Yeast- what's the difference?

[bruno24]

I have used the white labs liquid yeast in my batches. What is the difference between the other yeasts that are out there? I imagine that as long as the yeast does its job then you can use any yeast.....right?

 

[Baldy_Beer_Brewery]

You mean the difference between dry or liquid. Or the differences in strains? Because the differences in strains can be huge.

 

[markg388]

they all do the job sure, but they all taste different and require different things from the brewer.

 

[GilaMinumBeer]

Yeast are evaluated by the labs for alocohol and temperature tolerance and then scrutinized for byproduct production as relates productively for beer styles.

That is, after they have been isolated for purity.

 

[bruno24]

I should have been more specific, sorry for the confusion................Most kits have a choice of 4, 5 or 6 different yeasts. If I made the same beer from the kit exactly the same but used the different yeast offered and made the 4, 5 or 6 kits, would the results be the same and would each beer taste the same?

 

[r8rphan]

They would likely all taste different.. Pretty noticeably.. Different yeast strains also often act differently during fermentation.... ie, some are more vigorous, flocculate differently, start fermenting sooner or later, etc...

A great way to see how this works, is to split your batch into two separate fermenters (10G boils are perfect for this) and try a different yeast in each...

 

[rescuedogrr2010]

Your mind is ripe for a dip into the microbiology kiddie pool young grasshoppa. Thorough how to brew books (hint) scratch the surface enough to give you an idea of the variety in yeast strains, what it does to contribute to the style of your beer and how to have FUN experimenting. I'm currently tearing my way through white and zainasheff's book on yeast. of course just getting out there and brewing is the real fun, but i have to have something to do in between brews Isn't learning fun?!?

 

[Grinder12000]

I home brew buddy made a Scotch Heavy with 2 different yeasts - totally different tasting brew.

 

[downinit]

Different yeasts have different properties such as attenuation level, ester production and diacytal production, to name a few. Look on the White Labs site or the Wyeast site for details.
Low Attenuating yeasts produce malty, sweeter beers while high attenuating yeasts produce dry beers with higher alcohol and more hop flavor.
Esters give the beer a fruity flavor such as bananas, etc. Fermenting at higher temps increases the ester level. Most yeasts produce low levels of esters.
Some yeasts even produce other flavors such as a cloves or other spice-like flavors.

A good place to find the attenuation levels of differing yeasts can be found at http://www.highgravitybrew.com/BeerYeastChart-attenuation.html

 

[SKMO]

There is a ton of information here:

http://www.mrmalty.com/yeast.htm

As far as I know this is the Holy Grail of yeast reference.

 

[A4J]

I should have been more specific, sorry for the confusion................Most kits have a choice of 4, 5 or 6 different yeasts. If I made the same beer from the kit exactly the same but used the different yeast offered and made the 4, 5 or 6 kits, would the results be the same and would each beer taste the same?

Where are you getting your kits from?
Are you talking about, for example, Austin Homebrew Supply's Altbier Ale kit which has the option of getting White Labs WLP029 or Wyeast 1007 or Munton's Dry Yeast? In that case, they're all pretty much the same, except that they're different brands or that it's liquid vs. dry.