Yeast for higher ABV beer.

[Rigsby666]

Can anyone give any recommendations for a yeast to use for fermenting a kit beer that I'd like to push up to about 10% ABV? I think most yeasts that come with kits fall off around the 6-7%, but I'm not sure.

 

[MrRook]

S-05 will do it. Most beer yeast will get you to ten.

 

[phillc]

Forum sponsor @BenParr is offering 50% off liquid White Labs yeast at the moment.

The description for WLP007 suggests it'll be good up to 10% ABV.

 

[Hanglow]

You'll need a large starter and O2 if you want to use liquid yeast effectively at that ABV imo.

us05 is incredibly forgiving with very low O2 requirements. I'd use 4 packs re-hydrated in a standard sized batch at that high an ABV

nottingham is another that is good for high ABV, be sure you can control the temperature though, I'd keep it at 18c tops.

If you are bumping it up with a lot of sugar then be sure to add decent nutrients.

 

[Rigsby666]

Thank guys for your advice.

I planned to brew short and add a mix of additional DME and some brewing sugar, up to a decent OG.

US-05 looks to be favourite then, and is reasonably priced, so will give that a go this time and see what sort of results we get. It also appears to be more temperature forgiving by the looks of it.

What sort of nutrients do people use? Just standard yeast nutrient, I have some that I have used with wine.

Just out of interest, would S-33 be any good, I've just found some that I have in the fridge and it's well within date.

 

[chthon]

Thank guys for your advice.

I planned to brew short and add a mix of additional DME and some brewing sugar, up to a decent OG.

US-05 looks to be favourite then, and is reasonably priced, so will give that a go this time and see what sort of results we get. It also appears to be more temperature forgiving by the looks of it.

What sort of nutrients do people use? Just standard yeast nutrient, I have some that I have used with wine.

Just out of interest, would S-33 be any good, I've just found some that I have in the fridge and it's well within date.

S-33 has an attenuation of only 70%. This might be too low for brewing a higher ABV beer from your planned ingredients, unless you take it specifically into account.

 

[Rigsby666]

S-33 has an attenuation of only 70%. This might be too low for brewing a higher ABV beer from your planned ingredients, unless you take it specifically into account.

Good point, so does that mean using S-33 that I may well end up with a sweeter beer?
I see the logic in using the US-05 as it's around 80%, probably would be a better bet. So, even with US-05, if I had an OG of 1.095, at 80% that would give a potential 76 unit reduction, leaving the lowest FG of 1.019 (giving approx 10% abv)? Even that I guess could still be a reasonably sweet tasting beer, but it would be much worse with S-33. I'm still learning the important factors concerning yeasts. Thanks.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Lots of good tips on high-gravity brewing in the Powerpoint here.

WLP540 is a useful one in these kinds of situations, despite the name it's a British yeast that's adapted to high ABV allegedly at Rochefort.

Kveiks generally have pretty good alcohol tolerance, so if you're sticking with dry then Lallemand Voss could work for you.

 

[Zephyr259]

Something to watch for is that a yeast may ferment a beer up to its tolerance but then stuggle to carbonate of you're bottling. Voss is good to 13% generally, I'd probably go with Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale as it's good for 12%, that's what I'm using to brew a 10% RIS next week.

US 05 will probably do you well, and a 1.019 FG probably won't taste sweet, I've had stouts and bock which start in the 1.060 - 1.070 range that ended at 1.020 ish and weren't sweet, just full bodied, malty and rich.

 

[Rigsby666]

Something to watch for is that a yeast may ferment a beer up to its tolerance but then struggle to carbonate of you're bottling. Voss is good to 13% generally, I'd probably go with Wyeast 1728 Scottish Ale as it's good for 12%, that's what I'm using to brew a 10% RIS next week.

US 05 will probably do you well, and a 1.019 FG probably won't taste sweet, I've had stouts and bock which start in the 1.060 - 1.070 range that ended at 1.020 ish and weren't sweet, just full bodied, malty and rich.

I'll be kegging what I make, so I won't need to worry about self-carbonation, but good point if I was to bottle another batch in the future.

I think you are right, I've had beers up to about 1.015/16 and they haven't tasted sweet, so I would think it will be fine and I am almost certain now that I'm going to try US-05 this time around. It's good to experiment a little, but thanks to the great advice I've received on here, it minimises the risk of a disaster. LOL.

 

[dave_77]

Mangrove jack's New world yeast gets the job done..clean profile and has always finished around 80-85% attenuation.

 

[Rigsby666]

Mangrove jack's New world yeast gets the job done..clean profile and has always finished around 80-85% attenuation.

Didn't think about that one, super cheap too.

 

[chthon]

Good point, so does that mean using S-33 that I may well end up with a sweeter beer?
I see the logic in using the US-05 as it's around 80%, probably would be a better bet. So, even with US-05, if I had an OG of 1.095, at 80% that would give a potential 76 unit reduction, leaving the lowest FG of 1.019 (giving approx 10% abv)? Even that I guess could still be a reasonably sweet tasting beer, but it would be much worse with S-33. I'm still learning the important factors concerning yeasts. Thanks.

Actually, yes. I use it to brew a heavily hopped strong ale, but I also add a fair amount of sugar so that the attenuation is bit higher, mostly 75%. But I think in this case the sweetness comes through a combination of dextrines and alcohol.

 

[dad_of_jon]

https://mangrovejacks.com/collections/craft-series-yeasts/products/m29-french-sasion-yeast-10-g
14% - 1 packet rehydrated made around 20 litres of my king kong quad @ 12.86%