POLL: Wyeast users - what is your house ale yeast?

I’m looking to establish a “house” yeast, so I thought I’d ask the Wyeast users: What is your house ale yeast, and why do you stick with it?

West Yorkshire 1469. Accentuates maltiness while at the same time having a dryer finish than most English strains.

It has become the London ESB 1968 for a few reasons. Mostly because it is one of the few Wyeast strains I can buy in my region.

Also I mostly use dry yeast. The 05 works great for so many styles. 34/70 is a solid bet for lagers.

So the ESB is a great compliment to those since it adds a nice fruity English character to my bitters that would be hard to achieve with any of the dry strains.

So I would say that the beers that it works well for are the few beers I brew that benefit most from strains other than the dry ones.

I guess I like to change it up too often to have a house yeast. I brew a couple beers from one pack, then move on to something else. Right now I’m using WY1469 and WY2206 in a bitter and a helles, respectively. Plan to do several beers from the harvested yeast. I like WY1450 a lot for most American styles, but don’t use it very often. I may buy a pack of that soon.

For most of my beers I use 1272, really getting to like it.

In the past I used 1272 for all pale ales, IPAs, etc… but recently have tried some other American yeast strains. West Coast Ale, East Coast Ale, Heady Topper yeast. I’m not blown away with any of these. East Coast (I think) does NOT flocculate. I do like the West Coast Ale yeast, but plan on switching back to 1272 anyway. Very reliable and I love the results.

As shocking as it may be, mine is 1450. :wink:

1968 fermented at 64F.

No way!

I was reading that WY1968 is a crazy flocculent yeast and needs to be roused to reach final gravity. Is this much of an issue or is the Northern Brewer description just being alarmist?

I was reading that WY1968 is a crazy flocculent yeast and needs to be roused to reach final gravity. Is this much of an issue or is the Northern Brewer description just being alarmist?[/quote]

I would say it is quite flocculent, but I have never had an issue hitting final gravity. I just tend to hit it fairly quickly with 1968.

It is quite flocculent. A starter of 1968 on the stir plate looks similar to egg drop soup. The only time I’ve had to rouse it was when using in a Union Jack clone. I still was able to get it from 1.072 to 1.015, which is pretty high attenuation for 1968.

Cool, thanks, guys. I’ve heard so many good things about that yeast that I need to give it a try.

The last bitter I made with it actually warrented a very possitive reaction from my wife who rarely drinks or thinks about my beer.

She really picked out the fruity ester quality, even thnking there might be hints of cherry in there. To get that detailed feedback from my wife about beer is very nice to hear.

I was reading that WY1968 is a crazy flocculent yeast and needs to be roused to reach final gravity. Is this much of an issue or is the Northern Brewer description just being alarmist?[/quote]

Love this yeast. It is VERY flocculent, but I’ve rarely had issues reaching FG, and when I did have issues, it was due to other causes. It’s the strain a lot of craft breweries use, and they don’t have issues. It was the house strain at a previous employer, and we used it for all styles, IPA, RIS, Barley Wines, Stouts, Scotch ales, etc… (excluding belgians and lagers). If you’ve never used it, you should give it a try.

Also, because it’s commonly used at breweries. It’s pretty easy to get a mason jar of it

http://youtu.be/mbXiQa72yfI

Posted this about 2 years ago. I thought there was something wrong with the yeast. Nope… just doin what it does!

I don’t have a single house strain. I’ve adopted three strains for ~95% of my batches.

[list=A]

  • 1056/WLP001 - for anything I want clean and crisp (APA/IPA). I typically get 82-84% attenuation.[/*]
  • 1028 - for British inspired styles that I want somewhat dry with minimal flavor contribution (amber, brown and porter). I've enjoyed this in a maltier APA as well. I consistently get 78% attenuation.[/*]
  • 1469 - I love the fruity character of this strain in certain styles (bitter, ESB and British stout).[/*] Any guess from the above what my style preferences are? :wink:

    I don’t worry as much about flocculation as I used to. If you keg, any of the above will drop clear reasonably fast. I typically care more about attenuation and flavor contribution.

  • …because weather, and temperature “trends” change throughout the year, there are a feW different strains that we use; now, it’s a good time to use Wyeast 2565 Kolsch; in the Fall, I use Wyeast 1056 American Ale, 1098 Thames Valley, or 1098 Brittish Ale; however, my old standard is Wyeast 1007 German Ale; we keep our fermentation temperature 60-68F; with 1007 this produces clean ales with a crisp, lager-like character.

    Thing is, there are many different yeast strains we use throughout the year depending on weather conditions; in early January here in N. W. Oregon, our brewhause temperatures will be ideal for warm lager yeasts like Bohemian Lager 2124, or 2112 Ca. Lager.

    I’m sure that others have similar practices depending on what the climate is providing.

    Cheers!
    :cheers:

    [quote=“dobe12”]http://youtu.be/mbXiQa72yfI

    Posted this about 2 years ago. I thought there was something wrong with the yeast. Nope… just doin what it does![/quote]

    I would have got nothing done the entire time that was happening

    I ran with 1968 for a while, but got frustrated with trying to wash it for repitching. It’s so sludgy, you really have no chance.

    After 1450 hit the market, I bought some and ran that through quite a few styles - it really performs as described. Silky mouthfeel, accentuates the malt character. I think 1450 is perfect for Waldo Lake Amber and IPAs/hoppy beers. I’m looking forward to doing some split batches this year to compare strains on a bunch more styles.

    I voted for 1450. :cheers: