I have been mostly only using white labs products since I got back into brewing. Was wondering if anyone has any commentary to weigh in on the subject of WY strains vs WL strains good bad or indifferent?
I brew mostly Alt-biers hefes and English style beers and the tragically underrated kentucky common dark
I generally prefer Wyeast. That’s at least partially because it’s made a couple hours from here and I oftejj get packs dated a day or 2 before. I also prefer s several of their strains, especially for alt and APA/A IPA. But that’s not to say that White doesn’t have some very good products, also. They both and see which you prefer, because it’s all about your own preferences, not someone else’s.
I forgot the White labs number for their “london fog” but that was one I definitely didn’t like. I recently did a northern brown. With WLP002 and pulled a sample very satisfied with it. Might do a 10 gallon batch and do a little side by side comparison
Wyeast, hands down winner in my experience.
Wyeast tends to offer some year round strains that I like that White Labs either doesn’t have or only offers seasonally, such as 1469 and 1762. I also like the smack pack packaging as piece of mind, since I mail order most of my liquid yeast. All that said, I’ve never had bad results with White Labs and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them either.
I used White Labs exclusively for many years. I actually loved their old capped tube containers, fortunately I saved dozens and still put them to good use.
That being said, more recently I much prefer the Wyeast smack pack advantage, where I know for sure days in advance whether my yeast is alive or whether I might need to buy some more. So now if I can get Wyeast at a good price (they are all competitive now), I’ll tend to go that direction for my liquid yeast needs.
And THAT being said… I still find the dried yeast advantages to outweigh all this, and I use dried yeasts about 90% of the time. Sometimes there just isn’t a good dried yeast available though, so then I’ll get liquid.
On a recent batch I bought White Labs, so I still get whatever is fresh and available. But given two fresh packs White Labs vs. Wyeast, I’ll tend to lean towards Wyeast now.
Try Omega yeast. I’ve used their British V in a lot of beers and it is an animal.
Awesome! Reason I ask is I see more WY yeast mentioned on forums and websites then I do White labs, definitely looking for a different here strain then the usual from white labs
Imperial Organic Pub and Bell’s, Omega Lutra, and several dry yeast are I’m my fridge.
I brew a lot of 3-4% beers and it’s very handy using wyeast because if it swells within hours, I’m happy to pitch without making a starter at lower gravities ( sub 1.040 ). I’m in Australia but some brew shops get them fairly fresh considering the journey.
But I’ll happily use whitelabs as well
Hey beerfan I take it since your in australia you also no chill brew? I just did two no chill batches and am super psyched they worked out. ( My ground water temp here isn’t optimal to efficiently chill my wort down !
Yeah mate, no chill. I have a water tank on order so I might give chilling another go, it’s been over a decade since I chilled, but with a water tank there’s no wastage, I’ll just pump back into the tank. Though I’ve been quite happy with no chill, even hoppy beers can be done quite well. To be honest, my favourite hopping schedule is just a bittering addition and then a dry hop.
Right on, it’s getting to be winter here in Pennsylvania and the temps will be dropping. You have any experience lagering with the no chill method?
Summers almost here for us, the kviek strains mean I can brew lager in the fermenting fridge, while I brew a kviek ale in the hit garage with a heat belt haha, so odd!
Lagering in the cube? Do you mean using the cube as a secondary to lager in?
As far as getting the wort down to pitching temperature for a lager yeast in the cube
When I brew lagers I put the cube in the fermenting fridge at 10c and add my starter flask to the fridge ( after it’s at high krausen) and then when both are at pitch temp, pitch into the fermenter and put back in the fridge
I have been brewing since February of 1993. White Labs did not exist at the point in time, but Wyeast had been a player for several years. To be completely honest, after spending most of the time in brewing culturing my own yeast, I am looking seriously toward finding suitable dry cultures.
That’s a long time !
For the same liquid strain, White Labs and Wyeast are interchangeable as far as I’m concerned. Imperial beats both. However, there’s a wider variety of strains at WL and WY, so I still use them occasionally.
But…I’ve been brewing since 1996, when only awful dry yeast was available. I’ve carried that bias with me for a long time. Denny and dmtaylor have inspired me to broaden my horizons on the dry-yeast front. I have not been disappointed! Bias be gone! BRY-97 and S-189 are now my go-to house strains.
Dry brewing yeast in the early to mid-90s was just dreadful. It is why a lot of us who started brewing during that period of time have rejected dry yeast for so long. The state of dry brewing yeast at that point in time and the difficulty of obtaining reliable Wyeast smack packs on the East Coast is why I started plating and slanting my own yeast during my first year of brewing. Having my own bank of cultures on slant removed yeast culture availability constraints from my brewing. However, dry yeast cultures are not as sensitive to shipping conditions as are liquid yeast cultures.
I pitched and repitched BRY-97 a couple of times several years ago. The slow onset of fermentation on the initial pitch was disturbing, but the repitches started like any other yeast culture. It is a good culture, but too me, it does not bring anything more to the table than W-34/70 when pitched at ale temperatures. I am looking for a dry ale culture with British character that can be top-cropped. I am hoping that Verdant IPA is that culture; however, I fear that it may be a little too tutti frutti.