I keep a couple packets of US -05 and S-04 around at all times for impromptu brews (my LHBS is not as L as I would like) and backup. Neither is my favorite but I make really good beer with both. It’s hard for me to see how one could hate them. It may be different philosophies. It seems that some folks drink beer looking for flaws and I feel sorry for them. I am looking to produce beers that make me want another sip and another pint. I will seek out the best yeast for a given beer when I have time but I have also been very happy with beers I brewed after “settling “ for these yeasts.
You were correct in quoting the word settling. If am settling, I am buying the best beer I can afford. I sure as heck am not going to invest six hours of my time and then settle for yeast culture because it is convenient. For most of the time I have brewed, I brewed with cultured yeast. If one wants to talk about anti-convenience, it does not get any less convenient than starting with yeast on a slant when propagating a starter. It takes several days and aseptic transfer technique to propagate a starter from slant. However, the difference in the final product is like the difference between night and day when compared to the results one obtains with dry yeast. Green beer goes into a soda keg very drinkable and it only gets better as it matures and conditions. There is no guessing as to how a beer will taste after it conditions and that has been a universal theme with dry yeast. Every beer that I have ever made with dry yeast was like a box of chocolates in that I never knew how it was going to turn out after it conditions. I have not had a single batch come out the primary as drinkable as one fermented with cultured or even commercial liquid yeast. There are times where all that is needed is a little CO2 scrubbing to rid a batch of an off-flavor/-aroma from using dry yeast. Other times, no amount of CO2 scrubbing will fix a beer fermented with dry yeast. The reality is that the yeast culture is the single most important ingredient in the production of beer. Brewers make wort. Yeast makes beer.
if those are the only dry yeasts you’ve tried that might be an issue. i see what youre saying, but i dont care for s04, s05 and i used W34/70 to make beer i thought was adequate last year, nothing special. ive had good luck with T58, though it is not a fruity, high-end belgian yeast. im enjoying this K97 so far and i had a sample of S189, but it is not ready yet and seems good. im on an upswing with dry yeast after doing some liquid over the last year.
btw somewhat unrelated but do you have a favourite one or two liquid yeasts?
My favorite yeast was Brewtek CL-170 Classic British Yeast on mini-slant. It is only available from the White Labs Vault as WLP033 Klassic Ale these days. However, I am curious as to if WLP033 may be a variant and the not original culture. CL-170 reliably yielded a 75% AA, sometimes up to 77%AA. White Labs describes WLP033 as having an AA range of 66.00-74.00. What is unique about CL-170 is its ester profile, which Jeff Mellem used to describe as the lollipop ester. White Labs describes WLP033 as having a very British, unique ester profile, so that part matches. I wonder if the sweetness White Labs describes the culture as having is due to the fact that beer has a lollipop aroma when young. The ester profile fades as the beer matures, but it does not mask the hops. It is a true British cask beer-type culture that really shines with Goldings or Willamette, which is a triploid Fuggle with more fruit and less earth than Fuggle.
awesome, i can imagine that. my online distributor White Labs Yeasts has it, but its out of stock now. i am looking for a really solid flavourful british yeast in the future.
i know what you mean about “lollipop” taste.
truthfully, my palate has been shrinking over time since the provincial beer monopolies switched from getting world class beers from europe/america to ontario only beers of much worse quality. a lot of great beer tastes are just a fading memory for me nowadays.
A bit left field but I really like wlp029 German Ale for hop driven beers. Crisp and dry and I find lets the hops shine. House yeast for me and I brew stouts with it as well as faux lagers/cream ales and basically anything not Belgian or English.
Maybe even more left field but I prefer wyeast kolsh over this yeast for brewing kolsh. I don’t get any kolsh like esters with 029 at all.
I used to use 05 a lot when I first started. Hadn’t used it in many years but tried it and now I always get peach. I’m a bit stumped but there’s so many these days I can live without it
Personally, I have used 1056 in an APA. My Amarillo IPA also uses that yeast and I am afraid to try something different in the IPA due the threat of bodily injury from my dearly beloved (which I have mentioned before). Gotta keep her happy, you know. I have used US-05 in a pinch in an IPA but prefer he flavor and crispness of 1056 over 05.
That said, I would like to try 1450 in an APA sometime. Don’t brew that beer very often.
For something like that my go to would be US-05 or Bry-97 if going dry yeast. Maybe even Nottingham or S-04 if you wanted something a little different, a little drier or less West Coast Style. I use dry yeast a lot and I certainly have some favorites.
APA, IPA, Amber Ale, Irish Red, American Brown, Robust Porter, Imperial Stout. Clean, Simple…US-05 and Bry-97
English Brown, Mild, Brown Porter, Stout, English Bitters, Lower Attenuation/Residual Body…S-33
Certain English Bitters, Certain APA/IPA, Hazy IPA…S-04
Cream Ale, Blonde Ale, Cali Common, Pre-Prohibition Pseudo Lagers, some APA/IPA, Amber Ale, Clean, Crisp, Neutral Lager Like…Nottingham
Hoppy Session Ales, NEIPA, Kolsch, Light, Soft, Clean…K-97
American Lagers/Adjunct Lagers, Pilsners, Clean, Crisp, Soft Esters…34/70
Marzen, Vienna Lager, Bock, Other German Lagers, Rounder, Fuller Bodied…S-189, Diamond Lager
I put “settling” in quotes because I have made plenty of beers where I have settled for one of these yeasts out of necessity and the beer came out just like I wanted to. Life does not always allow me to plan a couple weeks out to get the absolute perfect yeast culture (and its not always the case that there is objectively one perfect yeast) and in fact there have been times where I did plan ahead but life happened and a smack pack went to waste.
This past fall I finally got a chance to make a bitter I was planning for a while and when I went to make a starter because the smack pack of 1469 was getting old it wasn’t viable so I used my back up pack of s-04. Maybe it would have been even better with 1469 but I loved it and was very happy to have it on tap. I have since made a similar recipe with 1469 and yes, it was even better (although in part because I got the sulfate to my liking) , but I was still glad I made the S-04 batch and would do it again in similar circumstances.
Thanks for the input! It seems we use similar yeasts for pils and V lager.
The next batch on my list is an Irish stout that I plan to use W34/70 to ferment.