San Diego Super Yeast Review - WLP 090

[Bribie G]

As posted in another thread, this yeast is now available again. I first used it in 2011 and it was a fast and furious, clean fermenting monster. Many reports of it fermenting a brew out in three days then dropping.
I was keen to try it again, and pitched into a well oxygenated strong blonde ale wort around 1060 on Sunday afternoon, it's now Friday afternoon.

There was low krausen within 24 hours and since then the yeast has plodded along quietly with basically the same clean white low krausen, day in day out, running at around 20 degrees but getting itself up to 22 on some days, fermenting in a switched off fermenting fridge.

I don't know if this is the original strain, the current offering strikes me as having the same fermenting characteristics as most of the Chico yeasts such as US-05, krausening forever then eventually waving the white flag and dropping out.
Certainly no super yeast anymore but let's see how it flocs and how the beer turns out.

I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and pitch some slurry into the next brew (same recipe) to see what a better pitch will do.

 

[MitchD]

I've noticed the same thing, after lauding 090 for its characteristic superness my latest pure pitch has been lacklustre at best taking a week to ferment out a 4% pale. I'm willing to give it another go, but just once more.

For comparison on Sunday morning I underpitched 023 into og1.054, went to orange for work Monday and came home Tuesday to find sg@ 1.014 expecting to hit. 1.012, that only took an extra 24hrs. This is the current "super yeast"

 

[goatchop41]

A lot of online reports of SDSY mention that it tends to hit its straps after the first pitching - ie. when repitched or overbuilt and used again.
Hopefully you'll see better results when you pitch the slurry!

 

[MitchD]

Nope, went to its 3rd generation. Still a disappointment

 

[SBOB]

I had a pack of WLP090 that built up and split up.
Both the first attempt and the couple of attempts I tried from revived frozen samples all had pretty average performance, one of which stalled at ~1.020

Ended up dumping the remaining vials I had. Dont brew enough to have moody/temperamental yeast as one of the variables

 

[julz7250]

That's completely at odds with the experience I've had using it this year. First was in an XPA (1.053) - fully fermented out in a couple of days then dropped nice and clear. Second was in a milk stout (using harvested slurry - og: 1.073) - it blew out the airlock in primary and reached fg in 3-4 days, then blew out in secondary (after I added cherries), and finished quick again.

The batch date on the packet was late March from memory. Could there be different batches going around?

I've loved it's clean profile. On the XPA it's tasted amazing. The stout will be interesting.

 

[mofox1]

I had one of the slow batches then... not as fast, not as clear as US-05. Despite big starters.

Persevered through a couple of generations, but it's now been sitting unloved in my yeast bank for a couple years. Next time I need more freeze space it's out - currently it is useful as thermal mass.

 

[Bribie G]

It took a week but although it was clearing nicely there was still a persistent trace of krausen on the surface. Very much like US05.
Super clean finish, excellent malt flavour preservation.

I've saved a heap of slurry and brewing another Lashes style, let's see how it goes.

 

[BKBrews]

Interesting. I used a fresh pack of this yeast for the first time in a recent Amber Ale and noticed exactly the same thing. I left it for 2 weeks in primary prior to crashing and it took basically the whole time to go from 1.054 down to 1.016. Even over-pitched slightly. I gave a mate 1L of the overbuilt starter and he is reporting the same issues with the 2nd gen with a generous starter.

 

[fdsaasdf]

I bought some of this yeast to try as I wanted to see if it offered any positives over US-05 which is my go-to ale yeast for APA, IPA, Stouts and any variants of these of the brown/amber/session varieties.

I have a 1050 Pacific ale clone and 1070 DIPA cubes to pitch. I wanted to have the DIPA fermented as soon as possible, however given the comments here it sounds like pitching into a 1070 wort may be risky so I think I'll do the 1050 first and harvest slurry for the second batch.

 

[Bribie G]

Pitching the 1070 as your second brew would be the go.

I've already brewed and kegged the second blonde ale that I mentioned in my last post , it took around 6 days from pitch to keg and was reasonably clear into the keg.

Yesterday around 6pm I pitched a litre of that slurry into a 1060 stout and settled it down at 18 degrees. I expected a slow start and was even thinking of warming things up.
However this morning it had blown the water out of the airlock so I've fitted a blow off tube and getting a big bloop every two seconds. Currently only showing 17 at the thermowell after a 9 degree night, just using the fridge as a cabinet at the moment, so this yeast has definitely hit its straps.

I get the feeling that Whitelabs, just like Wyeast, claim pitchable but from now on I'll be giving them a couple of days on the stir plate for the initial pitch.

 

[BKBrews]

I know this is an old thread, but I came back to this yeast just recently and it is what I would call super once again. 1.050 down to 1.010 in 5 days (was likely done quicker though). Dropped like an absolute rock - haven't changed the temp on my fermzilla yet and the collection container which had about 2cm of trub in it is now completely full. Bumped up to 20 degrees just now, will dry hop tomorrow for 5, then crash for 2 and keg. You beauty.

 

[fdsaasdf]

I never posted back here with my experience. This yeast is amazing, really chews through the wort - 4 days to FG for the DIPA and just over a week for a 1.110 RIS! Both scored prizes in comps. I'd certainly recommend it for west coast US styles, especially those with high FG.

 

[razz]

I never posted back here with my experience. This yeast is amazing, really chews through the wort - 4 days to FG for the DIPA and just over a week for a 1.110 RIS! Both scored prizes in comps. I'd certainly recommend it for west coast US styles, especially those with high FG.

What were the FG's on those beers please mate?

 

[fdsaasdf]

What were the FG's on those beers please mate?

sorry, couldn't log in after the forum update - RIS was 1.020, think the DIPA was 1.014 but can't be certain (I had 2 cubes and am not sure which one I've recorded FG for)

 

[goatchop41]

I know this is an old thread, but I came back to this yeast just recently and it is what I would call super once again. 1.050 down to 1.010 in 5 days (was likely done quicker though). Dropped like an absolute rock - haven't changed the temp on my fermzilla yet and the collection container which had about 2cm of trub in it is now completely full. Bumped up to 20 degrees just now, will dry hop tomorrow for 5, then crash for 2 and keg. You beauty.

Due to not being able to go out and buy some dry yeast on short notice, I've just rediscovered my (at least 3 year old) vial of an overbuild of 090 that was sitting in the back of the fridge. So now I'm just trying to wake it back up to pitch in to an APA, as I have no other 'clean' character yeast to use instead of it. I pitched the 3y.o. 50B cell (initially) vial in to 600ml of 1.025 wort and there was activity within 24 hours! Amazing!
I'm now just cold crashing it, and plan to move the slurry on to a 1L starter of 1.030, then finally 1.5L of 1.037 for the final pitchable amount + an overbuild

 

[BKBrews]

Nice! my fresh pack had a huge krausen after less than 10 hours.