What effects do yeast type and fast/slow yeast have ?

[garyd1525228696]

After some discussions regarding Cascade homebrew in another thread and its slow yeast starting I thought it would be worth finding out what everyone's experienes have been with varying yeast.

 

 

 

As a bit of background, I've played around with homebrew for a little while, adding stuff to see what happens but have never really looked at yeasts.

 

 

 

From my experience, Cascade yeast takes up to 36 hours to get going. I've found Coopers yeasts can get going in a matter of hours.

 

 

 

Now the questions are:

 

 

 

What effect, if any, does the type of yeast have on the end flavour of a beer ?

 

 

 

What effect, if any, does a fast/slow yeast have on the flavour of a beer ?

 

 

 

Any opinions, thoughts, empirical testing results would be greatly appreciated. I don't necessarily want to try other yeasts, I just have an inquiring mind :-)

 

 

 

Gary

[Oliver]

... What effect' date=' if any, does the type of yeast have on the end flavour of a beer? ...[/quote']

 

Gary,

 

 

 

Yeast can have a huge influence on the taste of the finished beer. In fact, two beers that are identical save for the type of yeast used may taste completely different.

 

 

 

Broadly, the main difference between types of yeast are ale and lager (sometimes referred to as top-fermenting and bottom-fermenting yeasts).

 

 

 

Ale yeasts tend to produce fuller-bodied, fruitier beers, while lager yeasts tend to produce crisper, less full-bodied brews (because in general they consume more of the fermentable malt).

 

 

 

Taking it a step further, different types of an ale or a lager yeast might produce very different tastes. For instance, one type of ale yeast might produce a lot of fruity tastes in a beer, and ferment a lot of the sugars. Another ale yeast might contribute negligible taste, and ferment less of the sugars.

 

 

 

You only have to have a look at a company like Wyeast, which produces yeast for the homebrewer. Check out the list of the attributes of their yeasts www.wyeastlab.com/beprlist.htm and you'll realise the world that awaits!

[BigAl]

Gary,

 

 

 

What Oliver says is so true.

 

 

 

Take Coopers yeasts for example, this is from personal experience. I put a Sparkling ale down and the recipe hasn't changed for awhile now except the last one I put down I used a Pale Ale culture that I grew myself. The difference in the taste of the Sparking ale (as with the sachet yeast) was amazing, this brew was much more malty, which personally I don't like as much as the other Sparkling ales I have put down, but apart from that the head retention is excellent. The pale ale yeast was much more vigorous in it's early stages and took 16 days to ferment out. However as I can't leave well enough alone I'm now doing a brew (Sparkling ale) where I've added 10gms of Cascade hops (bittering, boil the hops in water and a bit of malt for 45 mins) to try and get rid of the malty taste, will let you know how it goes.

[c36229]

I have found that if you get a glass of luke warm water300ml and open satchel of yeast and sprinkle on top then wrap glass with glad wrap and let sit for 1/2 hour .When glass of water foam up pour contents into fermenter,this will ensure that the yeast has started immediately. I have found my beers to taste so much like real pale ale doing it this way

[garyd1525228696]

Thanks for the info guys. I might give the starter a go, maybe with some real Pale ale yeast or sparkling yeast and see what happens in the next few weeks. I only just found my fermenters after moving from Perth back to Melbourne and am champing at the bit to put a brew on. Its been s8 weeks since I last put a brew on. :-(

 

 

 

By the way, it looks like my 8-10 batches, in various states of having been consumed have survived the trip back to Melbourne. Tested the IPA on Friday night and it was fantastic !

[PB2]

Good to hear that your brews survived. The yeast in our Commercial Pale Ale and Sparkling Ale is the same strain so go for the freshest bottles and don't worry too much about the type of beer.

[Oliver]

... I only just found my fermenters after moving from Perth back to Melbourne and am champing at the bit to put a brew on ...

 

 

 

Bloody hell, it's the time of year to be moving from Perth to Melbourne, or vice versa.

 

 

 

One of my wife's cousins just moved back to Perth with his wife and kid, and another has just moved from Perth to Melbourne with his pregnant wife.

 

 

 

They didn't move to Melbourne for the beer, I can tell you (although thankfully you can get Cooper's most places now. Terrible stuff, that VB :D )