Which Dried Lager Yeast In A Dortmunder?

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iralosavic

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I haven't got my stirplate capable of stirring more than 1L at the moment, so I'm sticking to dried lager yeasts until I fix it.

I'm making a Dortmunder on the weekend and have access to:

34/70
s23
s189

I've only used s189 before and I like it, but if it's not the most style-appropriate I'm happy to try another variety while the opportunity exists.



Cheers
 
s23 is recommended but I haven't used it iralosavic. Why no stick with the s189?

I would use s189, but as far as I'm aware, Craftbrewer are the only one's who sell it and I can't justify the postage for it.

So I'd prefer to go with the next best as a once off. s23 perhaps?
 
I like 34/70 best. It's the dried version of Wyeast's 2124 Bohemian lager: "A Carlsberg type yeast and most widely used lager strain in the world."
 
My LHBS has s23 and 34/70, so I guess I'm tossing up between the two. I'm not keen on the "has been reported to produce lagers with some fruity and estery notes." from the s23, as it doesn't seem right for a Dortmunder... Any insights?
 
Thanks Nick. Sounds good. Hopefully the lady who answered the phone was right about stocking it - she called it a wheat strain.......
 
S-23 is in fact a Dortmund yeast, even tho it came from the culture collection at VLB in Berlin, so I would think it would be the obvious choice.
Mark
 
S-23 is in fact a Dortmund yeast, even tho it came from the culture collection at VLB in Berlin, so I would think it would be the obvious choice.
Mark

Just what I wanted to hear. Thanks, Mark.
 
I'm getting very strong fruity notes at 1.018. Hmm

I pitched 2 packs of s23 that I first rehydrated to a cream at around 14c and dropped to 12c over 24 hours and kept it there for a week when it was reading 1.018. There was some Diacetyl, so I raised it to 15c for 2 days. Haven't tasted it since as I've been moving house and starting a new job (= busy), but the fruitiness was VERY noteworthy when sampled. I would describe it as even notable for an ale where fruit/plum is acceptable.
 
I wouldn't despair, lagering should straighten out a lot of unexpected flavours. Recently I had Munich Helles which tasted like salsa after the D rest, but a few weeks chilling largely eliminated those unwelcome flavours and it only gets better with more lagering time.
Different yeast though, so YMMV... I guess I would remain optimistic at this early stage.
 
Thanks for the reply, Rdevjun. I've only started using lager yeasts since converting to AG and it's the first time I've used s23. S189 is nueatral the whole way through and generally doesn't produce any diacetyl, so these strong flavours were an alien experience.

I checked gravity today and it's reading around 1.0155 (brix conversion). So only a point left to hit the target. I figure it'll be there by the end of the long weekend (God bless the Queen), it's at 10c now. I'll slowly chill it down to -1c in primary for a couple of weeks before I find the time to put it in a Jerry in the beer fridge.

Cheers
 

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