Recommend a reliable yeast please?

[chillipickle]

Another vote for US -05. a decent krausen within 24 hrs and done by 7 days, clean and crisp finish.Verdant ipa is another solid yeast imo, can be a bit messy with the krausen, but nearly always finishes in 5 or 6 days.

 

[clib]

ive heard that nottingham can suppress hops a bit?

I wouldn't say it suppresses hops to a great extent. I do think US-05 is so widely uses in American styles because it does such a good job of expressing hops. It's a good starting point. But Nottingham is used by a lot of brewers in hop forward styles too, it's a very good all round yeast for English and American beer styles where you don't want much ester flavour. Wilko Gervin and MJ M42 are both Nottingham, I believe, cheaper than Lalbrew Nottingham.

There are plenty of options for American pales. US-05, Nottingham, Bry-97, M44, S-04, M36, M42, Munton's Gold. These will all do a good and similar job, and there are CML options too. I have had excellent American pales fermented with S-04, possibly the best way to use S-04. Would be a good option too.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Hi. Can anyone recommend a good reliable yeast and quantity needed for 23ltr pale ales please?

Assuming this is in the context of your recent MJ APA kit as discussed here :
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/mangrove-jacks-american-ipa-abv-issues.97247/
then I doubt your yeast is the problem. Presumably it will have been MJ M44, which is assumed to be repacked BRY-97. In general modern dry yeast just works, and the typical 10g or 11g pack is enough for 23 litres of a typical beer <1.060 OG.

So I'd be looking elsewhere for the reason for your apparent lack of attenuation, such as the extract not being fully mixed in before measuring OG, or your measurements being off. It's really common for cheap hydrometers to measure a couple of points off - one really easy check to do is just to see what it thinks the gravity of plain water is, it should be 1.000. Also hydrometers are only accurate at the temperature at which they've been calibrated, typically 20°C - if you measure the gravity when the wort is still warm, then you need to adjust the number for temperature using a tool such as this one :
https://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

 

[jondi11]

I wouldn't say it suppresses hops to a great extent. I do think US-05 is so widely uses in American styles because it does such a good job of expressing hops. It's a good starting point. But Nottingham is used by a lot of brewers in hop forward styles too, it's a very good all round yeast for English and American beer styles where you don't want much ester flavour. Wilko Gervin and MJ M42 are both Nottingham, I believe, cheaper than Lalbrew Nottingham.

There are plenty of options for American pales. US-05, Nottingham, Bry-97, M44, S-04, M36, M42, Munton's Gold. These will all do a good and similar job, and there are CML options too. I have had excellent American pales fermented with S-04, possibly the best way to use S-04. Would be a good option too.

Thanks for the info, appreciated

 

[dave_77]

Mangrove jack's M42 New World - subtle yeast character, attenuates well, starts quickly and drops clear.

 

[Neil Whittaker]

My go to is Lallemand Kveik Voss Dried Yeast if you have the option of fermenting under pressure, to suppress the orange esters.
-Rips through sugar
-Conditions fast (Not sure how this compares to the other recommended yeasts)
-Tolerant to a wide range of temperatures. (Try to keep things stable though)
-Tolerant to under pitching. (Though in initial dried form you should follow Lallemand guide)
-I've harvested (over sized starter), stored and reused same yeast for ages. (Maybe time for a fresh couple of packets)

 

[SilverShadow]

Have to admit, yeast is still a black area for me. I choose US-05, mostly because my inital recipes suggested it!

It's an area I really would like to get to grips with in the long run, as im still a relative newbie.

Although I tend to like my IPA & pales (Citra, Punk IPA, Gamma Ray, Lagunitas, Purity Longhorn, Green Mountain, Adams Mosaic, erc), I really wouldn't know which would make much (if any) difference to my brew

I know there's others in the Chico strain I should try: WLP001, Wyeast 1056, OYL-004

Maybe you should try the same recipe using each type, and see how much difference you notice

 

[Rodcx500z]

CML Atlantic or cml5

 

[foxy]

I spend a lot of time on the American Pro Brewer site and funnily enough the most common yeast they use seems to be SO-4. Just something my subconscious seems to pick up that SO-4 crops up a lot. Not sure if it is because of the better flocculation over US-05 or what.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I choose US-05, mostly because my inital recipes suggested it!

I know there's others in the Chico strain I should try: WLP001, Wyeast 1056, OYL-004

...im still a relative newbie.

In that case I really wouldn't worry about the other members of the Chico family - there's a slight difference between the 1056/US-05 and WLP001 subgroups, thanks to a mutation in the leucine pathway, but you've got to look for it. (see this post on HBT for more details of relationships within the Chico family). You might want to give BRY-97 (or MJ M44 which seems to be a repacked BRY-97) a go as a slightly more "sticky" version of US-05, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about the other Chicos.

Far better to get an idea of the differences between the major yeast groups by splitting 20 litres of the same wort into gallon buckets and fermenting it with different yeasts. Something simple - say 100% pale malt at 1.048, 30 IBU of a clean bittering hop, then 100g of Chinook spread across 10 minute/flameout/whirlpool/dry hop. Ferment one with US-05 or BRY-97/M44 as a clean "baseline", then ferment the second with T-58 to demonstrate how yeast can mess with hop flavour (it turns the grapefruit of Chinook into a more complex lime-y flavour), the third with Belle Saison (or MJ M29 which is repacked Belle) to demonstrate a high-attenuation yeast (be careful to sanitise that bucket extra-carefully afterwards), the fourth with Lallemand Munich Classic as a hefeweizen yeast, and if you've got enough wort left, a fifth with something British - Wyeast 1469, Imperial A09 Pub, harvest from Fuller's 1856 or cask dregs from your local pub, Lallemand Verdant, Windsor, you could do a whole separate split batch just on British yeasts. Oh, and if you've room for a sixth, Lallemand Philly Sour for a sour beer.

You'll get very different beers from that lot, and you'll only be scratching the surface of what you can do with different yeasts. It's no wonder that (the good) pro brewers make such a big deal about their yeast.

 

[MrRook]

My most reliable yeast is Lallamand (or Danstar) Nottingham.

I have an ipa scheduled for a bit later in the month using nottingham. I like BRY-97 for pale ales and ipas, but right now my cellar is at 52-53f (11ish C) and nottingham works better in that range.

 

[trueblue]

I spend a lot of time on the American Pro Brewer site and funnily enough the most common yeast they use seems to be SO-4. Just something my subconscious seems to pick up that SO-4 crops up a lot. Not sure if it is because of the better flocculation over US-05 or what.

Personally I would rather have a tooth pulled than put SO-4 anywhere near my wort.

 

[Jim Brewster]

I used the wilko Gervin recently for a Shipyard tribute. Bottled today and tasted pretty good. I think as long as the yeast is in the right "ballpark" for the intended style the results will probably be ok if everything else is in order

 

[SilverShadow]

In that case I really wouldn't worry about the other members of the Chico family - there's a slight difference between the 1056/US-05 and WLP001 subgroups, thanks to a mutation in the leucine pathway, but you've got to look for it. (see this post on HBT for more details of relationships within the Chico family). You might want to give BRY-97 (or MJ M44 which seems to be a repacked BRY-97) a go as a slightly more "sticky" version of US-05, but otherwise I wouldn't worry too much about the other Chicos.

Far better to get an idea of the differences between the major yeast groups by splitting 20 litres of the same wort into gallon buckets and fermenting it with different yeasts. Something simple - say 100% pale malt at 1.048, 30 IBU of a clean bittering hop, then 100g of Chinook spread across 10 minute/flameout/whirlpool/dry hop. Ferment one with US-05 or BRY-97/M44 as a clean "baseline", then ferment the second with T-58 to demonstrate how yeast can mess with hop flavour (it turns the grapefruit of Chinook into a more complex lime-y flavour), the third with Belle Saison (or MJ M29 which is repacked Belle) to demonstrate a high-attenuation yeast (be careful to sanitise that bucket extra-carefully afterwards), the fourth with Lallemand Munich Classic as a hefeweizen yeast, and if you've got enough wort left, a fifth with something British - Wyeast 1469, Imperial A09 Pub, harvest from Fuller's 1856 or cask dregs from your local pub, Lallemand Verdant, Windsor, you could do a whole separate split batch just on British yeasts. Oh, and if you've room for a sixth, Lallemand Philly Sour for a sour beer.

You'll get very different beers from that lot, and you'll only be scratching the surface of what you can do with different yeasts. It's no wonder that (the good) pro brewers make such a big deal about their yeast.

Great shout, NB!

I don't normally brew in large batches, but I do have some malt extract that i need using up. Providing I stick to the same base recipe i could try dabbling with different yeasts on that

Not perfect, by any means. But probably my best chance of having it reasonably controlled & similar, for making those comparisons

 

[Telboy61]

I would suggest Lallemand Nottingham too, tears through sugar and is very neutral in flavour too.

 

[Agentgonzo]

S-04 or US-05 (or they repackaging, most other vendors have one of these strains, just repackaged) are pretty standard, reliable and easy to used yeasts that give great results

 

[Sandimas]

British Pale Ale - MJ Liberty Bell
US Pale Ale - Safale US05

Both very reliable and very predictable, in terms of yeast attenuation.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I think that another thread mentioned that Mangrove Jack's don't breed their own yeast and that MJ liberty bell is Just S-04, or a blend of S-04 and something else. I may be wrong though

 

[foxy]

I think that another thread mentioned that Mangrove Jack's don't breed their own yeast and that MJ liberty bell is Just S-04, or a blend of S-04 and something else. I may be wrong though

They don't have their own laboratory for producing yeast and it is repackaged, the 40 litre of bitter I made and put into separate fermenters one was pitched with SO-4 the other Liberty Bell. Both fermented at 17C ambient so about 18 t0 19C in the fermenter. The SO-4 got out of the blocks a lot quicker and finished far quicker, the krausen was higher in the SO-4 fermenter, probably due to the ferocity of the ferment. Had a taste of both from the fermenter Liberty Bell has a different taste to the more neutral SO-4. Flocculation appears to be about the same.
I would say only someone in the upper echelons of Bevie would know which yeast is which, but I doubt very much they would divulge that information.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I think that another thread mentioned that Mangrove Jack's don't breed their own yeast and that MJ liberty bell is Just S-04, or a blend of S-04 and something else. I may be wrong though

The general thought seems to be that Liberty Bell doesn't have much in common with S-04, but may be something like a blend of Notty and Windsor.