House yeast strain

[sljhudson]

Should a brewery have a house strain or use many commercial strains? Some modern craft beer tastes fantastic but are not distinctive to a specific brewery. Where as, in my opinion some of the most distinctive traditional real ales in the UK, Belgian ales and notable modern craft beers, stand apart because of their house yeast. While it's very clever to produce any style, does this lead to a lack of character and style?

Just interested to hear people's thoughts.


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[Dutto]

I'm not sure that any particular yeast is totally responsible for the character or taste of a specific beer.

Personally, I doubt if I have EVER faithfully and intentionally reproduced ANY of my brews ...

... so the ability to churn out exactly the same brew time after time is the one facet of commercial brewing that I truly admire. :thumb:

When I consider the thousands of variables that I have available with grains, adjuncts, hops and methods the yeast seems to me to be just another factor that may be considered when looking at the "character and style" of a beer.

As a result, (and lazy peasant that I am) I tend to stick to readily available yeasts and obtain them either from my local Wilco for Beer or via the Internet for low temperature Lager. :thumb:

 

[Leon103]

A lot of breweries, especially smaller 'craft' breweries use commercially available yeast. This is because of infection, costs and breweries are now brewing a variety of ales so need different yeast strains.