I have read a lot of criticism over the years about S-23 for its fruitiness. Even Fermentis says it yields “fruitier and more estery lagers”.
But I recently pitched it in a Czech pils and Oktoberfest. No fruitiness or esters, just really, really good lager character. My pitches were 1st-gen liquid from a friend who owns a brewery and pitches only dry 500g bricks. I grabbed a couple harvests from the cone.
This is a great strain. What am I missing about it?
I don’t hate it… but I don’t love it either. I’d rather use just about any other lager strain on the market than this one. Personal preference. If it was really cheap or free, then of course I would take and use it, and make it work.
Simply based on experience, as your opinion is also.
I’ve used it from time to time, with good results, but only in maltier/darker lagers (e.g., maibock; schwarzbier), so I’m not personally aware of how it presents in a pale lager where fruity character might be more easily detected.
I suspect three things could be going on here - 1) different folks have different personal preferences and sensitivities; 2) some impressions might be the result of bad fermentation practices; and 3) we are a hobby of folks with strong opinions, and strong opinions get turned into inviolable truths as a result (“crystal malt bad!” “light American lagers bad!” “S-23 bad!”).
Now I kinda want to try S-23 in a pale lager, at least a small batch. I don’t often do split comparisons, but maybe I will for this round!
For my part, I don’t care for W-34/70, but that’s just my personal preference!
I have tried it multiple times with different fermenting profiles thinking that was mishandling or pushing the yeast outside it’s natural parameters. The results were always the same, super fruity for a lager and I hated the beer.
I know some people have great luck with it and report no fruitiness, so if that’s the case I would like to know what I’m doing differently to get the results I have gotten from S23. I would like to try it in a fruity IPA, I think that might work well.
You’re pitching liquid yeast as opposed to dry. Maybe that has something to do with it.
For sure, everyone’s palate is different and preferences are personal. But I have never encountered such a disconnect between a strain’s characteristics on paper vs. what I actually taste. It would be like using 3068 in a hefeweizen but then tasting no clove or banana. I’d be scratching my head in that scenario as well.
In my and my friend’s lagers, S-23 presents almost identically to 2206 (which I love and know well). I don’t think it’s dry vs. liquid, as he only pitches dry.
what would be interesting is some kind of standard test to do with a yeast for olfactory and/or tasting purposes like the malt tea testing
would probably just be something like 200g DME in 200g water with a small amount of hops and pitc the whole packet, and after a few days you just open it and breathe it in. you could line up a bunch of samples of yeast
i just got home from work after a long week… idk