Well then… shame on me for perpetuating false info. Not sure why I’ve held this opinion… It must be because I don’t care for the (slightly) lower attenuation and ester profile in big DIPAs.
Now I need to try it. A big ol’ Enlgish Barleywine is on the docket, so I guess I’ll brew that next!
Well, someone gave you bad information because WLP002 is Fuller’s strain. S-04 is Whitbread B. WLP007 is also Whitbread B, and so is Wyeast 1098. The delta in attenuation levels between WLP002 and S-04 should be a dead giveaway. Whitbread B was selected for use in continuous tower fermentation vessels. It’s an extremely hardy yeast strain.
Wyeast 1272 is the same strain as Siebel Bry 97. It’s one of my favorite yeast strains as well. Bry 97 is less one dimensional than Siebel Bry 96 (a.k.a. “Chico”, 1056, WLP001, and US-05).
I still believe that Bry 96 and Bry 97 are the two strains that were used at Ballantine’s beer and ale breweries, respectively. These strains are held by the USDA Agricultural Research Service NRRL collection.
NRRL Y-7407 (Bry 96?)
Accession numbers in other collections: Lange 2
Isolated from (substrate): BR, Beer pitching yeast
Substrate location: Ballantine Brewery, New Jersey, USA
Comments: ID from 26S renal partial sequences.
NRRL Y-7408 (Bry 97?)
Accession numbers in other collections: Lange 4
Isolated from (substrate): BR, Ale pitching yeast
Comments: ID from 26S rDNA partial sequences
If the Anchor Ale strain is from the Ballantine Ale brewery, I will have to give that a try on my next Ballantine IPA clone.
Here’s what we know about Anchor. The yeast strain commonly known as Wyeast 2112 was originally introduced into the Anchor brewery in 1974 or 1975. It is an old Wallerstein Labs strain. This information is not second hand. It came from Anchor’s head brewer Mark Carpenter.
“We brewed so rarely and didn’t have the ability to cultivate yeast so we would borrow yeast from other breweries every time. Then in 1974 or 1975 we got a very old strain of Wallerstein Labs lager yeast and that’s what we’ve been using ever since. Wallerstein Labs no longer exists but their yeast lives on here. We just collect it from the fermenters and reuse it. So many brewers today say they have to change the yeast after so many generations but we’ve never found that necessary.”
Mike mentions their ale yeast in the same article.
“We also have an ale yeast we got years ago and that’s what we use for all our ales, even the wheat beer. We recently did a special high alcohol export stout for the Great British Beer Festival and for the first time in many years we brought in a different yeast.”
Wallerstein and Seibel were competitors. They both kept yeast culture collections. Wallerstein Labs became the Wallerstein Company. The Wallerstein Company was owned by Baxter Labs when they became embroiled in a patent infringement lawsuit in the seventies with the Danish life sciences company known today as Novo Nordisk, which is why the Wallerstein Company no longer exists (see 607 F2d 186 Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium A/s v. Baxter Travenol Laboratories Inc N V | OpenJurist).
Now, it does not take a rocket scientist to connect the dots. Anchor created Liberty Ale in 1976. Ballantine went out of business in 1972. No deposits were made between Bry 96 and Bry 97, which leads me to believe that they were both deposited around the same time, if not at the same time. Both strains hold relatively low accession numbers in the Siebel collection, which means that the strains came from an old American ale brewery. The only American ale brewery that is old enough is Ballantine.
From Siebel’s web page (http://www.siebelinstitute.com/services/yeast/yeast-cultures):
"Bry 96
This is a flocculent top fermenting ale yeast from a brewery formerly operating on the East Coast of the United States. It produces a very clean ale flavor which has been well accepted in a number of breweries."
I agree. 1272 is my house strain and a very good and flexible performer.
I’ve read some things recently suggesting several breweries are using/transitioning to London Ale III as a house yeast. Anybody have thoughts on how this beer performs as an alternative to chico?
I used it for a while in a pub setting. It works well for what it is. Very vigorous krausen, great for top cropping, which is what I needed at the time. Nicely flocculant, but it didn’t attenuate well enough for me to use it as a true house strain. I had to use some sugars to get to ~80% ADF.
One of the breweries here in town used WY1728 Scottish as a house strain, and all their beers are pretty good. All of their year round beers use it, from Cream Ale to Stout.
http://blackfootriverbrewing.com/beer/
From Wyeast’s website:
Our Scottish ale strain is ideally suited for the strong, malty ales of Scotland. This strain is very versatile, and is often used as a “House” strain as it ferments neutral and clean. Higher fermentation temperatures will result in an increased ester profile.
For my English bitters, Milds, etc…I try to keep some 1768 on hand to propagate - I like it and have even used it on a 60 Schilling Scottish Ale that was mashed pretty high and it finished off below 1.010, surprisingly. That and 1450 for the American Ales pretty much could work for most of the lighter styles I brew. For a bigger yeast for across the board - you could consider Wyeast 1332 Northwest Ale yeast. I tried it on an American light rye ale and it was superb.
are you sure you mean 1768? That’s Rochefort yeast.
I thought 1762 was Rochefort Denny
Right you are! It was a test…
Absolutely ! Never thought otherwise. 
For a house yeast for American-style ales, I’d go with trusty ole Wyeast 1056 or WLP001. The yeast is a beast and it always chews through wort at a good clip. I usually get 80% apparent attenuation or a little higher if a portion of the fermentables is sugar, even with big beers like barleywines that have O.G.s of 1.110-1.120.
For Belgians, you should checkout The Yeast Bay Northeastern Abbey and Dry Belgian Ale. I have used the Northeastern Abbey with great success and the Dry Belgian Ale I’m currently using is chugging away. The Attenuation on the Dry Belgian Ale is reported to be very high and on of the beta testers for The Yeast Bay reported 100% apparent attenuation on his trials. Before The Yeast Bay, I used Wyeast 3787 with a lot of success for all things Belgian.
I thought that Wyeast 1768 was a reserve collection strain, but it is not:
http://www.wyeastlab.com/he_s_yeaststrain_detail.cfm?ID=20
I have not tried the Roquefort strain, but could be convinced if others think highly of it! I can compare it to the new Abbaye Ale dry yeast that I have going in primary on a Belgian Golden Strong presently…
I’d stay away from the Roquefort strain, as well as the Stilton, Munster and Camembert strains.
Now Rochefort, that is second only to the Unibroue strain (WY3864 - sadly only a seasonal strain) for my favorite Belgian yeast.
I use 3787 when I want less estery Belgian styles and 1762 for more estery styles.
Damn autocorrect! I clearly meant to say smoked Gouda!
Thanks for the distinction, Denny. It’s good to get a concise assessment on some of these strains. Maybe I’ll do a split batch when space allows.
Rochefort is probably my favorite Belgian strain, but I love pretty much all the Belgian ones. Except for the cheesy ones.