Favorite Yeast for brewing Real Ale

[clib]

How are we defining real ale? Camra defines it as "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". So it could be any style of beer, English, Belgian, German, American or other. I'm being a bit pedantic but it's good to know what real ale is!

As the thread has generally taken it to mean British beer styles, I'll just say I don't have a definitive answer to that! Verdant is my favourite of the dry options, I really like this yeast but the vanilla and apricot flavours it produces don't sit right in all British styles, for me. I don't know why but I've found that for British styles it works best in beers that have a solid malt base, maybe medium or dark crystal. I've got good brown ales and porters from it, and darker bitters.

It's the only dry yeast which I think competes with wet yeasts for British styles. I do use dry yeast a lot of the time, though, for cost and convenience reasons, being impulsive and lazy. Wet yeasts do generally make better beer, I think. I like the Lallemand range, it has some of the best dry yeasts in my opinion. Ive used Verdant, Bry-97, Abbaye, Belle Saison, Windsor, Nottingham, Munich Classic and Voss and these all perform well and produce good quality beer, and cover a lot of bases. For British styles you have Verdant, and combining Windsor and Notty is pretty effective. I also like a pinch of Belle Saison pitched a day after Notty. It could also work with Verdant or Windsor, yet to try that. Will be doing Verdant/Belle Saison soon.

From Fermentis, I only use the cheapest ones now, S-33 and T-58, and I use them in blends, not alone. S-33 is very similar to Windsor, and T-58 is like a Belgian version of them. They all finish a bit sweet for my tastes, so I blend with drier yeasts. I want to try BE-134 saison yeast.

MJ yeasts are all repackages I believe, and I know one of them is Nottingham, and that must be M42. I suspect none of the MJs are from Fermentis. I reckon M44 is Bry-97, and I think M36 could be a blend, like Notty/Windsor. It behaves and looks like that blend, to my senses. M31 is obviously a blend, cos there are two distinct colours of grains, so MJ does do blends. M15 could well be Windsor. M29 - probably Belle Saison, M47 - Abbaye, maybe. M76 - possibly Diamond. I believe some of their yeasts come from elsewhere, and Mauribrew seems possible. M54 could be Mauribrew lager, for example.

I've only used a few of the English wet yeasts, I keep them going for a while. I like wlp006 and Wyeast 1318 and 1469. 1275 seems a good all rounder from the few beers I made with it, and 1728 Scottish is another in that vein. I enjoyed using Imperial A38 Juice across a range of beers, I understand it's the same strain as 1318. A02 Pub gets rave reviews, it's a better version of Fuller's, apparently. I would say try A02, 1318 and 1469, for starters, all good all different. But there are plenty of others I've never used.

I must try harder to acquire and culture brewery strains, from time to time. I drink occasionally in Holts pubs in Manchester, I must snaffle that one. JW Lees too. Maybe Hydes. I guess take a sterilised container to the pub and ask if they'll put some of the cask dregs in it when a cask empties. I've probably had more liquid yeasts from bottles of home brew than anywhere else though, when I swap bottles. A good way to share yeasts as well as beer. I just acquired Hornindal this way. I just leave an inch and add some fresh wort into the bottle, usually made with DME, and make a starter with that when I want to brew.

 

[micklupulo]

Get that bottle in the dark immediately, it's going bad before my eyes.

Don't worry it's all in a cupboard and only put by the window to illustrate the clarity. It's 200ml and I use it to sample to save potentially opening a 500ml prematurely and yes it handles pressure. As mentioned a but disappointed with FG but the clarity compensates but I do wonder if this is typical?

 

[obscure]

How are we defining real ale? Camra defines it as "beer brewed from traditional ingredients, matured by secondary fermentation in the container from which it is dispensed, and served without the use of extraneous carbon dioxide". So it could be any style of beer, English, Belgian, German, American or other. I'm being a bit pedantic but it's good to know what real ale is!

As the thread has generally taken it to mean British beer styles, I'll just say I don't have a definitive answer to that! Verdant is my favourite of the dry options, I really like this yeast but the vanilla and apricot flavours it produces don't sit right in all British styles, for me. I don't know why but I've found that for British styles it works best in beers that have a solid malt base, maybe medium or dark crystal. I've got good brown ales and porters from it, and darker bitters.

I keep on meaning to try using Verdant in a batch of Mild, I’ve used London III in one (the Greg Hughes recipe) and it was great and understand that this strain was the origins of the Verdant one, so hearing that it works well in brown ales and porters gives me a bit more confidence that it would be worth a try in a batch of Mild.

 

[531Man]

I have just used Wilko Gervin in an attempt at AG Wye Valley HPA and am a bit puzzled by its performance though think the result will be ok. I chose that yeast because I understand that it is Nottingham which works at lower temperatures as this time I had to use an unheated utility room. About 12°C and fermentation at 15°C.The OG was 1047 and after a week it was down to 1015 and stayed the same for a further nine days. As the beer was crystal clear with no sweetness I have just bottled it. The yeast had dropped but looked a bit weird and the beer in the bottles is the clearest I have ever bottled. Pictures of both attached. I just wonder if this normal.View attachment 47078View attachment 47079

Hi Mick,
I too have recently bought and used the Wilko Gervin Nottingham Ale packet yeast.
Ferments like a train then stops and drops clear like a stone. Information on brewing yeast sites also describe it as having "good flocculation"
So I would say what you ask and show looks normal for this yeast.
The only thing I have read on here is that more experienced home brewers find it neutral and characterless compared with all their speciality yeasts that have individual flavour profiles of their own, rather than from the ingredients.

 

[micklupulo]

Hi Mick,
I too have recently bought and used the Wilko Gervin Nottingham Ale packet yeast.
Ferments like a train then stops and drops clear like a stone. Information on brewing yeast sites also describe it as having "good flocculation"
So I would say what you ask and show looks normal for this yeast.
The only thing I have read on here is that more experienced home brewers find it neutral and characterless compared with all their speciality yeasts that have individual flavour profiles of their own, rather than from the ingredients.

Thanks for the reassurance. The yeast in the recipe is Liberty Bell which I understand brings out more flavour but I had to cater for low temperatures and am impressed with the result.