Wyeast 1388 in Belgian Dark Strong/Quad?

[luckybeagle]

Hello,

I'm trying to do a line of Belgians using 1388 via slurry harvesting to see how I like the yeast. Blonde, dubbel, tripel, quad.

1388 does not seem to be a popular yeast for Dark Strongs. I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on using this yeast with, say, the Chimay Blue grist bill or similar?

Does anyone use and recommend 1388 for BDS, or have a tried and true recipe?

 

[luckybeagle]

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[dmtaylor]

I haven't tried it but I see no reason why it wouldn't turn out great. Go for it.

 

[luckybeagle]

Thanks! I will consult BLAM for the flavor profiles of that yeast strain at different temperatures. I always worry about that, especially after making a single malt Tripel with 1214 at 65F and ending up with a hot, berry vodka flavored mess, lol. Maybe the grist of a quad is complex enough to not have such yeast intensity come through. I think 1214 is just much louder than the relatively tame 1388, too, so this might be a non issue. Will post my results once I've got em. Thank you

 

[harrydrez]

It might finish lower than you'd like, it's a diastatic yeast. I'm not sure the flavor profile is ideal, either, try it and report back.

 

[filthyastronaut]

It might finish lower than you'd like, it's a diastatic yeast. I'm not sure the flavor profile is ideal, either, try it and report back.

Even though it has the STA1 Gene, it doesn't seem to attenuate any differently than the non-diastatic Belgian yeasts. I haven't used it in a Dark Strong, but we used the White Labs equivalent at school in a BPA, and it has a really nice profile that I think would be great in darker Belgians.

 

[RmikeVT]

Just do it. Don't let the yeast marketing mess with your brain. A beer brewed with us05 in Belgium is a Belgian beer.

 

[filthyastronaut]

Just do it. Don't let the yeast marketing mess with your brain. A beer brewed with us05 in Belgium is a Belgian beer.

This is so true! Obviously people are looking for esters and phenols most of the time when they are trying to make Belgian styles, but look at Rochfort, and WY 1762. It's a pretty damn clean yeast and nothing like what we usually expect from Belgian beer. People have been making saisons with Ardennes for a long time, and then refuse to see other "Saison" strains as useful for anything but a saison.

 

[RmikeVT]

This is so true! Obviously people are looking for esters and phenols most of the time when they are trying to make Belgian styles, but look at Rochfort, and WY 1762. It's a pretty damn clean yeast and nothing like what we usually expect from Belgian beer. People have been making saisons with Ardennes for a long time, and then refuse to see other "Saison" strains as useful for anything but a saison.

And part of the fun of homebrewing is agonizing over the details.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

It might finish lower than you'd like, it's a diastatic yeast. I'm not sure the flavor profile is ideal, either, try it and report back.

A lot of the yeast that come back positive in DNA tests for the STA1 gene don't produce it because they have a deletion in the control region - see Suregork's paper - http://beer.suregork.com/?p=4068 WLP570 is one of the ones with a deletion that has minimal activity on dextrin, so you'd assume 1388 is the same.

 

[luckybeagle]

Fascinating article, albeit a little over my head at the moment!

And I agree with RmikeVT. I think we're theoretically all out to get better and brew the best, tastiest beers we possibly can. Being able to accomplish that means we have to look at (obsess over) every aspect, ingredient, ratio, process, and piece of equipment, understand what happens and why, and tweak those variables from a (hopefully growing) basis of understanding and experience. It also means experimenting outside of the tried and true! If only I had more time, energy and money to run multiple small batches with yeast being the only changing variable... I suppose I could do 10 gallons of this quad and pitch each carboy with a different yeast. OR pick up a bunch of 1 gallon growlers and spend a small fortune on every belgian yeast available (but expedite the process of finding my favorite yeast for BDS). Hmm.

harrydrez mentioned the quad finishing lower than I would like. I just bottled up a dubbel using 1388, OG 1.071, and ended up with a much lower than anticipated FG of 1.005, which made for ~92.9% attenuation! I just pitched the slurry into a BGS recipe I threw together and will report back on whether or not I finish lower than what I'm anticipating (OG 1.073, target FG 1.010). Is it possible that some batches of 1388 yeast have a more active STA1 gene?