Does anyone know if any of the Wyeast or Whitelab yeasts are the Ringwood strain?
And… WLP005
This yeast seems to be a love it or hate it thing. I’m in the latter camp. Just doesn’t suit my tastes.
It can produce a lot of diacetyl if you don’t give it enough oxygen.
Before I even knew what diacetyl was, I tried Michigan’s Arcadia Brewing Co. IPA and thought, man, that’s a buttery tasting beer! Their house strain is Ringwood.
My question was mostly curiosity.
I had a chance for a pretty thorough (I was there about 2 hours) tour of Shipyard Brewing in Portland, ME recently with one of the brewers.
Shipyard is Maine’s largest brewery and produces close to 100,000 barrels per year.
The house yeast is Ringwood.
The interesting thing, interesting to me anyway, I learned was that while they do a lot of contract brewing, 99.9% of everything they brew is done with the Ringwood yeast.
The downside is that when you go into one of the brew pubs or bars that they also operate and ask for a sampler of all the styles, they all taste pretty much the same.
About 13 years ago, the Big Brew recipe was a porter made with something called “Swedish Porter” yeast, which was Ringwood. A friend and I brewed the recipe and it was so God awful that it immediately turned me off of Ringwood. I know others like it and have success with it, but I’ve never been able to bring myself to try it again.
Not being an experienced brewer, but put me in the love it category. I make all my English style ales with WLP 005. Of course I am anal about adding lots of oxygen.