Dry yeast recommendations for two brews

[Kronos]

Can anyone recommend a good dried yeast for a Festbier and a Fullers London Pride, I was thinking of a Lallemand or SafBrew yeast unless there is a better one out there.

 

[NormanHurst]

WHC Einstein worth a look for the Festbier.

There will be lots of opinions on closest dried yeast to Fullers strain.... for what it's worth my favourite for English bitters is 1 pack each of Nottingham and Windsor. Good blend of attenuation and esters.

 

[starseeker]

My recommendation for your bitter would be WHC Old English ,flocs cleanly ,crystal clear ,and at lower temps fairly neutral to let everything else shine .

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Can anyone recommend a good dried yeast for a Festbier and a Fullers London Pride, I was thinking of a Lallemand or SafBrew yeast unless there is a better one out there.

There's no great dried English yeasts - a lot of the good ones don't like being dried, and the drying process tends to stress them so that they don't produce the esters that you want in a classic English pint.

The cheapest option is to use the actual Fuller's yeast, by harvesting it out of a bottle of 1845.

For any kind of German lager, Fermentis 34/70 is the default choice but most yeast companies do a knock-off of it. Lallemand Diamond isn't the same but a lot of German homebrewers prefer it.

 

[Kronos]

Thanks for all the advise everyone, I have ordered the following to keep me going for a bit.

Lallemand Nottingham x 1
Lallemand Windsor x 1
Lallemand Diamond Lager x 1
Fermentis Safale S-04 x 2

I was a big Wyeast fan for the past 10 years but now at around a tenner a pop its just too much for me. Instead of £50.00 for the above 5 in Wyeast format they cost me £20.00, so with what I have saved that has paid for most of the grain.

 

[Dazzelknight]

I 2nd Normanhurst recommendation. I use Windsor & Nottingham for my London Pride clone

 

[MashBag]

I was thinking Nottingham &
Windsor as I read through this, and you beat me to it. Good choice.

 

[Sadfield]

Yes. As suggested by Johnathan Adnams in Secrets Of A Master Brewer, mix british strains or even one of the more subdued Belgian strains.

"For that classic ESB flavor you need look no further than London ESB yeast from Lallemand - all the characteristics of a classic ESB strain in a convenient dry form"

John Keeling (ex-fullers) used to endorse Lallemand London ESB, a shame it's discontinued, but suggests dry yeasts can be up to the job.

 

[dmtaylor]

Diamond and Verdant will give you excellent results.

 

[clib]

I'd say Verdant has too much of the apricot thing for British pale ales. What we need is for Lallemand to produce a dried version of an undistorted 1318 strain, I think! They've proved it can be dried successfully.

But personally I prefer to reuse the liquid strains these days, it doesn't cost much if you get several batches from one packet.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I'd say Verdant has too much of the apricot thing for British pale ales. What we need is for Lallemand to produce a dried version of an undistorted 1318 strain, I think! They've proved it can be dried successfully.

But personally I prefer to reuse the liquid strains these days, it doesn't cost much if you get several batches from one packet.

fridge space is my issue dry wins every time made a delicious weizendopple bock from using MJ bavarian and once that stalled wilko gervin.

 

[clib]

fridge space is my issue dry wins every time made a delicious weizendopple bock from using MJ bavarian and once that stalled wilko gervin.

We all have different needs and circumstances. Yeast needn't take up much if any fridge space, I make starters from bottles of home brew sometimes. And don't store big jars. There are better yeasts than MJ Bavarian and Gervin in my experience, in my opinion at least. But it's a personal thing, no right or wrong.

 

[trueblue]

Re your comments on the price of the Wyeast. I would use one Wyeast for all 5 of your brews. There are a few easy ways of reusing these yeasts and you can get at least 5-6 brews from each pack which makes it cheaper than most dried yeast.

 

[Caramel Ox]

Well you could just as well do five brews from a single dry packet as well it’s just people don’t tend to bother.

For the OP: you would normally pitch 2 packets dry lager yeast in 23l.