Stressing yeasts

[WelshPaul]

What's the best way to go about this if I want to deliberately increase the amount of esters in a beer?
Underpitching? Pitching at low temperature?

 

[phettebs]

A warmer fermentation temp is going to help produce more esters. Underpitching can also lead to some interesting flavors because of the byproducts produced during the growth phase. The difficult part with that is limiting the undesirable flavors. Belgian yeast seem to handle that well and some breweries like Unibroue in Canada purposely stress the yeast to achieve some unique flavors in their beers. I'd treat that as an experiment though. :-)

 

[graysalchemy]

As Barry says if you want an estery english ale ferment at 21c and slightly underpitch as it is in the growth phase that the yeast produce the precursors of the esters, however don't go above 21 as you will start to see fusel precursors. :nono: :nono: