I want to get me some of this!
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We need to start a write-in campaign to get White Labs to offer WLP033 at least as a seasonal. Companies are in business to make money. If there is enough demand, White Labs will propagate it.
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Yeah, I’ll drop them a line.
I’m a lover of English bitter, but I’m always dissapointed that I can’t seem to make them like they make them across the pond. I would love to even come close to some of the real ales that I had when I was there.
If we can get enough people to request WLP033, White Labs will propagate it. It has a ester profile when young that can best be described as lollipop. I know that description sounds weird, but it is really good in a balanced SMaSH bitter made with high-quality English pale malt and EKG. I maintained the BrewTek incarnation of WLP033 on slant for ten years because I could not keep beer made with it on tap at my house. Even my BMC drinking family members loved it. That SMaSH bitter and Pre-Pro Pils made with the Christian Schmidt strain were my most popular beers before I took an extended hiatus from the hobby due to brewer burnout.
Maybe it’s the power of suggestion, but I’m picking up some definite ale-like characteristics from the Sinebrychoff in my glass right now. In particular, there’s this almond/stonefruit character that is distinctly British ale-like.
There was a fair amount of sediment in the bottom of the bottle. I think I’ll try stepping it up to see if there’s any viable yeast in there. If there’s a thick meringue of krausen, then it may indeed be Ringwood. I’d be amused if after the multiple discussions about where to get true Ringwood cultures the answer turned out to be a Baltic Porter from Finland.
I have picked up something in fresh Deschutes Red Chair that I could describe as “lollipop”. My initial thoughts on it’s description was candy and jolly ranchers (not green apple) - but lollipop might be a better description. AFAIK, I don’t think their strain has been pinpointed to a specific commercial strain, but has been suggested that it’s towards the 1187/1948 hemisphere of character (i.e. british with decent ester production). I think most of deschutes beers are filtered though 
WLP033 is not identified as a seasonal yeast yet does not seem to be carried by any brewing supply shops I contacted. What’s the deal there? Is it commercial use only or just random release only?
Probably about as much as you or anyone else. They’ll release it if they get enough demand, I would think.
Which is why it’s the only British strain I like at all.
They were all British strains at one point, even 1450. 
I spoke out of turn - sorry White Labs :-[
That would be pretty sweet. They could set it up so if your decide not to wait, you can apply the payment to a standard strain.
It appears that whoever shared that information with stpug jumped the shark. Kara has asked to have the information removed from the forum.
You mean she doesn’t want dozens or hundreds of email requests all at once for one specific strain?
I have met Kara. She is a sweetheart. I can only imagine how difficult having this information lose in the wild will make life for her.
After my total faux pas earlier, I decided to go the other direction and ask for more info from Wyeast on 1768 :D. It’s too bad because I swear I remember 1768 just going through a seasonal release in the last year or so (could’ve been longer ago).
Good news on the horizon for “early 2016” from wyeast for 1768; hopefully that means the Jan-March release but we’ll wait and see. That should allow me to pump out plenty of lagers before then and be ready for a string of British-style ales.
I’m drinking a shipyard export right now and can clearly see a decent layer of sediment in the bottom of the bottom. If the beer is not pasteurized then this very well could be the true multi-strain Ringwood ale yeast, right?
Edit: definitely has some diacetyl in it.
It worked! If we get enough of us to order it they will make it. Check out the link:
“If you build it, they will come.”
Thats really a cool idea. I hope it works and that Wyeast follows
Mark, I am an English beer noob. If I want to try another yeast besides WLP002 that is always available from either WYeast or White Labs which do you recommend?
PS. I made a bitter with 94% English Pale, 4% English Crystal 60, and 1% Chocolate. You recommended this on a different thread. It turned out very good. I used WLP002. I would love to try another English strain to compare, but, don’t know where to start.
Mark’s comments about WLP002 are interesting. My LHBS posted on a local forum that for the immediate future they are only going to be ordering wlp001 and wlp002 because those are the only strains that sell well. Apparently a lot of the other strains pass the expiration date without selling and have to be discounted.
The LHBS will include special requested strains when they make their order.
The Ridley’s strain (WLP022) is next in rotation. It is about as British as one is going get with White Lab’s standard rotation strains. WLP022 is significantly more attenuative than WLP002, so you may want try WLP005 first.
By the way, I acquired a British strain from UC Davis last year that I used to make a Cluster IPA before moving on to other new strains that I needed to evaluate. That IPA was amazing for being an all Cluster beer. I attributed the complex flavor that it possessed to the malt and hop bills. I decided to propagate a starter from the culture while performing much needed bank maintenance. I brewed an amber ale with Avangard Pilsner, MFB caramunich, and Crystal as the hop (not exactly a British-style beer). To my surprise, the beer had all of the good attributes of the the Cluster ale. Using Crystal instead of Cluster allowed the sensory profile produced by this strain to shine through the malt and hops. Holy smokes, this culture is the most strongly flavored British ale yeast that I have used to date. The ester profile is tutti frutti lollipop. It also has a unique way of emphasizing malt. This strain is almost too much for me. It’s almost like what would occur if a British strain mated with a Belgian strain.
Anyway, I sent a request Dr. Boundy-Mills to see if UC Davis had any additional information for the strain. To my surprise, the scientist who deposited the strain was Jean-Xavier Guinard. If that name rings a bell, it is because Jean-Xavier wrote the book entitled “Lambic” for the Classic Beer Styles Series. Jean-Xavier could not remember where he acquired the strain because he was using it for his Ph.D. research. He was studying agglutination properties of baker’s yeast, and chose this brewing strain because it was highly flocculent (agglutination is a more specific way of describing flocculation as it pertains to cells). Baker’s yeast and ale yeast are the same yeast species; namely, Saccharomyces cerevisiae. The only difference is the application for which a particular strain has been selected.