So, what is the skinny on this yeast culture? It is allegedly from Timothy Taylor. I have not used anything from Wyeast in what seems like forever. My LHBS switched over to White Labs in a long time ago. I can get Wyeast by special order. Does actual performance match the Wyeast performance profile for this culture?
Hopefully you will get some response from those who have used it regularly but I at least have very recent experience. I kegged a TTL inspired bitter made with it a few days ago. I hadn’t planned on trying it just yet as I am on a diet but I saw this and poured a little and looked, smelled and tasted.
I made the same recipe as I had recently with s-04: 99% Valley Malt pale malt, 1% black malt, early and late boil addition hops both a mix of EKG and styrian goldings, healthy amount of gypsum, 1.047 og
Pitched sns starter of 1469, high sixties.
It flocculated into a tight yeast cake. The first thing I noticed when I poured some was that it was already very clear and bright. The batch with s-04 didn’t get this clear in the probably 3 weeks it was on tap.
Wyeast describes a malty profile with a dry finish: definitely spot on, it left me with that wanting to have more feeling. Delicious.
They describe nutty and stone fruit esters. I didn’t get nutty but got a sort of plum aroma, not strong.
I was using a malt I have a lot of, it normally calls for Golden Promise I think but nonetheless it was in TTL territory. I am calling it Timmy Taylor’s Property Manager.
I’m a big fan of this strain. The flavor profile reminds me of Landlord, so I can certainly believe that this is the TT yeast. It has replaced 1968 as my go-to strain for bitters, mainly because it has an ester profile that I enjoy equally as well, ferments and flocs out quickly, but is a bit more attenuative.
Speaking of fermenting and floccing out quickly, I just remembered something.
I pitched the smack pack into my starter wort about 11:00PM figuring on an early afternoon pitch the next day at high krausen. At 8:00 next morning there seemed to be no activity and after a moment of panic noticed that there was a solid layer of yeast on the bottom: it had already fermented and flocked.
The fermentation happened fast too, so it’s true that an sns starter is like a nuclear bomb or hand grenade ( I forgot which martial metaphor Mark used) and doesn’t have to be pitched at a precise time.
It is a good English strain. Is it from TT? Maybe. Some say TT probably use a mixed pitch. They are a little close to the vest with information.
I’ve used lots of uk strains over a decade or so from both companies and 1469 seems to be the least fussy UK strain that still has excellent yeast character. Good attenuation as well, ferments fast and strong.
Do not quote me on this, but I believe the gigayeast equivlent is this https://gigayeast.com/yeastandbacteria/british-ale-yeast-2/ and a local cask brewery uses it as their house yeast and I’ve spoken with their head brewers and had a ton of their beer that was made with it. It has ALOT more character than 1468 and leaves the beer with substantially more body, even with its higher than average attenuation. Higher diacetyl production, but it seems to work with english style ales. The head brewer reports diminishing attenuation after about the 20th or so repitch.
I have used it several times to make TTL-inspired ales and they have all been excellent. I get higher attenuation than listed on the Wyeast website, but their description seems to be accurate otherwise.
Attenuation ratings are for comparing one yeast to another and don’t necessarily reflect the attenuation you’ll get.
True, so much depends on factors other than yeast. They should just say high, medium, or low instead of percentages.