Best Yeast For A Dry Stout?

[mfdes]

Hi there,

Reading around and listening to the Jamil show podcasts it seems like the Irish Ale yeast from Wyeast and White Labs may not be the best choice for fermenting an Irish dry stout, as it throws off some diacetyl if you're not careful, and does not attenuate enough. I've seen a few things recommended from good old Cal Ale WLP001 to Edinburgh Ale to Dry English to London Ale.

I am keen to do a couple of dry stouts and was wondering whether it's worth splurging out on an Irish Ale or other yeast specifically for this or whether I'm better off using one of the two appropriate ones I already have: Cal Ale, or Burton Ale, both of which are good attenuators.

As an aside, what is your favourite yeast for:

a. a dry Irish stout, and
b. an Irish red ale.

Thanks!

MFS.

 

[bconnery]

I read somewhere suggesting a good english ale yeast can work well in a dry stout.
Following this I used Burton ale in mine to give some nice background to the roast flavours and it came out very well.
That would be my recommendation of the two you have listed their.

As for general yeast choice...
People use all sorts here. Nottingham, US56 or s04 in the dry, Irish Ale in the liquid is still a very popular choice but I will be using English ale yeasts in all mine...

For an Irish ale Irish Ale is the most obvious choice but again people use different ones. English ale yeasts, Us56 etc. I'd go Irish or else probably Nottingham or s04 myself.

 

[domonsura]

Danstar Nottingham

 

[warrenlw63]

Danstar Nottingham

+1 what the beer bellied one said. B)

Warren -

 

[niceshoes]

I use White Labs WLP002 English Ale.
This is reported to be a strain from Fullers.


Ian...

 

[craig maher]

+1 what the beer bellied one said. B)

Warren -

+2 I'm with BB and Warren.

Have one in primary right now with Nottingham :super:

Craig

 

[SJW]

+3 what BB, Warren and Craig said

 

[warrenlw63]

Just make sure you leave a bit of room in your fermenter.

I tossed a Craftbrewer twin pack into 42 litres of stout in a 60 litre fermenter and the thing went beserk!

"Just" managed to creep a wee bit into the airlock. Love its performance but. Fermented out and dropped bright in 3 days. B)

Warren -

 

[randyrob]

what temp should this hugh grant yeast be fermented at?

 

[warrenlw63]

I did the standard 18 degrees Rob. Supposedly can ferment well below 15 degrees though.

Warren -

 

[craig maher]

what temp should this hugh grant yeast be fermented at?

Brewing mine at 16 atm but still get huge krausen as described by Warren.

Cheers,

 

[SJW]

I use this stuff at 10 and it still goes nuts

 

[Beer Guy]

Had brilliant results with SO4 at a certain beer show in Melbourne last time I brewed a stout. Can get lazy towards the end of ferment though that being said I tend to use that yeast at the lower range of the temp scale. I think the hardest part though is balancing the roast flavour so maybe look at some of the wayermann huskless roasts they tend to give nice smooth roasted notes particulary with equal amounts of T2 caramunich.

 

[mfdes]

My grain bill will be a traditional dry Irish Stout one:

70% Pale
20% Flaked barley
10% Roast

 

[drsmurto]

My grain bill will be a traditional dry Irish Stout one:

70% Pale
20% Flaked barley
10% Roast

I made one with the same grist as this using wyeast 1084. Its on tap now. I had intended on calling this a Guinness clone but its a lot roastier than Guinness. Not that thats a bad thing! Bittered with a combo of NB and EKG. Tasty drop.

 

[PostModern]

You could go neutral or you could go characterful. I made nice FES's with WLP023 Burton a couple years back. The fermentation is a little sulphury (read smells like dog poo) but the beer has a nice subtle ester character, especially if you Burtonise the water.

 

[Beer Guy]

78%Pale(Galaxy)
14%Carafa Special
8% T2caramunich

SO4 deliberate under pitch for ester development
ferment 18.9

Beer
OG 13.5
PG 4.42
ABV% 4.92%
IBU 47.5
EBC 250
ph 4.57

infusion mash 66.9
4:1 ratio

 

[mfdes]

I made one with the same grist as this using wyeast 1084. Its on tap now. I had intended on calling this a Guinness clone but its a lot roastier than Guinness. Not that thats a bad thing! Bittered with a combo of NB and EKG. Tasty drop.

I think the source of the Roasted barley is important in how it affects character. What OG did you use? I think if you go above 1.040 you need to leave the roasted barly total quantity the same and just increase the base malt.

MFS.

 

[petesbrew]

I just put down a simple K&K coopers stout last night with WLP005 British Ale.
Hoping for the best now.

 

[KoNG]

Pitching a dry stout tonight for my wedding ...
Danstar Nottingham.....
Finishes dry and lets the roast malts come through, too easy.