Graham Wheeler - Brew Your Own British Real Ale - BYOBRA - Yeast Selection

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This might not work, but thought it might be worth discussion.

I recently took ownership of the above publication and, like many, have found that yeasts are not specified for the recipes. I thought it might be worth having a single resource where we can add the yeasts in to the table and over time come to some agreement as to what a suitable yeast (liquid and dry) might be.

Note that the recipes and page numbers relate to the third edition 2009 (2010 reprint) The use of apostrophes seems to be a bit random, so I've tried to replicate the text in the book.

I'm going to have to split this over two posts due to posting limits.

I'm not sure how long I'm able to edit posts; if that time runs out maybe @Chippy_Tea @Covrich @Slid or @the baron could edit the table for us.

Cheers

SectionPageRecipeLiquid 1Liquid 2Dry 1Dry 2
Mild Ale
89​
Arkell's Mash Tun Mild
90​
Banks Hanson's Mild
91​
Bass MildWLP023 (Burton)
92​
Bateman's Dark Mild
93​
Belhaven 60/'
94​
Boddingtons MildWyeast1318 (London III)
95​
Gale's Festival Mild
96​
Highgate Mild
97​
Holden's Black Country Mild
98​
Hook Norton Hooky Dark
99​
Hop Back Mild
100​
Hydes Dark Mild
101​
Jennings Dark Mild
102​
McMullen AK
103​
Sarah Hughes Dark Ruby
104​
Thwaites Dark Mild
Pale Ale & Bitter
107​
Adnams BitterWLP025WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
108​
Adnams BroadsideWLP025WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
109​
Adnams ExplorerWLP025WLP025 & Wyeast 335 blend
110​
Archers Best
111​
Archers Village
112​
Arkels 3B
113​
Arkels Kingsdown Ale
114​
Banks's Bitter
115​
Banks's Original
116​
Bass Draught Bass
117​
Bateman's Victory Ale
118​
Bateman's XXXB
119​
Bathams Best Bitter
120​
Belhaven 80/'
121​
Belhaven 90/'
122​
Big Lamp Bitter
123​
Black Sheep Ale
124​
Black Sheep Best Bitter
125​
Black Sheep Rigwelter
126​
Boddingtons BitterWyeast 1318 (London III)
127​
Brakespear Bitter
128​
Brakespear Special
129​
Burton Bridge Bridge Bitter
130​
Burton Bridge Golder Delicious
131​
Burton Bridge XL Bitter
132​
Caledonian 80/'WLP028Wyeast1728
133​
Caledonian Deuchars IPAWLP028Wyeast1728
134​
Camerons Best Bitter
135​
Camerons Castle Eden Ale
136​
Camerons Strongarm
137​
Cotleigh Barn Owl
138​
Cotleigh Tawny Bitter
139​
Courage Best Bitter
140​
Courage Directors
141​
Donnington BB
142​
Donnington SBA
143​
Everards Beacon
 
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SectionPageRecipeLiquid 1Liquid 2Dry 1Dry 2
Pale Ale (cont.)
144​
Everards Original
145​
Everards Tiger
146​
Exe Valley Autumn Glory
147​
Exe Valley Dob's Best Bitter
148​
Exe Valley Spring Beer
149​
Exmoor Ale
150​
Exmoor Beast
151​
Exmoor Gold
152​
Felinfoel Best Bitter
153​
Felinfoel Double Dragon
154​
Flowers IPA
155​
Flowers Original
156​
Fuller's Discovery
157​
Fuller's ESB
158​
Fuller's London Pride
159​
Gale's Butser Bitter
160​
Gale's HSB
161​
Harviestoun Ptarmigan
162​
Hook Norton Hooky Bitter
163​
Hook Norton Old Hooky
164​
Hop Back Summer Lightning
165​
Hydes Original Bitter
166​
J. W. Lees Bitter
167​
J. W. Lees Moonraker
168​
Jennings Cocker Hoop
169​
Jennings Cumberland Ale
170​
Marstons Burton Bitter
171​
Marstons Pedigree
172​
McMullen Country Best Bitter
173​
Mourhouses Pendle Witches Brew
174​
Morland Old Speckled Hen
175​
Ringwood Best Bitter
176​
Ringwood Fortyniner
177​
Ringwood Old Thumper
178​
Robinsons Old Stockport
179​
Robinsons Old Tom
180​
Ruddles Best
181​
Theakston Best
182​
Theakston Old Peculier
183​
Timothy Taylor Best Bitter
184​
Timothy Taylor Landlord
185​
Wadworth 6X
186​
Wadworth JCB
187​
Wadworth Old Father Timer
188​
Worthington White Shield
189​
Young's Special
Porter & Stout
193​
Bateman's Salem Porter
194​
Burton Bridge Top Dog Stout
195​
Caledonian PorterWLP028Wyeast1728
196​
Fuller's London Porter
197​
Guinness Extra Stout
198​
Ringwood XXXX Porter
 
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WLP028 is supposedly the Caledonian strain

London Ale III is supposedly the Boddingtons strain (but not the “original” strain)
 
Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.
If you wish to get Adnams Dual strain then it can be harvested (I have done so) from Adnams Mini Cask (and not the mini kegs) however at this time it looks like they are discontinued or unavailable and only the Kegs are now sold. The difference being that the kegs are filtered and so reportedly contain no yeast. However @An Ankoù did do an experiment with the Ghost Ship Keg and had success in reviving the yeast, one has to assume it is the dual strain and not another.
 
Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.
If you wish to get Adnams Dual strain then it can be harvested (I have done so) from Adnams Mini Cask (and not the mini kegs) however at this time it looks like they are discontinued or unavailable and only the Kegs are now sold. The difference being that the kegs are filtered and so reportedly contain no yeast. However @An Ankoù did do an experiment with the Ghost Ship Keg and had success in reviving the yeast, one has to assume it is the dual strain and not another.
Quite so, @Galena and I was able to keep it going through several generations. However, it was a very fresh keg. When I tried it a second time with a keg near its best-by date, I got nothing at all.

Anyway, I've moved on from Adnam's now in favour of Allinson's Easy Bake!
 
Adnams use their own dual strain yeast, although White Labs WLP025 Southwold Ale is supposed to be Adnams, I am led to believe that it is not the dual strain.
All the US yeast labs only sell single strains unless explicitly marked as a blend. It seems that when White Labs and Wyeast harvested the Adnams multistrain, they ended up with different strains and so in theory mixing WLP025 and Wyeast 1335 will sort-of recreate the Adnams yeast - but it's never quite the same, and you could buy a mini-cask for not much more than the cost of 2 packs of liquid yeast.

WLP028 is supposedly the Caledonian strain

London Ale III is supposedly the Boddingtons strain (but not the “original” strain)

It's worth noting that WLP028 and 1728 are rather different, but again I suspect they're just different members of a multistrain that was effectively pooled between most of the Edinburgh brewers.

"Classic" Boddies in the 1970s had insane attenuations of over 90%, so you definitely need to use a diastatic yeast to recreate it, maybe Belle Saison fermented cool, or Omega Gulo. London Ale III is a member of the Whitbread family and I suspect it came originally from a Boddies Pub Ale (= Boddies Export) that was brewed at a Whitbread factory after Strangeways closed.
 
I was right, this might not work!

So far I have:

WLP028 - Caledonian / WLP028 and Wyeast 1728 poss cousins
(London Ale III) Wyeast 1318 - Boddingtons / from Boddies Export
WLP023 (Burton) - Bass Mild
White Labs WLP025 - Southwold Ale / WLP025 and Wyeast 1335 Blended

I'm so new to this brewing lark that I can't actually offer any empirical evidence or opinion, I just came up with the idea. Will edit the tables as best I can with your input.

EDIT:
** Question ** - Adnams for example, would I put WLP025 / Southwold against all of the brews?
Cheers
 
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Further to @Northern_Brewer's last reply: There was a long discussion recently on Boddington's Bitter. Much of it revolving about the yeast. Pre 95 Boddingtons anyone ?.

One beer, one yeast. I think it's a good illustration of how outrageously difficult this thread has to be to avoid just becoming another one of those lists of yeasts paired with different beer types that already infests the Web with nonsense. In the case of Boddington's it's one beer and, a multitude of yeasts: Now just figure out which date Graham Wheeler was working to when writing that book ...

It doesn't take a genius (if living in UK) to figure there's something desperately wrong with the lists that suggest "London Ale III" is the Boddington's (Manchester) yeast strain 🤭 . But then the likelihood that Boddington's replenished their yeast at least twice last Century from Tadcaster (Yorkshire) is equally confusing.

But nothing ventured, nothing gained. Keep the information flowing in.

I think (as is advised in many recommendations dotted about) with this project you must look at the qualities you're trying to replicate in the beer, and match them with the qualities a yeast might bring. And if that means a Japanese yeast to ferment a British beer, so be it, just don't get fooled by the daft names on the packets and the cobblers you can read on the Web or from the manufacturers.
 
I have brewed around 20 from that list, along with quite a few others from his first two books, and the yeasts have always been either Wyeast, Whitelabs, live yeast from a local brewery or occasionally yeast from commercial bottle conditioned beers. I have found providing you pick a yeast suited to a particular style most come out fine. Some recipe's have been repeated several times using different yeast but unless I sit down and look back over 30-40 years worth of notes it's hard to remember what achieved the best results. Ones that do come to mind TT landlord and Old Peculiar using Wyeast 1469 West Yorkshire was very good, WLP002 always seemed to work well for most "ordinary" bitters. Yeast from Fullers 1845 bottles are a must for any of the Fullers beers.
 
Quite so, @Galena and I was able to keep it going through several generations. However, it was a very fresh keg. When I tried it a second time with a keg near its best-by date, I got nothing at all.

Anyway, I've moved on from Adnam's now in favour of Allinson's Easy Bake!
Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?
 
Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?
It was a joke, @Festival Man, for the very reasons you mention.
As it happens, though, I've been itching to do an experiment with bread yeast just to see what really happens. I suspect the bacteria levels are not so well controlled as with brewing yeast.

I believe some of the northern Scandinavian traditional brews use their local bread yeast.
 
WLP002 always seemed to work well for most "ordinary" bitters. Yeast from Fullers 1845 bottles are a must for any of the Fullers beers.

Completely agree - WLP002 is fine, but quite plain compared to the real Fullers yeast.

The first time I tasted a strong bitter (157 Fullers ESB in the boom) where I had used yeast from bottles of 1845 it was a proper ‘eureka!’ moment.
 
Allison's easy bake? Isn't that bread yeast? And we are told that full attenuation of your brew is not possible using bread yeast, how have you got on with it then?

Don't listen to what USians have to say about bread yeast, as they seem to have a very different strain as their main bread yeast. I've used Allinson's and it seems to be fine - not the most exciting but it ferments 5% beers fine.
 
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