I know that these are supposed to be the same strain. I usually use the White Labs Chico strain and I can pour a clean beer, with gelatin finings, by the time it’s done carbonating in the keg. Every time I for some reason or another use the Wyeast version, it takes a week or two to clear. Anyone find this to be true or am I crazy?
Not for me. I use plenty of 1056 and it clears out quickly for me with gelatin, not too much longer without.
There were several discussions on the differences in the past. Our local yeast expert had said that when strains are banked, you can get different character from the same yeast, as there is a selection that goes on when the yeast are isolated. There are slight differences in 001, 1056, US-05, and even what Sierra Nevada is using today.
The Weihenstephaner W34/70 and W34/78 are different isolates of W34, and differ in their flocculation rate.
US-05 is less flocculant than 1056 IME and possibly peachier.
How about an experiment? https://www.experimentalbrew.com/experiments/writeups/writeup-yeast-comparison-same-strain-wyeast-1056-wlp001
As Jeff mentioned above, a pure yeast culture starts out as a single colony taken from a plate. The colony is usually transferred to a slant to produce an isolate (W34/70 is the 70th isolate of culture number 34).
A pure yeast culture can drift genetically over time when repitched; however, not all cells within the culture drift at the same rate or even in the same way. One of the most common genetic mutations to occur in yeast cultures is loss of flocculation. It is the result of mutation within a yeast cell’s mitochondrial DNA.
The reason why the different yeast producers produce yeast strains with slightly different characteristics is due to isolation. As mentioned above, all pure yeast cultures start out as a single colony taken from a plate. The first step in preparing a liquid culture for inclusion in a culture collection is to plate it for single colonies. The colony selected for banking determines the characteristics of the culture that is grown.
Lol. I forgot about this one already. In my defense, it was like your first experiment. Thanks for the reminder.