Pretty sure there isn't a Wyeast Version. WLP072 isn't on MrMalty's list. WY3725 Biere de Garde is very different and reportedly from Fantome. I've read or heard somewhere WLP072 if from Jenlain, but I can't remember where and have no idea if it's true.

For me WLP072 does best in the low 60s, pretty clean at those temps, but gets estery warmer. Doesn't like to be cooled, have to keep temp under control from the beginning. Floculates well and bottle conditions quickly. Should be out again May-ish, but kolsch yeast is a safe bet for 'French' farmhouse styles.

 

[Mr_Pear]

Sorry I didn't ever reply to this thread, I didn't realize there was ever replies. The beer came out really well, seemed like it was pretty clean, good malt flavor. I fermented mine on oak chips so most of the flavor contribution was from that. I had good attenuation from the yeast and my beer was really well received. I would echo what TNGabe said and I think that a kolsch yeast would also work really well for a BDG.

 

[daksin]

I actually like the fruitiness you get from fermenting WLP072 warmer- no unpleasant esters or fusels, almost belgian-like, but if you're brewing for competition, it's definitely inappropriate for a BdG. Tasty yeast- I wonder what it would be like fermented hot like a saison. Bet you could do a lot of different styles with it.

 

[emsroth]

Long resurrection. I have been brewing an annual biere de garde with local malts for 2 years, this will mark my 3rd.

The first year was an all-Munich with WLP003 which is German III yeast. Mighty tasty, but I want funk.

Last year the grain bill was 50% pale ale, 25% Munich, and 25% dark wheat (5L or so). The yeast was a blend- California lager for a week at 65 then French Saison for a week at 65, then a week at 75. It has kind of a weird, blended flavor. The yeasts clash.

This year it will be the same grain bill but WLP072 at 72F. I really like fruitiness, almost kolsch but with Belgian esters. 3 Monts is definitely the style I dig. Clean but fruity and rustic.

 

[sven945]

I'm planning on brewing a Biere de Garde with this, as my local shop has got some WLP072 yeast in stock. Has anyone used it for anything else? I'm trying to make the most of any yeast that I buy, using it for a couple of brews at least. I've not found much talk of its versatility, but that's probably because it's a seasonal strain and people aren't likely to have experimented with it quite so much.

 

[emsroth]

I'm planning on starting it with a nice Belgian table bier. 5.1%, goldings hops, pale ale malt with a little wheat and Crystal 150L for some raisin and chewiness.

Then the harvest will be used for a biere de garde this summer. I want it estery but restrained.

 

[sven945]

I'm planning on starting it with a nice Belgian table bier. 5.1%, goldings hops, pale ale malt with a little wheat and Crystal 150L for some raisin and chewiness.

Then the harvest will be used for a biere de garde this summer. I want it estery but restrained.

Sounds interesting. Presumably you'd ferment the "Belgian" table beer high to try and get some of the fruitier flavours from it?

I was wondering if this yeast could be used to make a pseudo dunkel type thing. I was going to get Kolsch yeast to make both a Biere de garde and a Dunkel, but since my local shop has WLP072 in stock I'm considering making a more "authentic" BdG and perhaps a more experimental dunkel.

 

[emsroth]

I have used kolsch yeast to make a good dunkel bock. Lots of Vienna with a touch of carafa for color. Tasty and malty with minimal fruitiness. I feel that the Altbier yeast would be better, however, because it offers more character.

The last time I used a "clean" Belgian yeast the beer turned out poorly. Imperial B51 Workhorse/Wyeast 1581 Belgisn Stout/Kasteel yeast was supposed to be clean but had way too much clove. But have fun with the experiment. Perhaps split the batch and ferment at the extremes of the yeast.

 

[sven945]

I'm brewing a biere de garde with this. 58% lager malt, 29% munich, 6% aromatic malt and 7% sugar, with 21.6 IBUs. I've tried to keep the temperature around 18ºC, but today when I was at work (after about 36 hours of fermentation) it's reached 21ºC (70º). Still at the limits of what the yeast is rated for to produce a "clean" fermentation, but still annoying. I'm trying to lower it down to at most 20º tonight if I can.

I'm tempted to do an unashamedly warm fermentation of this yeast, just to see what it's like.

 

[emsroth]

Nice! Let us know how it turns out.

My recommendation is to NOT turn down the temp. It only happened with one beer, but the temp drop ruined it. 5 gallons of beautiful Baltic Porter to waste because the temp naturally dropped 3 degrees.

 

[sven945]

Well it looks like my living room at night only cooled it to 20°C (which is a more realistic temperature without a brew fridge, in June even in Scotland). It might not be quite as clean as I hoped, but I'm sure it'll be nice.

Thanks for the advice on not dropping the temperature!

 

[sven945]

I made the BdG and it's tasting okay young. I harvested some of the starter to reuse, and I quite fancy fermenting it warm to see what the fruitiness is like. I was thinking something like this, for 12 litres:

2.2kg (84%) lager malt
250g (10%) wheat malt
150g (6%) Simpsons Double Roasted Crystal (supposedly like special B)

20g saaz @ 90 minutes
30g hallertauer mittelfruh @ 20 minutes

Fermenting at about 23ºC (73ºF, about the limit of what it's rated for). 30 IBUs, aiming for an OG of 1050. Any thoughts?

 

[emsroth]

That's close to my recipe. Dark Crystal is fantastic but may skew the flavor of you're looking to learn what it can do at high temps (fruit esters vs fruit notes from the crystal malt).

Just okay young? I have a saison on tap fright now, and I am learning I don't like saazer type hops. With Belgian yeast they make clove-like notes I am not fond of. Perhaps
I should use a more gentle hand than 4oz late boil...

 

[sven945]

That's close to my recipe. Dark Crystal is fantastic but may skew the flavor of you're looking to learn what it can do at high temps (fruit esters vs fruit notes from the crystal malt).

I'm probably doing my usual thing of planning to change too many variables in experiments, making them semi meaningless... I'll maybe stick to the lager malt and wheat in this case, maybe sub in munich for some colour, and save the DRC idea for another experiment where it can shine.

Just okay young? I have a saison on tap fright now, and I am learning I don't like saazer type hops. With Belgian yeast they make clove-like notes I am not fond of. Perhaps
I should use a more gentle hand than 4oz late boil...

There's something about it that I can't quite describe that I don't like, a texture rather than a taste. It's something that I've had from a Dubbel that I made, I'm not sure if it's an infection or oxidisation or something, or maybe nothing. I should feed a bottle to some people more experienced than I and I'm sure they'll be able to help.

 

[LostBoyScout]

I've made a few BdG's now, and my least favourite was the one I added a small amount of dark malt to (touch of de-bittered black), and won't be doing that again. My favourite so far was equal portions pilsner, vienna and munich with about 4% caramunich and 6% plain sugar to round it out.

I haven't used WLP072 yet but WY3725 and WLP515 have provided good results.

 

[sven945]

I'm just coming to the end of the boil on my experiment with this yeast. I went for just 2.5kg lager and 200g malted wheat (12 litres), with 30g saaz at the start, 20g hallertau mittelfruh at 20 minutes and another 20g at 5 minutes. I'll ferment it at 23°C and see what happens. What could possibly go wrong?!

 

[emsroth]

Finally got my beer in. An estate biere de garde with ingredients from one farm.

36 hours at 70 F and then bumped up to 73F. I'll tell you I was scared to bump it up, but I like estery Bieres de Garde. Let's see what happens!

 

[sven945]

Finally got my beer in. An estate biere de garde with ingredients from one farm.

36 hours at 70 F and then bumped up to 73F. I'll tell you I was scared to bump it up, but I like estery Bieres de Garde. Let's see what happens!

Exciting! Mine's probably done (I did a reading after a week and it was at 1008), so I'll maybe bottle on Thursday, assuming it's not gone down any further. My last sample had some fruitiness from the yeast, so I'm excited to see how it tastes after a couple of weeks in bottles.