Hi everyone,
This may be a silly question but I will ask it anyway. Can I use English Ale yeasts in a wheat type beer? I am getting ready to brew with wheat for the first time, so any advice would be appreciated.
Thanks
Depends upon what you’re wanting out of the yeast.
It will make beer, but it won’t make a Hefeweizen for instance - to get those clovey, banana, bubblegum things you’d expect from a German wheat beer, you’ll need a Hefe yeast.
But if you’re wanting to make a neutral-esque British smelling wheat ale, sure thing
I do not have experience with British yeast in a wheat, but I have used 1272 (or w/e the number is for American Ale II) to make a wheat and it resulted in a more neutral ale. Tasty, but that that “wheaty,” if you know what I mean.
For hefe though, I use 3333.
When I think of wheat beer I think of HefeWeizen and banana esters and spicy clove phenolics. You may think of American or Belgian style wheat beer when you think “wheat beer”. So it depends. But for a hefeweizen I highly recommend wlp380 HefeIV - great yeast. Pitch in the low 60s and ferment in the mid 60s.
As an old fan of Dan McConnell’s YeastLab W-51 weizen yeast, I highly recommend the WLP351 Bavarian Weizen, which WhiteLabs got from Dan. It is available in March and April. It is by far my favorite weizen yeast. Check out the description and reviews at http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp351.html.
Thanks Jeff, I’ll keep my eye out for that one!
The brewmaster Darron Welch, at the link below had a recipe in Zymurgy years ago for an English Summer Wheat, if I remember correctly. I believe it had a large percentage of wheat malt in the recipe. Darron was quite helpful via email in helping me formulate my own recipe. Contact him. He is an expert.