Most monastic style (Abbey or Trappist like) Belgian ales are brewed with yeasts from the WLP5xx range (or their Wyeast equivalents). The yeasts I’m looking at have their origins *) in the following breweries:
*) While these yeasts originate from these breweries, they are no longer identical as they have had decades to diverge.
**) Note that Orval is bottle conditioned with a wild yeast culture native to the region which contains a lot of Brett and several other critters.
I am looking for a comparison between these yeasts: apparent attenuation, ester levels, phenol levels, alcohol tolerances, temperature ranges and so on. Is there such a document somewhere? I haven’t been able to find anything. White Labs’ data as published on their website is rather… limited.
Obviously a back-to-back split-batch test brew would be the way to establish how these yeasts compare, but I currently don’t have the means to do that yet. Some day maybe…
All pointers in the right direction would be appreciated!!
Brew Like a Monk has some nice charts that gives exactly what you’re looking for, but I can’t find my book. Also, probably a copyright violation for me to post that. It also talks about their sensory impacts based on higher and lower temp fermentations. Very useful. For what it’s worth I use WLP530 in all things Belgian except saisons.
Thanks for the replies, everyone. I’ve had a look at the sensory data in BLAM and that’s a great start! Unfortunately WLP540 is missing, though, and how the levels of spicy and fruity notes compare isn’t clear, either, but I suppose that takes a lab test from comparative fermentations of a standard wort.
Yes please! I’m definitely interested!
I’ve found WLP540 to take forever to go through the few final gravity points, which means you’ll either end up leaving it in the fermenter so long that most volatile phenols have disappeared, or you get enough bottle attenuation to overcarbonate the beer after a few months. Does anyone have the same experience? Are other 5xx yeasts better in that respect?
I see. That’s challenging. I’ve left a dubbel in fermentation for 3 weeks, primed conservatively and now after 3 months it’s still horribly over-carbonated. And a lot of the volatile spicy phenols had already disappeared (maybe because I’m at 1750m altitude).
Not sure how others deal with that. Suggestions, anyone?
As the attenuation data shows, WLP540 isn’t really a Belgian yeast, DNA sequencing shows it’s a British yeast related to Ringwood, Bedford etc but with higher ABV tolerance. Supposedly Rochefort struggled a bit after WWII to get a yeast that suited their conditions, and in the 1960s a consultant ended up raiding the Palm yeast bank for them.
