Yeast Choice for Imperial Porter?

[ultravista]

A pro-brewer friend provided a recipe for an imperial porter and suggested the following for the yeast.

"Good attenuating, malt accentuating, low ester producing ale strain. Look at the English & Scottish strains - find one without heavy aroma/estery character."

Can someone suggest a good attenuating, malt accentuating, low ester producing English/Scottish ale yeast strain that would compliment an imperial porter?

 

[sptaylor70]

Wyeast 1084 Irish (Guinness) is a favorite of many folks brewing English styles. High alcohol tolerance. Some fruit, but not too much.

Also popular are Wyeast 1729 Scottish (malty flavors), 1272 Thames Valley, 1028 London, 1098 Whitbread, 1450 Denny's Favorite Fifty; Fermentis S-04; and Nottingham.

 

[Pratzie]

+1 on Dennys or Nottingham.

 

[Teacher]

I'd say Notty. Just keep the temperature down if you can.

 

[ultravista]

The starting OG is 1.084 and it should finish around 1.015. I've used 007 a bunch with Arrogant Bastards and hadn't though it of for this brew.

What is a Notty equivalent from Wyeast or White Labs?

 

[Xpertskir]

WLP007...all the way.


Ive used it on robust porters and loved it, just mashed high to end up where I wanted to be. It fits all the specs you are looking for.

 

[Rafael_Amarins]

Coincidentally I made my recipe a few days ago and I'll be brewing a 1084 Smoked Robust Porter in the next month. So taking a ride on this thread, I was just worndering which Dry East I could use. Any ideas?

Thanks!

 

[zachattack]

What is a Notty equivalent from Wyeast or White Labs?

Nottingham is a dry yeast, which is one of the reasons why it's so popular. Cheap, stable and a high cell count out of the package. The Chico family of yeasts (US-05, WY1056, WL001) are supposedly descendants of Notty, but using the cheap/easy dry yeast is half the point. Notty is an English strain but it's very clean, especially at low temperature, and it floccs much better than the Chico yeasts.

Coincidentally I made my recipe a few days ago and I'll be brewing a 1084 Smoked Robust Porter in the next month. So taking a ride on this thread, I was just worndering which Dry East I could use. Any ideas?

For a malt driven American style like this I'd definitely go with a Chico strain. Some people (I know Yooper is one of them) don't like US-05 as much as the liquid versions, but I'm a big fan.

 

[ultravista]

It is a coffee/cacao imperial porter, very coffee & Cacao forward. The recipe calls for 100% UK malts too.

 

[Pratzie]

U could consider Pacman as well. That's what Rogue uses for their maibock Dead Guy Ale, a higher gravity, malt accentuated strain. Its supposed to be a monster too, eating thru everything and get the FG down really low. And the San Diego Super Strain is supposed to be similar to that.

 

[ronjonacron]

I was recommended dennys fav 50 for that description you provided.

Edit - whoops someone already mentioned it and notty

 

[ultravista]

zachattack - if you were me, which of the Chico strains would you go with?

 

[zachattack]

Well if you wanted to go with Chico (it seems like other people think that's not your best choice, and it's certainly not what your buddy recommended!) I'd go with the dried US-05. It's cheaper and has a much higher cell count. It may not flocc as highly as the liquid versions, but in such a dark beer you won't notice, and besides since you'll be aging it for a while it'll drop out eventually. IME Notty is almost the exact same yeast but it floccs out faster.