Yeast choices

[nostalgia]

Mind boggling. I'm getting ready to buy my next three recipe kits from Austin Homebrew and have to decide on yeast. Being fairly new to brewing, I don't really know what to expect from different yeasts and am a little confused about my choices.

Here are the three kits I'm looking at getting and the yeast options Forrest suggests for each:

Honey Brown: WLP051/Wyeast American Ale 1272/Munton's Gold dry
Oaked Porter: WLP005/Wyeast London Ale 1028/Danstar Windsor dry
Ruddles clone: WLP013/Wyeast London Ale 1028/Danstar Nottingham dry

So...yeah. How does one decide? I like the simplicity and low cost of dry yeasts, but there seems to be such a wider variety of liquid I wonder if I'd be losing the proper "character" of the beer, especially the Ruddles clone. And I know I don't like Munton's in any shape or form.

And what about the WLP005/013 both being options to the Wyeast 1028? Are they that similar?

Thanks from a confused nooblet.

-Joe

 

[avidhomebrewer]

I like Wyeast 1028, nice flavor profile. Will be brewing for the first time with 1272 next week. Haven't used 051/005 or 013 to comment; my LHBS only carries Wyeast.

 

[nostalgia]

Is there a resource somewhere that lists the flavor characteristics of different yeasts? I know Safale US-04 is supposed to be good for producing estery flavors good in ESBs, and US-05 is the "cleaner" version of the same. But that's where I stop knowing things.

-Joe

 

[BarleyWater]

Yeast Guides
Yeast Strains - Brew Your Own (BYO)
Home Page
White Labs
Yeast Strains - Mr. Malty

 

[BarleyWater]

SafAle S-04 is an English variety, US-05 is actually WLP001, or WYeast 1056. Used to be US-56 until WYeast made them change. White Labs and WYeast have many of the same strains, just use different names for them.

 

[nostalgia]

Thanks BarleyWater, some good reading there.

Back to my original confusion, using the Ruddles as an example: WLP013/Wyeast London Ale 1028/Danstar Nottingham dry

WLP013 is described as, "Dry malty ale yeast for pales, bitters and stouts."

The 1028 gets, "Bold and crisp with a rich mineral profile."

Nottingham: "Neutral for an ale yeast; fruity estery aromas."

The descriptions seem pretty far across the flavor spectrum. I realize I won't make a bad beer with any of them, it's just deciding which I want for the particular style that's the hard part.

Then there's WLP005: "English strain that produces malty beers." Is that different from a "dry malty ale yeast"?

I guess the only real way to know is to brew with all of them and taste the differences among them? How does one differentiate the contribution to flavor that yeast has as opposed to, say, temperature variations, grain age, crush, etc?

Thanks again,

-Joe