Recommend Me Some Dry Yeast

[matt76]

I would be very interested to know what dry yeasts you recommend, and in particular for what beer styles.

I brew a variety of styles (dark, light, hoppy malty, lagers) so I'm open to all inspiration.

Two or three main reasons for this:

1. Fresh packs of Wyeast have served me very well up to now. The cost isn't an issue at all, it's more the shelf life - I can keep some assorted packs of dry yeast in the fridge for much longer, ready for impromptu brew days.

2. I've reused Wyeast many times, both by pitching on to the yeast cake and growing a starter from harvested yeast. In general this has been successful, but I've had 2-3 brews go sideways on me - could be a yeast issue so I want to remove that variable for now and stick to fresh packs of yeast.

3. Trying something new - who knows what I might have been missing all this time!

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[The Baron]

My go to dry yeast is good old Wilko Ale yeast belived to be Nottingham. I use it for most styles apart from really light beers as it compacts down really well. For lighter beers I use CML Kolsch or Cali Common for pseudo lagers, goldens etc. At the mo I have Mangrove Jacks M29 French Saison on the go but it has not finished yet so no verdict.

 

[An Ankoù]

Fermentis Safale US-05 is my go to ale yeast as it attenuates better than S-04 and I'm not fond of sweet beers (beginning to avoid crystal malts wherever I can, too). Saflager W 34-70 is amazing; it makes a great pilsner at lager temperatures, but makes good ale at ale temperatures and it'll tolerate 25C without producing off flavours. Mangrove Jack M42 is an old Whitbread yeast that works well, but can get smelly if stressed, and their bohemian pilsner yeast is my first choice for Czech pils.
If you crop your yeast and repitch it in future brews, it's no longer dried yeast.
While some people swear by it, I'm not very impressed by Wilco gervin ale yeast. Although I keep a couple foe emergencies.
I expect the debate over yeast is going to reach brexit proportions and it really is a matter of personal taste and fermenting conditions. For example I don't use a brew fridge so prefer more tolerant yeasts and use different yeasts during different seasons.

 

[Drunkula]

Liberty Bell.

 

[An Ankoù]

Safbrew WB-06 has been my go to yeast for wheat beers, but I'm beginning to have my doubts about it. In the day, I used to culture the yeast from Sainsbury Taste-The-Difference wheat beers (which were made by Meantime) thus produced some gorgeous flavours and I've never made wheat beers as good since so I'll be looking for a new one this summer.

 

[Rodcx500z]

Go to yeast is gervin, I like us-05 and 04, last 3 brews have been hog norst but it doesn't pack down well all 3 brews were very good, I have a booklet for mj yeast given ti me by local hbs each yeast has a write up its a good reference worth getting hold of

 

[Hanglow]

I like dry yeasts and you can artificially extend the range of them by co pitching them ( Darkstar for example pitch s04/us05 /notty all at the same time). I've seen improvements by upping the pitching rate to about 1g/l for my beers which tend to be around 1.052 or thereabouts OG.

US-05 is probably the best to let hops shine, I presume because it isn't particularly flocculant so if you like a clear ale quickly you'll need to fine it. But it is very clean at a fair range of temperature

BRY-97 is the second best for hops imo and has a bit more character, also drops bright quickly. Can take a while to get going for some people

I like the esters from ESB and Windsor but don't like their attenuation, so I now always pitch these with a stronger finishing yeast ( I've used Notty and BRY-97 for this)

S04 I only like in stouts but it's quite good for them. Notty I like for stronger ales (6% to 8% range) rather than things like bitters or milds

Danstar Munich Classic ale is the only dry yeast I'd recommend for german wheat beers, it's very good. One packet is fine for a batch of 1.056 beer

I quite like Belle Saison for saisons but it's a bit peculiar as it finishes so low but also has a lot of body and lack of dryness from all the glycerol it produces. There are definitely a few better wet saison yeasts about

I've only tried a few of the CML yeasts and liked the Kolsch one the most, I'd use it again.

Never been impressed with the various belgian/abbey dry yeasts, I've used a few but WLP530 etc are so good compared to the results I got with the dry ones.

I don't brew lagers so can't comment on them. Really want to try 34/70 for a hoppy golden ale/IPA though at ale temps, sounds like it could be good for that!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Windsor followed by Nottingham/Wilko/M42 48 hours later to flocc it is a classic option for British ales.

Mangrove Jack M54 Californian is meant to be a good option for warm-ferment lagers, that drops much more cleanly than 34/70, which is kinda handy for lager.

Munich Classic (as opposed to Munich) is the only sensible option for wheat beers.

WB06 is a weird yeast that's part of the saison family and not a hefe yeast. Save it for strong goldens like Duvel.

T58 is a fun yeast that supposedly is used by de Struise for their (very good) dark Belgians. It's not strongly phenolic but adds a bit of pepper. It's quite biotransformative which means it can suppress hop fruit flavour but with the right hop like Chinook it adds interesting complexity.

Cloudwater use Lallemand New England quite a bit, using the fact that dry yeast don't need aerating which helps protect hop flavours during fermentation.

Worth noting that Lallemand have just released a dry version of Voss kveik, which will be handy in summer for those without temperature control and don't want to mess about with drying their own yeast.

 

[dad_of_jon]

I would be very interested to know what dry yeasts you recommend, and in particular for what beer styles.

I brew a variety of styles (dark, light, hoppy malty, lagers) so I'm open to all inspiration.

Two or three main reasons for this:

1. Fresh packs of Wyeast have served me very well up to now. The cost isn't an issue at all, it's more the shelf life - I can keep some assorted packs of dry yeast in the fridge for much longer, ready for impromptu brew days.

2. I've reused Wyeast many times, both by pitching on to the yeast cake and growing a starter from harvested yeast. In general this has been successful, but I've had 2-3 brews go sideways on me - could be a yeast issue so I want to remove that variable for now and stick to fresh packs of yeast.

3. Trying something new - who knows what I might have been missing all this time!

Thanks in advance,

Matt

I use mj's bavarian yeast and also wb-6. mj edged it for me.

 

[An Ankoù]

Windsor followed by Nottingham/Wilko/M42 48 hours later to flocc it is a classic option for British ales.

Is this your order of preference or do you add each one sequentially or do you start with Windsor and follow with any ONE of the others?

Munich Classic (as opposed to Munich) is the only sensible option for wheat beers.
WB06 is a weird yeast that's part of the saison family and not a hefe yeast. Save it for strong goldens like Duvel.

Thanks. I'll look into that. I have MJ's M-20 Bavarian Wheat in the fridge. That sounds like what you're recommending?

 

[matt76]

Liberty Bell.

This is MJ M36, right? Any styles in particular you recommend it for?

I did actually pick up a few packs of dry yeast recently - S04, US05, M15, M36, M44 (which I used yesterday) and W34/70 (which I plan to use in a German pils).

 

[obscure]

S-04 and S-05 remain my go to yeast, easily available and generally reliable.

In the summer last year I was using Kweik yeast so am excited to try Lallemand Dried Voss Kweik yeast this year when the weather starts getting warmer.

 

[matt76]

Fermentis Safale US-05 is my go to ale yeast as it attenuates better than S-04 and I'm not fond of sweet beers (beginning to avoid crystal malts wherever I can, too). Saflager W 34-70 is amazing; it makes a great pilsner at lager temperatures, but makes good ale at ale temperatures and it'll tolerate 25C without producing off flavours. Mangrove Jack M42 is an old Whitbread yeast that works well, but can get smelly if stressed, and their bohemian pilsner yeast is my first choice for Czech pils.
If you crop your yeast and repitch it in future brews, it's no longer dried yeast.
While some people swear by it, I'm not very impressed by Wilco gervin ale yeast. Although I keep a couple foe emergencies.
I expect the debate over yeast is going to reach brexit proportions and it really is a matter of personal taste and fermenting conditions. For example I don't use a brew fridge so prefer more tolerant yeasts and use different yeasts during different seasons.

Good to know about W34/70, I have a pack earmarked for a German pils.

Which is the MJ one you recommend for Czech pilsner? I assume M84 Bohemian rather than M76 Bavarian?

I actually have a Czech pilsner on the go at the moment using Wyeast 2278 but would happily try a dry yeast in the future.

 

[matt76]

I use mj's bavarian yeast and also wb-6. mj edged it for me.

What style did you use MJ Bavarian (M76?) for?

 

[user 18729]

I keep Bry-97 in the fridge (malt millers west coast) as a back up or for a spur of the moment brew day. Works great in pale ales

 

[Pennine]

echoing above us-05, s-04, nottingham and a new one K-97. I have not had great luck with mangrove jack's but do like their california lager and m44. For saison's I prefer be-134 over belle saison.

 

[Clint]

Wilko,US 05,Various from CML...kristalweisen,kolsch, Cali, cider.

 

[Pennine]

T58 is a fun yeast that supposedly is used by de Struise for their (very good) dark Belgians. It's not strongly phenolic but adds a bit of pepper. It's quite biotransformative which means it can suppress hop fruit flavour but with the right hop like Chinook it adds interesting complexity.

I didn't know that about de Struise, and with chinook. I have some cararoma... Hmm good idea for the next brew. Arrogant bastardish.

I have a few 4-6 year old 750s from deStruise, pannepot etc... Sounds likes a good idea to open one up one of these days.

 

[matt76]

I keep Bry-97 in the fridge (malt millers west coast) as a back up or for a spur of the moment brew day. Works great in pale ales

Yeah, this is a big part of my interest - just having a few options in the fridge I can use at short notice without having to worry about a 6 month shelf life or smacking the pack the night before brew day.

 

[chthon]

What style did you use MJ Bavarian (M76?) for?

I use this for bock beers. Clean and malty.