I’m about to embark on my first Baltic Porter. I was wondering who else has made one and with what yeast strains? I’m tossing around the idea of Bohemian 2124, but thinking also of:
2633 Octoberfest Blend
2206 Bavarian
2308 Munich.
Any experienced Baltic Porter brewer use any of these tell me how it turned out and why you recommend/ use the strain you did?
San Franciso Lager yeast per Gordon Strong
That seems like it would depend on what your fermentation temperature will be.
My temp could be below laggering temps to 70 degrees F… If I use an ale yeast I dont’ want the esters to distract from the malts, but if I use a lagger yeast and truely lagger it, I dont’ want to miss out on the esters all together. Unless I turn to my grain bill, which is easily done and better controlled…
I’ve used 2206 at 50f with good success.
Ditto on the SF Lager yeast. I made a wonderful one last Spring.
I’ve got my first one in the fermenter now and I’m using 2206 @ 53F as per Jamil’s book
Bavarian Lager makes a great BP fermented around 53 degrees F. SF lager yeast also does a great job around 60-62F. And the oktoberfest blend made an amazing oktoberfest for me, I havent tried it in a BP yet but I imagine it would work very well.
White Labs 833 German Bock or Wyeast 2487 Hella Bock fermented as a lager.
not sure about the Baltic Porter question, but I can give some experiential knowledge on 2206. Used it in a steam beer to grow up a starter for an Oktoberfest (according to Ray Daniels, 2206 is very similar to the strains that evolved into SF lager yeast, as thats what those brewers likely had). This yeast really seemed to accentuate the malt, which I think you want in a BP. Steam had multiple layers of rich malt, but finished dry. First taste (pre lagering) of the O fest (3 weeks primary) displayed a wonderfully clean and robust malt profile. Not having experienced the others, I say rock the 2206! (largely because I will likely use it for one I do soon and I want to hear how it goes!)
Good luck!