S-33 Flavour Profile?

[RobB]

I'm planning my first wit and will probably use a dry yeast. S-33 and T-58 seem to be the most obvious candidates, but the manufacturer's description of S-33's flavour is limited to "superb". Every website that sells the stuff simply cuts and pastes the same description.

I've enjoyed many 'superb' foodstuffs in my life, but few of them have had flavours which I would want in my beer.

Can anyone give me a better description?

 

[Whorst]

I'm planning my first wit and will probably use a dry yeast. S-33 and T-58 seem to be the most obvious candidates, but the manufacturer's description of S-33's flavour is limited to "superb". Every website that sells the stuff simply cuts and pastes the same description.

I've enjoyed many 'superb' foodstuffs in my life, but few of them have had flavours which I would want in my beer.

Can anyone give me a better description?

I wouldn't use it for anything Belgian, as it's the EDME strain. There's a brewery on the East Coast of the US that uses it as their house yeast. They do nothing but English styles.

 

[0M39A]

If you're going to do a wit, then nothing bar a wit yeast will suffice im sad to say.

 

[reviled]

If you're going to do a wit, then nothing bar a wit yeast will suffice im sad to say.

K-97 works well as a wit yeast, and its dried...

 

[Millet Man]

I wouldn't use it for anything Belgian, as it's the EDME strain. There's a brewery on the East Coast of the US that uses it as their house yeast. They do nothing but English styles.

And the flavour profile is...

 

[Millet Man]

K-97 works well as a wit yeast, and its dried...

Made some nice wits with K-97, but T-58 would also do the job if you want something spicier.

Cheers, Andrew.

 

[MVZOOM]

What about WB-06?

Cheers - Mike

 

[Screwtop]

K-97 works well as a wit yeast, and its dried...

+1

Screwy

 

[bconnery]

A search for Edme Ale Yeast, which this is reputed to be, yielded up a few more descriptive terms.
John Palmer describes it as " One of the original dry yeast strains, this produces a soft, bready finish. Medium flocculation and medium-high attenuation. Fermentation range of 62-70F."
Another place says: "Quick starting dry yeast with a good reputation. Produces some fruity ester. Highly attentive, so it will likely produce a slightly dry taste."

So it sounds very much more english, which it is meant to be...

 

[RobB]

Thanks for all the replies.

For some reason, the search function doesn't seem to like numbers, which is unfortunate when researching dried yeast! A search on Edme was more fruitful. The two descriptions I found were 'soft and bready' as per bconnery's post and 'mild esters and phenols', so it sounds like it could work.

A search on the wider web revealed many arguments on the English vs Belgian topic. It seems that both S-33 and T-58 were in use in the UK before being brought over to Belgium. Plenty of homebrewers claim to have used both of these in wits with good results. MVZOOM, WB-06 is also under consideration, not least because I have it in my fridge.

Wits seem to be open to a fair bit of interpretation, so I think any of theses would work. It seems that when a brewer wants to try a new fruit/herb/spice in a beer, wit is the style which best accommodates it.