Beer Recipe ideas for WLP045 (whiskey yeast)

Beer Recipes
1

Our club does an informal oddball brew competition with a mandatory ingredient.  This time around it is whiskey yeast… I am just drawing a blank on what this yeast (WLP045) is all about.  The description says it is good for high gravity beers, but I don’t think I am going to have time to age this more than a couple months max.  Anyone have any links for info or ideas/experience to share?  Thinking about maybe a scottish ale 80/- and pitching it with WY1728…

-Tony

2

I did a rye ipa with wlp050 last year. Clean fermentation I really liked how it turned out

3

I used this yeast with the following grain bill:

14 lbs golden promise
2 lbs malted oats
1 lb malted rye
1/2 lb flaked rye
challenger hops
tansy (dried)

I fermented it at 72-73 degrees, per the White Labs website comments.

As you can imagine, next time I will pull back on the malted oats – they’re a real head killer. The beer, though, was one of my favorites from a flavor perspective. The yeast adds a fruity taste on the front end.

4

I do not think malted oats are your head retention problem.

5

So even though it is distiller’s yeast it will make beer?  I guess that’s a silly question, sorry still new to this game.  I should probably mash a little higher 156 and/or add some crystal to keep it from attenuating a whole bunch.  I have never done a beer with Rye… I’ll give it a whirl.  Thanks for the posts!

-Tony

6

For what it’s worth, whiskey makers I have spoken to use beer yeast to ferment the wash, not whiskey yeast.  One guy likes 1056.  I didn’t get to try his whiskey, but his rum won an award at the distillers competition they just had in Seattle.

7

This is true, though there are certainly many distilleries that have their own personal strain. Jack Daniels, for one.

8

+1

I would look at the fermentation temp first if I was trying to figure out that head retention problem

9

I’m not surprised.  These were newish microdistillers I was talking to, I imagine lots of people do things differently.

10

Most of the guys at the home distillation  forum recommend the chico strain especially to beginners. Back “in the day” some of the distilleries in Tennessee and Kentucky used to let you actually taste their krausen on ferments depending on what tour you were on. Wish I had gotten me a few samples. Non do that any longer that I have seen.

11

Have you ever tasted the krausen on any of your beers?  i can’t say I have, but I imagine it would be bitter and nasty.  But without hops in the ferment maybe it is more pleasant.

12

No, I haven’t. The whiskey krausen was just real yeasty tasting from what I recalled. Jack daniels had a really interesting aroma that reminded me of sour bread dough yeast.

13

I ended up doing a non-sour mashed Dark Cream Ale with this whiskey yeast.  It has a slightly sweet aroma with a mild spicy finish.  I think the rye and cluster hops work well together at least to my uncalibrated taste buds.  I fermented at much lower temps (66 - 68 F) than the white labs web page recommended, since the yeast took off showing signs of fermentation in 2.5 hours.  Here is the recipe.  Thanks for the posts… I think the rye addition really helped out.

Recipe: 21. Whoa Little Doggie (Kentucky Common)
Brewer: Tony Copeland
Asst Brewer: Trixie
Style: Specialty Beer
TYPE: All Grain

Recipe Specifications

Boil Size: 7.39 gal
Post Boil Volume: 6.24 gal
Batch Size (fermenter): 5.50 gal 
Bottling Volume: 5.00 gal
OG: 1.057
FG: 1.016
Estimated Color: 21.2 SRM
Estimated IBU: 38.5 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 76.4 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:

Amt                  Name                                    Type          #        %/IBU       
3 lbs                Corn, Flaked (1.3 SRM)                  Grain        1        20.7 %       
2.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (120.0 SRM)  Grain        2        0.9 %       
2 lbs                Rye, Flaked (2.0 SRM)                    Grain        3        13.8 %       
10.0 oz              Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM)    Grain        4        4.3 %       
6.0 oz                Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)    Grain        5        2.6 %       
6.0 oz                Chocolate Malt (450.0 SRM)              Grain        6        2.6 %       
8 lbs                Pale Malt; American (Farm Boy Farms) (6. Grain        7        55.2 %       
0.60 oz              Magnum [14.00 %] - First Wort 60.0 min  Hop          8        28.2 IBUs   
0.50 oz              Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 20.0 min        Hop          9        6.5 IBUs     
0.50 oz              Cluster [7.00 %] - Boil 10.0 min        Hop          10      3.9 IBUs     
1.00 Items            Whirlfloc Tablet (Boil 10.0 mins)        Fining        11      -           
0.50 tsp              Yeast Nutrient (Wyeast) (Boil 10.0 mins) Other        12      -           
1.0 pkg              Bourbon Yeast (White Labs #WLP070)      Yeast        13      -