In my opinion, one of the key flavor components in any Sam Smith beer is the yeast character. WLP037 is supposedly their yeast strain, and my experience the flavor profile is a close match. But it’s only a limited release from White Labs. It’s kind of unique in that the ester profile has both fruit and oak in fairly balanced amounts (at least to my palate). Most English ale strains lean towards one or the other.
I haven’t brewed that recipe as written, but if it were me I’d probably skip the oats. It passes the sniff test to me if you have the right yeast.
I hope wlp037 works. I have some and I made AHS’ SSNBA clone and I didn’t like it with that yeast, but I don’t think that kit tasted anything like SSNBA anyway. I did like the kit though. I liked that yeast better with the timothy Taylor’s landlord kit AHS had.
Edit: I’ve never had TT Lanlord before. So I have no idea if wlp037 is good for a clone. I liked the kit AHS had.
WLP037 is a strange beast. It is even more flocculant than WLP002. It’s a Yorkshire Square strain, and it likes a lot of oxygen. My best results with it were with open fermentation. I used a bucket fermenter and put a sanitized paint strainer bag over the top to keep bugs out. If you can’t ferment open, I’d suggest extra oxygenation/aeration a couple of times over the first couple of days.
For Landlord the closest strain is WY1469. It is believed to be the TT yeast strain, and it makes a delicious ale. It’s one of my all time favorite yeast strains. It doesn’t have that dry, oaky character that WLP037 has, but that’s fine with me.