Yeast Question

[Hefty]

This one's purely a broad hypothetical for learning a bit more about lagers and ales:
If you had 2 of the same kit and kilo and brewed one with ale yeast under ale fermenting conditions and one with lager yeast under lager fermenting conditions, what would be the main differences? I know this is a really broad question so as an example, let's say the kit was a coopers pale ale, a kilo of light dry malt and the two yeasts were safale s-04 and saflager s-23.
I'm just trying increase my understanding of the characteristics the two types of yeast generally produce.

Cheers!
Jono.

 

[samhighley]

Different yeasts produce different profiles.

Without being too knowledgeable on the subject, I believe yeast can contribute anywhere from 20-80% of a beers flavour.

As an example, Safale US-05 is touted as being a yeast that contributes less to the flavour of the beer, allowing the other flavours to come through.

Sam

 

[kabooby]

In my opinion lagers give a cleaner profile than ales. This however is very broad as there are so many lager yeasts and so many ale yeast each producing different results.

Your best option would be to do it yourself. They will both be nice beers, and that way you will have a first hand experience as to what effects the yeast has.

Kabooby

 

[ibast]

Go to the wyeast webiste and read through some of the descriptions. that will give you an idea of the flavour profiles. Ale yeasts tend to produce fruity flavours, whereas lagers yeast are more subtle and even a bit more bread like.

Having said that, the more modern ale yeast aren't that different from lager yeasts.