Is this new?
I’ve never seen it before.
It’s listed as new on Williams’ homepage.
Yes, Fermentis just released it. within the last month or so.
Safbrew™ Abbaye is the eleventh yeast strain specifically selected for beer.
This new strain will allow fast Fermentation, very high attenuation, high alcohol content (up to 11 % v/v) with subtle aroma and a well-balanced profile.
With Safbrew Abbaye, brewers will be able to brew refreshing session beers and stronger Abbaye styles and IPAs.
I’m kinda worried about the description saying Belgian styles and IIPA. Does that mean Belgian beers with a “Belgian profile” or IIPA that tastes Belgian? They seem to be more concerned with alcohol tolerance than anything else.
I thought that seemed obvious with this whole Belgian IPA trend going on right now…
My thought exactly. I also thought maybe it is something similar to the Rochefort strain which is lower on esters and phenols compared to other Belgian strains.
Rochefort? As in WY1762? Never struck me as being particularly low on esters.
Personally, I love Belgian beers and IPAs, but not the hybrid of the two. Seems like a weird way to advertise a new Abbey strain.
+1.
I get a lot of plummy esters in big Belgian Darks, but I don’t get anywhere near as much banana as other Belgian strains with WY1762. Wyeast does bill it as a relatively clean Belgian strain, and I can say it makes a great English BW.
Here is the spec sheet, it lists total esters at 20 ppm (at 18 degress Plato at 20 degrees Celcius in EBC tubes):
Tthe fact sheet for US-05 lists total esters at 40 ppm:
http://www.fermentis.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/SFA_US05.pdf
Not particularly low, but lower than others like WY1214 and WY3787 is what I meant. Of course, fermentation temps play a large role in ester production as well.
Lower than 1214, definitely. But I don’t know if I could say lower than 3787. Given I ferment 3787 in the low 60s, though.
If that means that US 05 has twice the amount of esters, then I don’t understand why it is called an Abbey style yeast.
I don’t know how much weight I would really give those specs. Rolling all esters up into one ppm number seems misleading. I just thought it was interesting.
Hopefully someone will give this yeast a try and report back.
Got a sachet Saturday and brewing this Saturday. I may go with a Leffe clone to test the waters on the flavor profile. My purchase was the first at the LHBS and they want reports. Now…whether to rehydrate or not!
Yeah, Belgian strains are (to me) even more tied to fermentation temps than other strains. I’ve held 1762 @ 64F for 2 or 3 days, then ramped up slowly and gotten a fairly clean dubbel or quad. A degree or two warmer and gotten nice esters, plummy with some spice mostly. I think 1214 is definitely more estery at a given temp.
Got talked into brewing a golden strong ale per an award winner from a local contest this past winter. If it’s good, I may hold onto some bottles for comps.
Man does it throw off a nice fruity aroma! If the flavor follows the initial fermentation aroma, it will be a winner…
Keep me updated on this one. I have been wanting to do a golden strong ale for a while and prefer dry yeast when appropriate for the style…