Yeast selection - IPA

Redlantern · Jul 26, 2016

Hi all - been doing IPA's for a while now and really do not intend to stop. Love how easy they are and love the flavor.

My next batch, I am looking ot play with yeast a little more. I am comfortable with grains and hops, but yeast is a new area.

The idea is for an IPA with about 15-20% wheat and a yeast that has a medium to high attenuation and low floc. For some reason, I seem to like a bit of yeast floating around.

Maybe I am misinterpreting what I am tasting, but there seems to be a fantastic flavor in unfiltered, cloudy IPA's and the ones I like have a low floc so I am guessing that the yeast is adding to the flavor.

Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?

TravelingLight · Jul 26, 2016

When I first started, I brewed a bunch of IPAs with US-05. I liked it. Good yeast, attenuated well. But my last IPA I got some Conan (Giga - Vermont) and was blown away. Not saying it'll be the only yeast I use from now on in my IPAs, but it'll definitely be one of my go-to yeasts.

pshankstar · Jul 26, 2016

I've used US-05, S-04, Wyeast 1272 (wasn't a fan but will try it again) and Danstar BRY-97 (liked this one) in previous brews.

Right now I am doing a comparison using WLP001 and Wyeast 1187 (Ringwood) to see how the yeast differs. I'm in the same boat as you, love my IPAs but would like to play around with some different yeast strains too. Good luck!

I have another 10-14 days before I can keg and bottle my current experiment.

m00ps · Jul 26, 2016

WY1318 is also a good choice if you are looking for something that your LHBS is more likely to carry. Its attenuation is a bit less than something like US-05, but definitely works better for IPAs in the same vein as you are describing. Depending on the target OG of your IPA, I would just take the slightly lower attenuation into account and mash lower / use sugar

Redlantern · Jul 26, 2016

I have a recipe that would probably work well with the 1318. Have actually used 1968 in a recent batch that just got bottled last night. Turned out very well.

Tried Denny's Favorite in one test to see if I could get what I want, but the malt seems to have been the benefactor of the yeast in that batch instead of the hops.

I guess what I am looking for is the hint of funk - like below Brett but still present. I have tasted this in brews after the exponential growth phase of the yeast but before FG. I really get it before fermentation is done and I have to imagine that it is from the yeasties still swimming around. It never holds until bottling though and I want it. Maybe a second pitch of Brett is what I want, but how do you control that so it is only "kind of there"?

Redlantern · Jul 26, 2016

TravelingLight said:
When I first started, I brewed a bunch of IPAs with US-05. I liked it. Good yeast, attenuated well. But my last IPA I got some Conan (Giga - Vermont) and was blown away. Not saying it'll be the only yeast I use from now on in my IPAs, but it'll definitely be one of my go-to yeasts.

I have a few recipes where the Omega DIPA is simply MANDATORY. Allegedly Conan as well. This yeast has a huge place in my heart (and belly) for sure.