Yeast Choice

[snail59]

I'm plotting and planning AG#7 for when I (do or do not) get moved. Ive been reading Mr Wheelers Recipes and non of them suggest which Yeast to use. So I have been looking at various yeast strains, and while researching what they may bring to a Beer Mrs Snail asked me, does it really make a difference :shock: . Let the comments begin

 

[Mark1964]

Yes it does as yeast provides about 75% of the taste

 

[dennisking]

Has been debated on this and other sites many times and always seems to divide opinion. For what its worth I think its the most important ingredient we use and IMO liquid yeast have given me the best results by a long way. I am going to try the brewlabs slants this year as a lot of people seem rate them, a few starters to use up first.

 

[unclepumble]

Yeast is the most important factor in every beer if you want to get serious about your beers, the yeast used determines the beer you produce it is the one thing with the most influence.

Remember this

"Brewers make wort, Yeast make Beer"

Notty or SO4 will give you a good beer but it will be very neutral, and wont have loads of character, if you truely want to brew a yorkshire bitter you need a yorkshire strain of yeast ame with a burton pale ale, or a london porter, or a pilsner lager, each strain will give you different results. but to get the best out of them you need to be pretty good at water profiles to try an mimic the water in their areas, saying that though they will all give good results with a general water profile.

UP

 

[Good Ed]

Snail, I'd contact BrewLab and ask them what they recommend for what you are brewing. They have a huge database of yeasts other than what you see on their website, they are simple to do (ie making the starter) and in my experience go like a train. As GW says they behave as a true to type brewery yeast; thats because a lot of them are exactly that. My thinking is why would you use other.

good luck :

 

[Aleman]

Others have said it . . . we make the wort, and the yeast makes the beer. . . . it is amazing just how powerful (taste wise) the organic compounds produced as a side effect of metabolism actually are (often the taste threshold for these compounds is in the parts per billion range).

You make a traditional Belgian triple for example using the finest Belgian malts, with genuine Belgian candy malt, and top quality noble hops . . . then pitch some Nottingham yeast . . . . You won't get a Westerleven or a Chimay . . . it'll be a strong ale . . . but not a Belgian Tripel.

The advice to contact Brewlabs and ask them what they recommend to brew x style of beer with Y water, and they will give you one of their yeasts from the yeast bank that will do the job . . . . they may or may not tell you which brewery it comes from (some are propriety) but it will make better beer.

Of course it's at this point that you then start getting more anal about the whole brewing process with fermentation fridges and temperature control

 

[MEB]

As Aleman and others have suggested yes yeast is important. If you were to brew 5 batches identical and had 5 different yeasts you would have 5 very different beers. For me the challenge of brewing is having a good recipe with your 'house' yeast and then trying it with every possible & suitable yeast untill you find the one that matches it perfectly. Great fun but you do end up with a real lot of yeasts in your yeast ranch. I had 72 mid 2010. Which was far too many for the half dozen styles I brew. I now have about 20-ish I think. All on slants now with a few PET's of each ready for use. I only store my yeast in PET's for a max of 4 month's then I renew them. Much more organised yeast ranch/fridge. :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Welcome back to the Forum, Martin of Middle Earth Brewery, nice to hear from you again. :thumb:

 

[dennisking]

Had a sneak preview of my 1st brew using whitelabs dry English yesterday, very promising, going to give it another 2 weeks.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

I always thought yeast was yeast :shock:
But since splitting batches and using different yeast on the same brew to see what yeast suits the beer profile I now stand corrected.

Yeast is King. :drunk:

 

[rickthebrew]

My next planned brew is a hefeweizen and I have bought some liquid yeast (wlp380) this will be my first brew with a liquid yeast and i`m looking forward to the results and my future brews will be brewed with more specialist yeasts, after using mainly s-04, notty or us-05 for my brews i`m looking forward to the results with the specialist yeasts to offer me more variety in the final taste of my brews :

 

[Vossy1]

You wont be disappointed rich, as others have already said :thumb:
IMHO, yeast is THE most important ingredient. I used US04 as my 'norm' first, then US05, and then I started to use liquid yeasts for certain ales (bitters) and the difference is staggering :thumb:
US05 and US04 have their place for pales and stouts though ...my own personal preference is for US05 as it's the 'cleanest' yeast I've used, by a long way....for pales.