Opinions - WYeast 1028 London Ale

[Guest]

Hi guys.

 

I was at a friends party recently, & a friend of his was there who supplied the beer via home-brewed kegs etc. He's a great guy & I have now met him on numerous occasions & sampled numerous styles of his home-brewed beer. Each have been fantastic examples of the styles of beer he was aiming to reproduce. Blah...blah..blah...

 

As you can imagine, we spent sometime talking 'shop' about brewing. Of all the things that we spoke about, the most interesting statement he made was that for a very wide spectrum of the beers he brews, he uses mainly one yeast. That being the WYeast 1028 London Ale.

 

On that day I sampled a Japanese rice beer, a dark ale, an Irish ale, & a full bodied imperial stout. He stated the same yeast was used for each.

 

The guy has actually won a category in the National home brewing competition a few years back, so I certainly listen, when he talks.

 

I was wondering if any of you guys or gals have used this yeast before, & if so, what were your thoughts?

 

Anthony.

[Canadian Eh!L]

Hey Anthony,

 

I've not used Wyeast 1028 before. I've recently tried purchasing this strain but my supplier was out of stock. I when with W1098 instead which is another English style yeast often confused with the Wyeast 1028. I've put down any english PA and am on to a English mild with the same yeast. I havn't sampled any brews using W1098 yet.

 

I think it's a good idea to find a good strain of yeast that works well for your brewery, but I think that using an English ale yeast for Japanese rice beer might be stretching it.[unsure]

 

These days I am running Notto and W1098 with W1450 waiting in the wings. W1450(Denny's Fav.) is supposed to be a true all round yeast strain.

 

You must keep in mind, Anthony that I am still and always experimenting[smile].

[Guest]

G'day Canuck. (Or would you prefer I call you Chad?)

 

Cheers for the info. That W1450 looks quite interesting. Nice temperature range that would allow for lager brewing as well as ale. I'd be interested in the outcome of your brewing with this yeast.

 

I've been looking at a similar yeast to begin some trials with, that being the White Labs WLP862 (Cry Havoc) yeast. It too has a very good temperature range suited for both lager & ale apparently.

 

You must keep in mind' date=' Anthony that I am still and always experimenting.[/quote']

As am I. [biggrin]

 

Anthony.

[donp1]

Wyeast 1028 is the yeast I made my best beer with, its got this mineral water quality to it when fermented at low temps below 68F. Never thought I would even like this yeast but to my surprise its amazing. Be sure to "wash" the yeast after your fermentation is complete so you can reuse the liquid yeast again and again. The liquid yeasts like 1028 have a very dominate flavor profile. First kit I made with 1028 was a Draft kit with 1KG dry malt, low ferment temps, and close to a brew pub quality craft beer.

 

Similar dominating flavors with Wyeast 3944(Hoegaarden) as well but 3944 requires really hot temps 79F to generate that Hoegaarden flavor profile.

[Guest]

Hi Donp1.

 

Thanks for your insights on the 1028 yeast, as well as your info on the Hoegaarden 3944.

 

I look forward to reading more posts from you in the future. [happy]

 

Anthony.

[donp1]

Coopers Draft kit

500g dry malt

300g dextrose

100g blackstrap molasses(added since I overfilled to 25L, to make up the flavor dilution. Had planned on only 21L to increase flavor.)

Wyeast 1028 - rinsed/washed 3rd generation from April 2011, with a starter after 39 hours on stirplate@70F

Pitched at 70F and will ferment at 70F for two weeks instead of 68F to get a bit more "British" fruity ester flavors. General rule for 1028 is to ferment at 68F or lower for optimum results.