Winter Wyeast PC Strains

Ingredients
1

Anyone have any experiences with these strains they would like to share. 3 English strains. I have used WY1026 one time and it made terrific EIPA for me.

Wyeast 1026-PC British Cask Ale™

Beer Styles: Blonde Ale, English IPA, English Pale Ale, ESB, Southern English Brown Ale, English Bitter
Profile: Wyeast 1026-PC is a great yeast choice for any cask conditioned British ale style, and especially well-suited for hoppy bitters, IPAs and Australian ales. A good attenuator that clears readily. Low to moderate ester production in fermentation, letting malt and hops come through, finishes crisp and slightly tart.

Alc. Tolerance          9% ABV
Flocculation              medium-high
Attenuation              74-77%
Temp. Range            63-72°F (17-22°C)

Wyeast 1768-PC English Special Bitter™

Beer Styles: Blonde Ale, English IPA, ESB, Oatmeal Stout, Southern English Brown, English Bitter, Sweet Stout, Pale Ale
Profile: A great yeast for malt-predominate ales. Produces light fruit and ethanol aromas along with soft, nutty flavors. Exhibits a mild malt profile with a neutral finish. Bright beers are easily achieved without any filtration. It is similar to our 1968 London ESB Ale but slightly less flocculent.

Alc. Tolerance          9% ABV
Flocculation              high
Attenuation              68-72%
Temp. Range            64-72°F (18-22°C)

Wyeast 1882-PC Thames Valley Ale II™

Beer Styles: Ordinary and Special Bitters, ESB, Northern English Brown, Robust Porter, Dry Stout, Foreign Extra Stout, English Pale Ale and IPA 
Profile: 1882-PC produces crisp, dry English ales with a rich malt profile and moderate stone fruit esters. This attenuative strain is also highly flocculent, resulting in bright beers not requiring filtration. A thorough diacetyl rest is recommended after fermentation is complete.

Alc. Tolerance          10% ABV
Flocculation              high
Attenuation              72-78%
Temp. Range            60-70°F (15-21°C)

2

No experience, but 1768 has my name all over it as soon as MoreBeer gets it in stock. I’ve heard Mark talk about the lollipop ester that this yeast produces enough times to want to try it out for myself.

3

What style are you thinking?

4

A simple English Pale Ale - something along the lines of 85% MO, 10% sugar, 5% torrified wheat. Fuggles early and EKG’s late.

5

Copycat! ;D

I picked up my pouch a few days ago and am planning a premium-strength bitter (1.048) very similar to yours:
82% ESBritish Malt (Gambrinus)
9% Homemade Invert #2
4.5% Wheat Malt
4.5% Double-roast Crystal (120L) (Simpsons)
Fuggles bitter
EKG at 15 and 5
1768

6

The invert reminds me that I have some Lyle’s Golden that I need to use up. Guess I’ll be even more of a copycat :wink:

Curious to hear what you think about the Double Roast Crystal.

7

I’m want to try that strain as well.  S.C. stated it performed best when pitched at a relatively low rate (think he said 3B cells per liter for a normal gravity ale).  It would be make for an interesting split batch experiment.

8

Indeed. I have a smack pack of 1469 to use up - that would make an interesting side-by-side.

9

I’ve used the double roast in an ESB about two months ago (only 10oz/5gal). It has less of a roasted edge to it than most British 120L crystals. I guess I would say it’s more like a US 120L crystal but still has a little bit of dark/dry fruit quality. Eaten in it’s dry form, it retains a lot of the sugary sweetness that’s often found in US C60 and often lacking in darker kilned crystals. Overall, I like it as an alternative dark crystal malt, and I wouldn’t say there’s anything “profound” about it - just a alternative dark crystal. This will be my second time using it and I’m scaling back a bit to 6oz (I felt like the 10oz overshadowed the UK hops I used in the ESB).

I’m eager to try to the 1768. I remember passing it up a couple years back when it was at my LHBS and this time I made sure to put in my special order for it ;). I’m expecting something significant from it but based on it’s description I might be blowing it up too much in my head.

@narcout: 3B cells per liter is like half a pouch per 5 gallons. I don’t think I can bring myself to pitch that low. I’m certainly willing to gamble on pitching rates but that pushes even my lower threshold :D. I might look at a simple 100B for the 5gallons though if your memory is correct about SC’s recommendation. Do you happen to remember where he put that it of information?

10

Some SC info on 1768 (and others):
https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=24744.msg316283#msg316283

[quote]snip: With that said, if you want to use a beautiful strain with a lot of British character that is acceptable to the American palate, push Wyeast to release 1768 English Special Bitter or White Labs to release WLP033 Klassic Ale.  Those offerings are the Young’s Ram Brewery culture. It has a unique, but pleasant ester profile that screams, “I am British.”  If either of these cultures does get released, for heaven’s sake, do not strangle the fermentation by starting it at 15C or 16C (59 to 61F), let it breath.

By the way, like Wyeast 1450 (BrewTek CL-50), we can thank Maribeth Raines for Wyeast 1968/White Labs WLP002 and Wyeast 1768/White Labs WLP033.  These cultures were first introduced to the home brewing community as BrewTek CL-160 (Fullers) and BrewTek CL-170 (Youngs).

BrewTek CL-160 British Draft Ale
    One of our (Brewtek’s) favorite Ale yeasts, gives a full bodied, well rounded flavor with a touch of diacetyl. This yeast has a way of emphasizing malt character like no other yeast we’ve used. Highly recommended for Porters and Bitters.

BrewTek CL-170 Classic British Ale
    Like CL-160, produces a beautiful draft bitter or Porter. This yeast leaves a complex ale with very British tones and fruit like esters, it also produces a classic Scottish Heavy and plays well in high gravity worts.
[/quote]

11

Last paragraph of reply #30 in the following thread:

https://www.homebrewersassociation.org/forum/index.php?topic=24447.msg311561#msg311561

12

Sounds like I may have to repitch into a barleywine of some sorts based on the Brewtek description. Not sure how I’m going to pitch as small as Mark suggested, especially into a 3 gallon batch, but I’ll probably make a small starter and only pitch a measured part at high krausen.

13

SOLD! I’ll take the risk, and I may even reconsider my overall recipe. Thank you for digging that post back up narcout. Very much appreciated.

14

I am looking at the Thames Valley II strain.  Anyone brewed with that before?

15

Special (and hopefully Best) Bitter is scheduled for tomorrow - YAY!  ;D

Switched up the recipe and pitching based directly on SC’s recommend that narcout linked to. It’ll work out this way:
Bru’N Profile: Amber Dry, 5.4 Mash pH, 5.5 Sparge pH
1.048 OG / ~37 IBU tinseth / ~8.5 SRM
91% ESB Malt
3% Double-roast crystal
6% Homemade Invert #2
Fuggles bittering (2/3 ibus)
EKG 15min/2min (1/3 ibus)
…and a single, lowly drop of 1768 yeast  :o (~60B cells)

I brewed a very similar recipe at the end of August last year with freshly dried, homegrown Golding hops. That recipe was double the invert, switch up the crystal for wheat, and 1187 instead of 1768. It was probably the best British-style beer I’ve brewed to date (and I attributed some of that to the freshly dried Golding hops, which I’m out of). Faults were too light in color and just a smidge more bittering was needed. I’m hoping this one blows that one away.

16

Looks good. Keep us posted on how fermentation goes with this one. Curious to see how close to 1968 it is.

17

Will do. I brewed it up this morning and plan on fermenting at 67-68F for the first 48 hours and then bringing it up to 71-72F to finish up the few remaining days. Crash cool for 4-5 days, keg, fine, carb, serve. I’m hoping for a relatively quick turnaround on this one (two weeks until serving). Cheers!

18

It’s been fined and is carbing now. The sample pulled from the fermenter was a tad underwhelming based on my “hopes and aspirations”. The beer itself (a special bitter) tastes quite good and falls in line with what I normally produce; I was just hoping for a strong British punch from the yeast (fruit, lollipop, and/or some British yeast character I’d never experienced). The characterizations described by wyeast are pretty accurate (light fruit esters, very clean), no surprise there. The beer was heavily underpitched (~60B cells into 5.25G @ 1.050); had a decent lag phase of ~15 hours; and fermented warm (68-72F). I tried my best to get the most I could from the yeast and it still is pretty darn clean. As for it’s comparison to 1968, it’s not as estery/fruity, cleaner ferment. We’ll see how it shapes up with some carbonation and a few more days of age.

19

I know Mark was always saying that some yeast come into their own only after being repitched, it’d be interesting to see if doing so makes it “wake up” compared to the 1968.

20

Well I just tapped my ESB fermented with wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire…it is bad ass, dry hopping it in keg with EKG right now