Graham Wheeler - Brew Your Own British Real Ale - BYOBRA - Yeast Selection

[UKSkydiver]

This might not work, but thought it might be worth discussion.

I recently took ownership of the above publication and, like many, have found that yeasts are not specified for the recipes. I thought it might be worth having a single resource where we can add the yeasts in to the table and over time come to some agreement as to what a suitable yeast (liquid and dry) might be.

Note that the recipes and page numbers relate to the third edition 2009 (2010 reprint) The use of apostrophes seems to be a bit random, so I've tried to replicate the text in the book.

I'm going to have to split this over two posts due to posting limits.

I'm not sure how long I'm able to edit posts; if that time runs out maybe @Chippy_Tea @Covrich @Slid or @the baron could edit the table for us.

Cheers

Section	Page	Recipe	Liquid 1	Liquid 2	Dry 1	Dry 2
Mild Ale	89​	Arkell's Mash Tun Mild
	90​	Banks Hanson's Mild
	91​	Bass Mild	WLP023 (Burton)
	92​	Bateman's Dark Mild
	93​	Belhaven 60/'
	94​	Boddingtons Mild	Wyeast1318 (London III)
	95​	Gale's Festival Mild
	96​	Highgate Mild
	97​	Holden's Black Country Mild
	98​	Hook Norton Hooky Dark
	99​	Hop Back Mild
	100​	Hydes Dark Mild
	101​	Jennings Dark Mild
	102​	McMullen AK
	103​	Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby
	104​	Thwaites Dark Mild
Pale Ale & Bitter	107​	Adnams Bitter	WLP025	WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
	108​	Adnams Broadside	WLP025	WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
	109​	Adnams Explorer	WLP025	WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
	110​	Archers Best
	111​	Archers Village
	112​	Arkels 3B
	113​	Arkels Kingsdown Ale
	114​	Banks's Bitter
	115​	Banks's Original
	116​	Bass Draught Bass
	117​	Bateman's Victory Ale
	118​	Bateman's XXXB
	119​	Bathams Best Bitter
	120​	Belhaven 80/'
	121​	Belhaven 90/'
	122​	Big Lamp Bitter
	123​	Black Sheep Ale
	124​	Black Sheep Best Bitter
	125​	Black Sheep Rigwelter
	126​	Boddingtons Bitter	Wyeast 1318 (London III)
	127​	Brakespear Bitter
	128​	Brakespear Special
	129​	Burton Bridge Bridge Bitter
	130​	Burton Bridge Golder Delicious
	131​	Burton Bridge XL Bitter
	132​	Caledonian 80/'	WLP028	Wyeast1728
	133​	Caledonian Deuchars IPA	WLP028	Wyeast1728
	134​	Camerons Best Bitter
	135​	Camerons Castle Eden Ale
	136​	Camerons Strongarm
	137​	Cotleigh Barn Owl
	138​	Cotleigh Tawny Bitter
	139​	Courage Best Bitter
	140​	Courage Directors
	141​	Donnington BB
	142​	Donnington SBA
	143​	Everards Beacon

 

[UKSkydiver]

Section	Page	Recipe	Liquid 1	Liquid 2	Dry 1	Dry 2
Pale Ale (cont.)	144​	Everards Original
	145​	Everards Tiger
	146​	Exe Valley Autumn Glory
	147​	Exe Valley Dob's Best Bitter
	148​	Exe Valley Spring Beer
	149​	Exmoor Ale
	150​	Exmoor Beast
	151​	Exmoor Gold
	152​	Felinfoel Best Bitter
	153​	Felinfoel Double Dragon
	154​	Flowers IPA
	155​	Flowers Original
	156​	Fuller's Discovery
	157​	Fuller's ESB
	158​	Fuller's London Pride
	159​	Gale's Butser Bitter
	160​	Gale's HSB
	161​	Harviestoun Ptarmigan
	162​	Hook Norton Hooky Bitter
	163​	Hook Norton Old Hooky
	164​	Hop Back Summer Lightning
	165​	Hydes Original Bitter
	166​	J. W. Lees Bitter
	167​	J. W. Lees Moonraker
	168​	Jennings Cocker Hoop
	169​	Jennings Cumberland Ale
	170​	Marstons Burton Bitter
	171​	Marstons Pedigree
	172​	McMullen Country Best Bitter
	173​	Mourhouses Pendle Witches Brew
	174​	Morland Old Speckled Hen
	175​	Ringwood Best Bitter
	176​	Ringwood Fortyniner
	177​	Ringwood Old Thumper
	178​	Robinsons Old Stockport
	179​	Robinsons Old Tom
	180​	Ruddles Best
	181​	Theakston Best
	182​	Theakston Old Peculier
	183​	Timothy Taylor Best Bitter
	184​	Timothy Taylor Landlord
	185​	Wadworth 6X
	186​	Wadworth JCB
	187​	Wadworth Old Father Timer
	188​	Worthington White Shield
	189​	Young's Special
Porter & Stout	193​	Bateman's Salem Porter
	194​	Burton Bridge Top Dog Stout
	195​	Caledonian Porter	WLP028	Wyeast1728
	196​	Fuller's London Porter
	197​	Guinness Extra Stout
	198​	Ringwood XXXX Porter

 

[MickDundee]

WLP028 is supposedly the Caledonian strain

London Ale III is supposedly the Boddingtons strain (but not the “original” strain)

 

[obscure]

For dry yeast on Archers Best I find either S-04 or Nottingham give surprisingly good results.

 

[Scrattajack]

Great idea.

I did the Bass Mild with WLP023 and was pleased with the result.

 

[Galena]

Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.
If you wish to get Adnams Dual strain then it can be harvested (I have done so) from Adnams Mini Cask (and not the mini kegs) however at this time it looks like they are discontinued or unavailable and only the Kegs are now sold. The difference being that the kegs are filtered and so reportedly contain no yeast. However @An Ankoù did do an experiment with the Ghost Ship Keg and had success in reviving the yeast, one has to assume it is the dual strain and not another.

 

[An Ankoù]

Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.
If you wish to get Adnams Dual strain then it can be harvested (I have done so) from Adnams Mini Cask (and not the mini kegs) however at this time it looks like they are discontinued or unavailable and only the Kegs are now sold. The difference being that the kegs are filtered and so reportedly contain no yeast. However @An Ankoù did do an experiment with the Ghost Ship Keg and had success in reviving the yeast, one has to assume it is the dual strain and not another.

Quite so, @Galena and I was able to keep it going through several generations. However, it was a very fresh keg. When I tried it a second time with a keg near its best-by date, I got nothing at all.

Anyway, I've moved on from Adnam's now in favour of Allinson's Easy Bake!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.

All the US yeast labs only sell single strains unless explicitly marked as a blend. It seems that when White Labs and Wyeast harvested the Adnams multistrain, they ended up with different strains and so in theory mixing WLP025 and Wyeast 1335 will sort-of recreate the Adnams yeast - but it's never quite the same, and you could buy a mini-cask for not much more than the cost of 2 packs of liquid yeast.

WLP028 is supposedly the Caledonian strain

London Ale III is supposedly the Boddingtons strain (but not the “original” strain)

It's worth noting that WLP028 and 1728 are rather different, but again I suspect they're just different members of a multistrain that was effectively pooled between most of the Edinburgh brewers.

"Classic" Boddies in the 1970s had insane attenuations of over 90%, so you definitely need to use a diastatic yeast to recreate it, maybe Belle Saison fermented cool, or Omega Gulo. London Ale III is a member of the Whitbread family and I suspect it came originally from a Boddies Pub Ale (= Boddies Export) that was brewed at a Whitbread factory after Strangeways closed.

 

[Galena]

and you could buy a mini-cask for not much more than the cost of 2 packs of liquid yeast.

if you can still get them

 

[foxbat]

I don't believe any of the Internet claims of origin for the UK yeasts.

 

[aamcle]

Mangrove Jack's have a chart giving yeast name against style it's easy and quite accurate.


ATB

 

[UKSkydiver]

I was right, this might not work!

So far I have:

WLP028 - Caledonian / WLP028 and Wyeast 1728 poss cousins
(London Ale III) Wyeast 1318 - Boddingtons / from Boddies Export
WLP023 (Burton) - Bass Mild
White Labs WLP025 - Southwold Ale / WLP025 and Wyeast 1335 Blended

I'm so new to this brewing lark that I can't actually offer any empirical evidence or opinion, I just came up with the idea. Will edit the tables as best I can with your input.

EDIT:
** Question ** - Adnams for example, would I put WLP025 / Southwold against all of the brews?
Cheers

 

[peebee]

Further to @Northern_Brewer's last reply: There was a long discussion recently on Boddington's Bitter. Much of it revolving about the yeast. Pre 95 Boddingtons anyone ?.

One beer, one yeast. I think it's a good illustration of how outrageously difficult this thread has to be to avoid just becoming another one of those lists of yeasts paired with different beer types that already infests the Web with nonsense. In the case of Boddington's it's one beer and, a multitude of yeasts: Now just figure out which date Graham Wheeler was working to when writing that book ...

It doesn't take a genius (if living in UK) to figure there's something desperately wrong with the lists that suggest "London Ale III" is the Boddington's (Manchester) yeast strain . But then the likelihood that Boddington's replenished their yeast at least twice last Century from Tadcaster (Yorkshire) is equally confusing.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Keep the information flowing in.

I think (as is advised in many recommendations dotted about) with this project you must look at the qualities you're trying to replicate in the beer, and match them with the qualities a yeast might bring. And if that means a Japanese yeast to ferment a British beer, so be it, just don't get fooled by the daft names on the packets and the cobblers you can read on the Web or from the manufacturers.

 

[trueblue]

I have brewed around 20 from that list, along with quite a few others from his first two books, and the yeasts have always been either Wyeast, Whitelabs, live yeast from a local brewery or occasionally yeast from commercial bottle conditioned beers. I have found providing you pick a yeast suited to a particular style most come out fine. Some recipe's have been repeated several times using different yeast but unless I sit down and look back over 30-40 years worth of notes it's hard to remember what achieved the best results. Ones that do come to mind TT landlord and Old Peculiar using Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire was very good, WLP002 always seemed to work well for most "ordinary" bitters. Yeast from Fullers 1845 bottles are a must for any of the Fullers beers.

 

[Festival Man]

Quite so, @Galena and I was able to keep it going through several generations. However, it was a very fresh keg. When I tried it a second time with a keg near its best-by date, I got nothing at all.

Anyway, I've moved on from Adnam's now in favour of Allinson's Easy Bake!

Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?

 

[moto748]

I assumed that was a joke, Maybe I was wrong?

 

[An Ankoù]

Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?

It was a joke, @Festival Man, for the very reasons you mention.
As it happens, though, I've been itching to do an experiment with bread yeast just to see what really happens. I suspect the bacteria levels are not so well controlled as with brewing yeast.

I believe some of the northern Scandinavian traditional brews use their local bread yeast.

 

[Galena]

I've used Allinson's Easy Bake only this morning in fact

 

[JockyBrewer]

WLP002 always seemed to work well for most "ordinary" bitters. Yeast from Fullers 1845 bottles are a must for any of the Fullers beers.

Completely agree - WLP002 is fine, but quite plain compared to the real Fullers yeast.

The first time I tasted a strong bitter (157 Fullers ESB in the boom) where I had used yeast from bottles of 1845 it was a proper ‘eureka!’ moment.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?

Don't listen to what USians have to say about bread yeast, as they seem to have a very different strain as their main bread yeast. I've used Allinson's and it seems to be fine - not the most exciting but it ferments 5% beers fine.