Verdant IPA yeast

[chillipickle]

I don’t think I would use it for any thing other than a neipa, even after cold crashing at 2c, there was some sediment in the bottom of the empty corny.
Not enough to be pulled into the beer, but still some sediment.

 

[Thorbz]

I made an English Pale ale with this yeast, and it's crystal clear, without using any finings beyond the protafloc in the boil. I wasn't 100% sure I liked the esters it gave to start with, but it's grown on me. Having a dry English ale yeast with any sort of character is a good thing. Grist was just pale malt and about 5% crystal.

 

[matt76]

I made an English Pale ale with this yeast, and it's crystal clear, without using any finings beyond the protafloc in the boil. I wasn't 100% sure I liked the esters it gave to start with, but it's grown on me. Having a dry English ale yeast with any sort of character is a good thing. Grist was just pale malt and about 5% crystal.

Similar experience for me:

I did a split batch Hoppy Amber Ale recently with WY1318 vs. Verdant IPA.

Still conditioning in bottles, but the 1318 has a slight haze whereas the Verdant is crystal clear.

BUT... I did fine the Verdant with Harris Starbrite which might be what made the difference.

Other thing I noticed was, as others have mentioned, the krausen from the Verdant didn't really drop whereas the 1318 behaved normally.

 

[krispn]

I’ve just used this yeast again in another NEIPA. Used a different fv and it did kinda blow out the airlock but I should have expected that!!

Went with Idaho 7 and Bru-1in this brew and just chilled it to 15c for the dry hop yesterday. I’ll give it 2-3 days at this temp before crashing and kegging. I’m tempted to maybe chuck some Amarillo in tonight just to push the orange citrus vibe as I’ve about 60 grams left in the freezer.

 

[BlackRegent]

I'm fermenting my first brew with this yeast - an oat cream NEIPA. As seems to be the universal experience, the krausen was as thick as a snow drift, but as I'd used the snubnose there was no risk of overspill due to the amount of headspace available.

The fermentation raged for the first 36 hours during which it chewed through 50 gravity points. (It fermented at 19C so the speed of fermentation was nothing to do with the temp). Fermentation slowed by the 48 hour mark and there was still a full on thick and meaty krausen. I ramped the temp to 22C for a diacetyl rest on Day 4. The krausen dropped on day 5 and the temp increase has also wrung out another 5 or 6 gravity points.

So based on this experience, it seems the temp increase is necessary to cause the yeast to drop and also to achieve the fullest of attenuation.

 

[Wiener Blut]

Has anybody tried harvesting and reusing this yeast? I initially made a porter with it that turned out quite nice, but that wasn't the best style to check for clarity. Kräusen was crazy, filled up about 30cm headspace and came out the air lock.

I harvested and rinsed the yeast and after a week or so made a new starter for an English IPA, Kräusen went crazy again in the starter, so I assumed it was quite healthy. Pitched it and Kräusen in the actual beer was a lot more subdued, more like other yeasts I know, maybe about 10cm thick. It fermented fine from 1.056 to 1.020 and then it took an age to reach the FG of 1.012. So much so, that I thought it was stuck at one point, thinking I had loads of unconverted starches since it was very cloudy too. It took exactly 14 days to reach FG, wheres the batch with fresh yeast was much faster. The beer tastes quite nice, the hops coming through nicely, but it still looks like a poor man's NEIPA after a week and a half in the fridge:

I decided to try the whole thing again, rinsed, made a new starter that went crazy again and it's now fermenting away in a Best Bitter. Kräusen again "only" about 10cm, but fermentation seems to have gone a bit faster this time. Although it's still taking it's time with the last few gravity points and still tastes quite yeasty.

Anyway, I was wondering if anybody knows what might have gone wrong? Did I mess up the initial harvest and select all the non-floculant, slow-attenuating cells? Maybe I didn't get enough oxygen in it, as I only shake to aerate at the moment. Which could explain why the dried yeast was fine.

 

[BlackRegent]

@Wiener Blut
It's interesting you should raise this as I have had a near identical experience with recycling London Ale III, which the Verdant yeast is meant to be a close relative of.

My first brew with the first generation of LAIII was a NEIPA that fermented perfectly well. I reused the yeast through overbuilding the starter rather than washing the yeast cake.

The second was a porter and it seemed to stick at between 1.020 to 1.030 and I had to leave it fermenting for a month in total for it to get below 1.020.

The third was a bitter and it stuck at 1.030 and I had to repitch another starter to get it below 1.020.

It seemed as if the yeast was giving up the ghost and flocculating too early, leaving unfermented sugars. I don't know if this yeast is prone to adapting so as to emphasise premature flocculation or whether you just need much higher pitch rates than expected.

My first use of the Verdant yeast has been exceptional in terms of fermentation performance. Verdant said it rages and it really did. I also note that James Heffron said the "first generation" rages as if one should expect reduced performance in subsequent brews. But I can't imagine a commercial brewery is buying in first generation yeast for every batch. Surely they just recycle it like the rest of us?

It makes me wonder whether I should recycle the Verdant yeast at all.

 

[Wiener Blut]

Interesting that you've had similar experiences with London III, I only ever used that once.

I just had the though that maybe top-cropping would work better with these kind of yeasts?

 

[krispn]

I reused my Verdant yeast after top cropping my first brew but I made up a starter and got it going with that. My FG was about 1.016 down from 1.070 but I did have maltodextrin in my brew so was expecting it to finish about where it landed. Just did my Amarillo addition to the dry hop today so I’ll be crashing it on Sunday. I’ll report back in a few weeks once ready.

 

[JT_Brews]

It makes me wonder whether I should recycle the Verdant yeast at all.

I'm not yeast expert but ASFAIK there is a difference between re-using yeast from a brew and saving some yeast from a starter in terms of preserving the original character.

 

[hughjamton]

I have done 4 brews so far from 1 pack, 2 bitters and 2 porters.
1st was a London pride clone, almost, I had to substitute one of the hops.
Very close to pride originally, but less like it as it conditioned, still very nice though.
After that one I just poured the trub into a kilner and put it in the fridge.
Next was a not quite dark enough porter, I made a starter from the contents of the kilner and it went mad in the FV. After 3 days I top cropped into a kilner and fridged it.
This one never built up another Krausen after cropping but reached the target FG after 7 days, I kegged it after 12.
Even though it was dark, but not quite dark enough, I could see it was lovely and clear, and according to the mrs, the best she's ever tasted.
Next was my own session bitter using the top cropped yeast in a starter.
This time I top cropped after a day and a half, 12 hours later you wouldn't have known I'd done anything.
Again target after 7, cold crashed after 10, and kegged at 14, clear as a bell.
Next chocolate Porter, I top cropped again and after 14 days, I've kegged it today.
All looks good, except, the cake is nowhere near as solid as previously. The keg was ok but when filling the bottles after the keg, the cake was easily disturbed and some got sucked up.

I do like this yeast, I've just ordered some more, but I don't think I'll risk another brew from this batch, I think I might try a Kolsch next anyway.

 

[Wiener Blut]

Very interesting. I got a couple of fresh packets for a small batch of barley wine I'm doing, I'll try top cropping some of that just out of curiosity.

 

[matt76]

I had a first tasting last night of my Hoppy Amber Ale v2 (actually not that hoppy at all, comes across more like an English bitter!).

Anyway, this was a split batch fermented with WY1318 vs. Lallemand Verdant IPA. Given the purported heritage I wouldn't expect them to be night and day, but I'm damned if I can tell them apart tastewise. I had them one after another rather than side by side so certainly not even trying to be a blind tasting, but I'd have to say certainly very very similar.

As others have already noted, the krausen on the Verdant seemed to stik around whereas the WY1318 dropped as you'd expect. Otherwise both seemed to ferment pretty rapidly at 20degC or thereabouts.

 

[krispn]

Just a wee update on Kneepads V.2
Force carbonated yesterday and let some of the gas off today. Pulled a wee sample which was quite foamy- to be expected but it’s turned out lovely. A nice pale pineapple juice colour which looks darker in the picture. It’s got a nice citrus vibe and for me this pairing of Idaho 7, Bru-1 and a wee addition of Amarillo (a second dry hop of Amarillo a couple of days after the B1-I7 addition) has been a great combination which I’ll certainly use again. It’ll need a week or two to let all the flavours settle but it’s going in the re-make pile of this early sample is anything to go by!

 

[Wiener Blut]

The bitter I made from the third "generation" actually attenuated nicely and is already almost crystal clear.

However, it developed a very strong banana and bubblegum aroma, smells like a Hefeweizen. Not a bad beer by any means but a very strange combination.

Anyway, I think I'm done experimenting with this yeast until I get the equipment to do an actual NEIPA.

EDIT: Just cracked open a second bottle and it's completely different. Got a slight hint of fruits esters, more in line of the peachyness that is advertised, but very subtle. Otherwise it tastes like a clean but rather bland bitter.

Maybe it depends on the amount of yeast roused. I don't think it's an infection as it smelled like a Hefeweizen from the fermenter.

 

[chillipickle]

This yeast really does going quick, 20 hrs after pitching.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

I used this yeast for the first time recently. It’s been in the FV for 10 days now so should be done but I went to dry hop yesterday and, as others have reported, there is still a really thick yeast coating on the top. Hopefully It’ll all drop when I cold crash in a few days time.

 

[BlackRegent]

@Benfleet Brewery Did you ramp the temp up to 22C towards the end of fermentation? I found that the temp increase causes the yeast to drop after a couple of days

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

@Benfleet Brewery Did you ramp the temp up to 22C towards the end of fermentation? I found that the temp increase causes the yeast to drop after a couple of days

Quite the opposite actually. I’ve dropped to 12 degrees for the dry hop

 

[roboto]

I'm on day 3 of fermentation with Verdant and only ever got about an inch of krausen, most of which seems to have fallen back now. It's currently in the garage so I thought I might bring it in for a few days to bring the temperature up a bit. I don't normally cold crash either but I thought I'd try it this time given the tendency of Verdant not to drop out.