To put some words into Ross's mouth, he does know a bit about it...
All indicators are that this does come from a Swiss brewery, someone posted a liquid yeast number in another thread that it was supposed to be equal to.
This yeast works well at higher temperatures apparently. Ross has a customer who against all readings and advice uses this yeast at ale temps and apparently the beers come out alright. I can't vouch for this personally but it has come up a few times at club meetings. Apart from that story everyone I know just treats this like a lager yeast, but my point is Tony's 22C lager might be alright...
Ross made a dopplebock with this yeast (I'm assuming it was actually, just because I know he uses it a lot. I could be wrong, in which case this point will be null and void
...) and it was drinkable ridiculously early in the process for such a high gravity beer...Even if it wasn't this yeast it certainly lends weight to the no lager method...
From my readings on threads on this yeast it appears to be a very good one for the 'no lager' method discussed here and elsewhere.
It seems to either not produce many by products or else clean up very well in a short time.
I haven't done a strict side by side recipe comparision but my last lager used w34/70 and it definitely took longer to come good. I still used the same method, ferment, crash chill and keg, and the maturing time was a lot longer.
A simple german pilsner made with s-189 can be drinkable at just over 3 weeks from brewday...
4 weeks and you'll be throwing them down
My keg made for christmas drinking was entirely gone just over 5 weeks from brewday...