Report: Yeast Effect On Beer Taste

[jgriffin]

On Sunday a few of us Brisbane home brewers met for another brew day.

As reported previously, at our last meeting we (well i watched) made a 60L Partial Mash APA, and split it into 3 fermenters. Three different yeasts were pitched, and the beer taken home by different people for fermenting.

The three yeasts were

a) WL California Ale Yeast
B) Wyeast American Ale II
c) WL San Francisco Lager yeast

On Sunday, we got to taste the difference in the brews, and to see how much the yeast had affected the taste profile.

OH MY GOD! I still can't believe the difference made by the yeast. These were 3 totally different beers, if i hadn't have been at the brew day, i would never have believed that these beers came from the same wort.

My summary (sorry i'm not much of a beer judge) is

a) WhiteLabs California Ale Yeast
This yeast seemed to have stripped all the flavour out of the beer. Not only was the malt profile lacking, but the hop aroma and bitterness was totally lacking. As Snow said, "it's tastes like budweiser"

B) Wyeast American Ale II
This was deinately the pick of the bunch. Lots of malt and heaps of hops bitterness and aroma. Sorry my explanation is lacking, but without a doubt this beer was what i expected a good APA to taste like. Unfortunately nobody offered me a bottle to take home...

c) Whitelabs San Francisco Lager
If you're not familiar with this yeast, it's a lager yeast that ferments up to high temperatures, i think 18deg is normal.
This APA turned out quite nice, not as tasty as the Wyeast, but still a nice beer. I thought you could tell it was a lager yeast, but i can't really explain apart from the fact that it was very "clean" tasting.

Anyway, i was totally totally blown away by the differences in these beers. Hopefully Snow or someone else who has more of a refined pallete can explain in more detail, but it was definately an eye opeing experience.

 

[deebee]

Interesting post. Hope to hear the impressions of other brewers who tasted these different beers. I'm glad to hear the San Fran Lager yeast did a reasonable job with the APA. I bottled something very similar on the weekend.

JW Trad malt
caramalt
extract
bittered with amarillo
flavoured with cascade
Wyeast 2112 Calif lager (sounds the same as the WL SanFran lager)

Tasted very encouraging at bottling. Like a crisper version of an APA with some of the fruity profile and the typical citrusy cascade flavours, but cleaner and finishing dryer.

Have put a few near the heater in the hope they might be carbonated up by Asher's brew day this weekend.

 

[Snow]

To back up what jgriffin has reported, I would say the California Ale neutralised any dominant flavours you would normally expect from malt and hops. This is a pretty impressive feat, given that cascade and chinook were used. I made the beer taste like fizzy sugar water...exactly like budweiser. Safe to say I'll never brew with this yeast again, or if I did, I'd double the amount of hops and add some strong flavoured malts like chocolate and melanoidin. It could possibly work well in a stout or porter.

The American Ale II was definitely the pick of the bunch. It's hard to say what flavours the yeast itself imparted, but it certainly allowed the hops to shine through and provided a good clean bitterness, that was softened due to first wort hopping the cascade. The aroma was citrus fruity with sweet malt undertones. The flavour was your typical APA profile, but with a residual caramel nuttiness that came through a few seconds after you'd swallowed. It was hard to find any faults, other than a slight lack of freshness, probably due to its age (2 months) and the use of extracts in the boil.

The San Francisco lager was clean and fresh tasting, with a good sharp bitterness that didn't linger too long, but long enough to be refreshing. The hops were somewhat subdued, but still had a fruity aroma and I reckon tasted kind of like lychee nuts, in an off-way. This yeast showed up the malt more than anything, in particular the munich malt. With a slight diacetyl profile from the yeast, I was tasting a kind of butter caramel flavour after i'd swallowed. Not unpleasant, but new to me.

Bottles of each beer will be sent up to Townsville for the State comp, so it will be interesting to get feedback on them from certified judges. We'll post the tasting notes when we get them.

All in all a pleasant afternoon was had by all. Jgriffin showcased some very nice beers and we had fun pouring from his party keg - top of the list on my birthday request! Mate, next time you want to take some beers home, you gotta open ya gob! My apologies for not giving you any to take home. Come over to my place sometime in the next couple of weeks to try the Arrogant ******* in my new keg set-up, and I'll give you some take-aways!

Thanks to Stephen for hosting us and look forward to having it at jgriff's place next time for his inaugural full mash. Hope some other Brisbane brewers can get to that one.

Cheers - Snow

 

[jgriffin]

I was only teasing I meant to ask for some, but was a little bit happy by the time we finished up.

P.S thanks for the raps on my beers, i've still got a long way to catch up to the standard of everyone else though, but i'm finally getting the hang of it I hope.

 

[jayse]

Hi brissie brewers,

Sounds like my kind of afternoon, You properly could have guessed the american II would be the best.

The 1056 doesn't sound like it did well at all. I have had results better than that with it but that sort of a result would put you off it.
Like you mentioned using more malt with it next time this is what i have done before and gone for a beer more like hightail ale, that beer come up very good.

Iam gunna do this experiment soon with a APA much the same, i'll use north west ale, american ale and american ale II.

Not that i want to either but i'll be dropping the ibu to 30 as the last one at 35 was judged as too high.
It was judged as well balanced with a dry bitter after taste, which is what iam after and even though i only used 60g over the last 15minutes unlike the ussual 90g it was still judged as too hoppy.

I used 1026 cask ale in that beer and it was as clear and clean as a whistle, maybe to much malt for style aswell, anyway iam gunna change a few tiny things and go from there.
This is not a sell out either (taming my beer)just a exercise in brewing great beer.

Top work brissie brewers.
Cheers Jayse

 

[Gout]

cant wait for the results jasye esp the American ale vs the American ale 2

and very interesting re: bris brewers

i might have to get me a american ale 2 for a test

 

[deebee]

At his brew day, Guest Lurker did a similar test with the one wort split between Wyeast American Ales I and II. In a blind taste test, we were able to pick the yeasts, but gee they were bloody similar.

 

[morry]

Sorry guys, bit of a newbie question. I have never heard of these wyeast yeasts. Whenever I go to the homebrew shop, the guy recommends safale/lager. I imagine that there are more varieties of these other yeasts, specifically for different types of beers. Do they stock these at usual brew shops? How do they differ from safale etc? Thanks.

 

[Gout]

morry i see you are in melb. Grain and Grape sell the whole range of wyeast, infact they are the importers... my old brewshop did not stock these and would push me to saf lager and ale. Now there is nothing wrong with these yeasts there great but when he tried to convince me that liquid yeast was a waste of time and saf yeasts cover them , i moved brew shops

If interested Melb brewers (east side of melbourne) have monthly meets and we trade yeasts etc if you want to come down and if there is a yeast you want to try, i am sure we will mostlikly have something for you.

PM if you want further details

 

[Darren]

Howdy guys,
I recently bought a 500g brick of SAF US-56. Have used it in an APA. Nice fruity, malty beer. It compares very well with Wy 1056.
The advantage of it is there is no need to oxygenate the beer prior to pitching. No need to make a starter.
Also just put down a barleywine 1.090 SG. Finished in 10 days around 1.015. Again no starter, no oxygenation (I did pitch 100g of yeast at about 16 degree C).

worth a try!
cheers
Darren

 

[daveisbludging]

Darren,

What was the price on 500g of SAF and where from?

Cheers,

Dave

 

[Darren]

Darren,

What was the price on 500g of SAF and where from?

Cheers,

Dave

For memory it was about $80 delivered. Apparently it is coming out in 11g packs later this year.
Here is some info on it www.crosby-baker.com/DCL.htm

Any adelaide people wanting to try this yeast I am willing to supply 30grams in sterile containers for $5.

darren dot miller at adelaide dot edu dot au

cheers
Darren

 

[ant]

Wow! That's some pretty high attenaution from the SAF US-56... round about 83%? Anyone know what the normal range of these new yeasts is?

 

[roach]

Directly from Lesaffre (Fermentis) state for US 56:

- the expected attenuation will be 73-80% depending on the fermentability of the individual wort.

- The normal fermentation temperature will be between 18 to 25 centigrade, (for a cleaner taste use 18 to 23 centigrade).

- Use between 50/80 g/hectolitre at pitch to ensure an adequate yeast
pitching count.

 

[Darren]

Directly from Lesaffre (Fermentis) state for US 56:

- the expected attenuation will be 73-80% depending on the fermentability of the individual wort.

- The normal fermentation temperature will be between 18 to 25 centigrade, (for a cleaner taste use 18 to 23 centigrade).

- Use between 50/80 g/hectolitre at pitch to ensure an adequate yeast
pitching count.

I pitched the beer at about 16. The highest temperature it reached was about 19.5 three days into the ferment. It pulled down the last 15 points over about a week.
Not 100% sure of the FG as I only quickly checked it last night. I think it was 1.015

 

[Batz]

Any adelaide people wanting to try this yeast I am willing to supply 30grams in sterile containers for $5.

I'll grab $10 worth off you while in Adelaide Darren , bet big d will want me to get him the same
Cheers Batz

 

[Darren]

Any adelaide people wanting to try this yeast I am willing to supply 30grams in sterile containers for $5.

I'll grab $10 worth off you while in Adelaide Darren , bet big d will want me to get him the same
Cheers Batz

No worries Batz,
When are you coming down? Once these 500g packs are opened they loose a bit of viability. It has been opened for two weeks now.
If it is in the next couple of weeks it should be fine.
30g is heaps any how.
cheers
Darren

 

[Batz]

Doh!
Will not be down till mid November <_<

 

[Darren]

Doh!
Will not be down till mid November <_<

Batz,
I think this yeast should be available at all good HB shops by then in 11g packs.
cheers
Darren

 

[sosman]

I used SAF US56 in a couple of APA's recently. First one reached 80% attenuation. Second one was very sluggish (and only hit 73%). The HBS guy repackaged from a 500g brick. I think the first lot was soon after opening, the 2nd lot about a month after.

Here is the goss from Lesaffre on SAF US56:
-------------------
Sorry you could not find the information from the website: we are very near the launch of the new Fermentis website that will be out in the autumn. The yeast was only launched a few months ago.

To answer your questions:-

To re-hydrate the yeast it is as our normal yeast method.ie elevated temperature to 27 centigrade , mix, stand for 30 mins then agitate to oxygenate the cream and pitch at normal brewing temperature.

The expected attenuation will be 73-80% depending on the fermentability of your individual wort.

The normal fermentation temperature will be between 18 to 25 centigrade, (for a cleaner taste use 18 to 23 centigrade).

Use between 50/80 g/hectolitre at pitch to ensure an adequate yeast pitching count.

Last thing, tell your friends about it!!!