Brewlabs yeast

[rpt]

I want to move away from dried yeast and fancy trying the Brewlabs yeasts. I've used Nottingham and S04 and would like something more fruity. I bottle so I would like it to sediment well. Any recommendations?

The different yeast have different mineral requirements. Anyone know what low, medium and high mean? My water is soft with lowish mineral content but I add gypsum etc.

 

[Good Ed]

I wouldn't worry too much about the mineral requirements.

For yeast choice it depends on what you are brewing, and they have a huge database of yeasts other than their published list. I've tried Thames Valley 2 (an old Hampshire Brewery's yeast), Thames Valley 3 (a well known London Brewery's yeast), Timothy Taylor, F40 (S&N) and their Borders yeast. All very good and made to order, so very fresh. Simply make a starter with say 30g DME and 300ml cooled boiled water and then step this up with a 1L or 2L starter depending on what you are brewing.

Any questions ask Alison at [email protected] , just tell her what you are brewing and what you want out of the yeast and get her recommendation.

 

[dennisking]

Any questions ask Alison at [email protected] , just tell her what you are brewing and what you want out of the yeast and get her recommendation.

+1 She is very helpful.

 

[rpt]

Thanks for the replys. I will contact Alison and see what she suggests. I have a bit of time as I have a sachet of Windsor to use first and that will do at least 2 brews.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

+ another one for Brewlab...

Alison is fantastic, has been brilliant in advising me with setting up my brewery. She advised me of a couple of yeasts to try, F40 and another "special yeast to me".

The F40 is a very stable yeast, good with hop flavours, ferments quickly and drops well for bottling, it crops well for reuse too. The "special yeast" is one dear to my heart, the Sheffield strain, it is a beast of a yeast. I brewed on Saturday 77.5 litres of 1040 og bitter in my 100litre fermenter and it is currently trying to climb out of the top...smells delightful.

 

[dennisking]

+ another one for Brewlab...

Alison is fantastic, has been brilliant in advising me with setting up my brewery. She advised me of a couple of yeasts to try, F40 and another "special yeast to me".

The F40 is a very stable yeast, good with hop flavours, ferments quickly and drops well for bottling, it crops well for reuse too. The "special yeast" is one dear to my heart, the Sheffield strain, it is a beast of a yeast. I brewed on Saturday 77.5 litres of 1040 og bitter in my 100litre fermenter and it is currently trying to climb out of the top...smells delightful.

What brewery was that Rob, Wards?

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

+ another one for Brewlab...

Alison is fantastic, has been brilliant in advising me with setting up my brewery. She advised me of a couple of yeasts to try, F40 and another "special yeast to me".

The F40 is a very stable yeast, good with hop flavours, ferments quickly and drops well for bottling, it crops well for reuse too. The "special yeast" is one dear to my heart, the Sheffield strain, it is a beast of a yeast. I brewed on Saturday 77.5 litres of 1040 og bitter in my 100litre fermenter and it is currently trying to climb out of the top...smells delightful.

What brewery was that Rob, Wards?

No Dennis the clue is what is in my FV1...

 

[dennisking]

Only time I've been to Sheffield' in the 1970's I enjoyed both Ward's and Stone's. But used to get stones in cans around here, would not believe it was the same brewer.

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Only time I've been to Sheffield' in the 1970's I enjoyed both Ward's and Stone's. But used to get stones in cans around here, would not believe it was the same brewer.

In cans it was rubbish, on hand pull, it was a revelation. My drinking house of choice, "Hill top social club" was the last place to serve Stones within Sheffield Boundaries. By this time it was a shadow of its former self, downgraded from the original Jungle Juice 4.3% to nearer 3.7%, it was a cheaply hopped beer at the end rather than the full on Challenger, Northdown and Dryhopped goldings hop bomb that it once was...

The yeast, is now used by a couple of big regional breweries, specialising in hoppy beers

 

[saccharomyces]

Thus far, I have only used Somerset 1 and Devon 1. What I can tell you is that Somerset 1 and Devon 1 tend to behave badly in higher-gravity worts. Somerset 1 threw huge amounts of metabolic byproducts in a 17.5P (1.072) wort. The resulting beer was undrinkable. Devon 1 produced well above taste threshold amounts of amyl acetate (the banana ester) and phenolic compounds in a 15.5P (1.062) wort.

With that said, I believe that Somerset 1 would be a good yeast for the lower gravity ales that are a popular in the UK. It produces what I like to refer to as the "British lollipop ester" in spades. The chemical name for this ester is ethyl heptanoate. Ethyl heptanoate smells just like an artificially-flavored grape lollipop (one of my children remarked that the beer smelled like cheap wine when I racked from the primary fermentation vessel). At a lower levels, ethyl heptanoate adds a nice note to beers that are finished with sweet and floral smelling hops.

I cannot stand the taste of banana and spice in a beer; therefore, it is difficult for me to be objective about Devon 1. The yeast culture may be okay for producing pseudo-German wheat-style ales; however, banana and spice do not come to mind when I think British ale yeast. Had I taken the time to read the specialist_yeast.pdf file on Brewlab's web site before placing my order, I would have known that Devon 1 was a banana and spice producer.

"This West Country ale yeast has slow but steady fermentation abilities, prefers a low mineral wort and can produce a sulphur flavoured beer. Moderate to high ester flavours giving a banana aroma. Light phenolic flavours may be produced. It flocculates moderately producing high head initially and cells sediment moderately at the end of fermentation. "

I currently have F40, Yorkshire 2, and East Midlands 1 slants (a.k.a. "slopes" in UK terms) that have not been tested. I am seriously considering plating these cultures for "singles" and growing new slants to ensure that I am working with healthy cultures. The slants spent a week in transit from the UK to the U.S. during a very warm period.

Finally, anyone who is considering ordering cultures from Brewlab should take the time to read the specialist_yeast.pdf file. This file contains a significant amount of brewing data. In my humble opinion, a key parameter in each yeast profile is POF. The acronym POF stands for phenolic off-flavors. Anyone who does not care for spicy, smoky, or medicinal flavors in his/her beer should look for cultures that list the value "negative" for POF.

 

[brewtim]

Only time I've been to Sheffield' in the 1970's I enjoyed both Ward's and Stone's. But used to get stones in cans around here, would not believe it was the same brewer.

The first time I got dizzy drunk was on Stones Best Bitter (in cans), from memory it was about 3.7% but still to much for a, errr, 12 year old :whistle:

 

[Dronfieldbrewer]

Only time I've been to Sheffield' in the 1970's I enjoyed both Ward's and Stone's. But used to get stones in cans around here, would not believe it was the same brewer.

The first time I got dizzy drunk was on Stones Best Bitter (in cans), from memory it was about 3.7% but still to much for a, errr, 12 year old :whistle:

Ive been "off my face" on Stones best bitter at the full throttle 4.3% more times than I care to mention, beautifull fruity sweet drink it was at the time...

Wards used to give me the dribbly shits...after a night on Wards, the bog looked like a plasterers radio

 

[pittsy]

Wards used to give me the dribbly shits...after a night on Wards, the bog looked like a plasterers radio

Pure poetry :lol: :lol: