Kit yeast v purchased yeast - what is the taste difference?

[trustyrusty]

Hi I have mostly been making kit yeast with my kits....but have used other yeasts.

I made a Coopers Dark Ale (Only made one so I cannot compare with others)

Normal BE2 plus 250 grams brown sugar
+ Danstar West Coast Ale Yeast BRY 97

This is probably the best beer I have made. The head is great, lasts tell the end and the taste is a good bitterness but a nice hint of

sweetness - delicious.

I have found a lot of kit beers or the beers I have made) to have an after taste bitterness in the throat - but not this one - so I can only

put it down to the yeast.

Can kit yeasts be a bit more 'bitter' (after taste - not the bitterness) ?

I did use 250 grams brown sugar...can that make a difference, I would have thought not a lot ?


Thanks

 

[trustyrusty]

Bump -

What really mean is can the yeast make a huge difference in flavour profile - I have not used much of different yeasts so I don;t know the flavour profiles. I know that Jack Daniels has used the same yeast for 160 years so I assume makes a difference in taste.

The issue with using a yeast other than a kit is that you need temp. control as the range of temperature is less.

 

[manticle]

Absolutely - yeast strain, yeast health and cell numbers as well as how the yeast is treated during fermentation will make a huge difference to final beer flavour.

 

[butisitart]

you'll find an awful lot of brewers have got 5+ different washed yeasts in the fridge ready to go - eg i've got
nottingham
irish ale
german ale
belgian ardennes
wehenstephan wheat
and soon to get some scottish ale.

they all quite different and raise the options of what you can do.
my oldest would be irish and german ales - going strong at around 15mnths, and i've used both on aus and english styles, so it's not like you're locked into anything.
if you learn to wash, store and do yeast starters, it lifts the whole brew experience.

 

[dr K]

Kit yeast should not give you a bitter taste, but aside from that it is a very basic yeast that has not been stored well.
Even dry yeast should be refrigerated.
Dry yeast from Fermentis and Lallemand are of high quality and not expensive, but are limited in range.
The big step is liquids and these are readily available for between $10 and $14 a pack (or less).

K

 

[trustyrusty]

Hi Guys,

yes I trying new yeasts -

I have washed this yeast US05 and have 2 bottles (1.25 l)

Filled to top to reduce oxygen in bottle. I am not sure how to use now..

Is one bottle too much for one pitch or make a yeast starter?

Do you just bring to room temp and pour out top contents (old beer and water mix) and then pitch in.

This trub has a bit of hops in from dry hopping - is that a problem...? Not much at all.....

Is there a way to test it is safe and not infected?
cheers

 

[Rocker1986]

From the looks of it there's probably enough in one of those bottles to pitch into a brew without making a starter, but it depends on how old it is too.

You would pour off the old beer/water yes. I make starters and harvest from them so I don't have to faff around rinsing it (and so there's no hops or whatever in it either), and use the same technique of chilling them down and pouring off the beer before pitching into the main batch. I don't wait for it to warm up though; I just pitch it cold straight into the wort. I've only started doing this recently but the lag times have reduced from when I used to let it warm up first.

You can smell and taste it to see if it's ok.

 

[kevinj]

That's a good idea, save a small sample of each starter to kick of the next starter.
Would you store it in a sealed bottle of the old beer/water, so it can eat any stray oxygen/sugar, maybe with a carb drop to help it along?
Or sterile water?

 

[Rocker1986]

I just re-mix up the starter and tip some of it into a mason jar and stick it in the fridge. I deliberately build my starters bigger than necessary to account for this 'stolen' portion too. They get used pretty regularly so I'm not too concerned about replacing the beer with sterile water.

 

[butisitart]

i wash then reduce down. then wash again and reduce.the yeast in the photo above would end up in 2 urine sample jars or similar with sterile water on top. a lot more compact for storage. one of them would be good for about 2-3 starters while the 2nd sits longer term and makes 1-2 starters. i don't feed them with carb drops - i'm trying to sedate them out for a while.