Dry yeast suitable for aged Old Ale

[hwall95]

Hey guys,

I'm planning to make an extract Old Ale for a Christmas brew comp (Range of types, not fixed to just Christmas beers) my mates and I are having in December. I was planning to brew it up in the next month or so in order to age it for at least 8 months (Hence the early planning) as it would be interesting to see how it turns out. I designed the recipe on Beersmith last night after reading about the style of Old Ales. It ended up with the following features:

Batch Size: 23.00L
Estimated OG: 1.081 SG
Estimated Color: 18.5 SRM
Estimated IBU: 56.8 IBUs
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

My main confusion I have regards to what is the best yeast... The ale itself is English oriented, but at the same time I wanted to make it a complex and unique beer. So from that, I found Safbrew S-33, Safbrew T-58 and SafAle S-04. Has anyone used either three in a similar ale or has any advice? And personally I would rather to stay with dry yeast as I'm comfortable with them, and scared that if was to accidentally stuff it up it would be a waste of 8 months aging.

Cheers,
Harry

 

[Ross]

Without question I'd recommend Nottingham....


Cheers Ross

 

[Bribie G]

+1

The one and only dark ale I entered into a competition (and it scored quite nicely) was done on Notto as recommended at the time by Ross. With such a high OG some of the other yeasts might result in something too sweet or syrupy, whilst the Notto will attenuate fully but not too dry, and still allow the complexity to come through.

 

[hwall95]

Okay thanks Ross and Bribie, I shall give Notto a try.

+1

The one and only dark ale I entered into a competition (and it scored quite nicely) was done on Notto as recommended at the time by Ross. With such a high OG some of the other yeasts might result in something too sweet or syrupy, whilst the Notto will attenuate fully but not too dry, and still allow the complexity to come through.

My only concern: Due to Notto's high attenuation, will it leave any alcohol flavour (As I was trying to avoid that)? Also is 18 degrees a good temperature for Notto?

Edit: Also is 1 or 2 packets best?

Thanks, Harry

 

[Ross]

At least 2 packets, personally i'd use 3.
Keep the temp at 15c for about 5 days & then lift to 18c+ - The beer will be nice & clean.
Might be best to have a blow off tube rigged up, as Notto can be a messy beast...


Cheers Ross

 

[hwall95]

At least 2 packets, personally i'd use 3.
Keep the temp at 15c for about 5 days & then lift to 18c+ - The beer will be nice & clean.
Might be best to have a blow off tube rigged up, as Notto can be a messy beast...


Cheers Ross

Okay, once again thanks Ross. Yeah I've heard it can be a bit explosive, so I was thinking about using the 60L fermentor, therefore providing double the room for krausen. I'll have to call in and grab my ingredients from you some time.