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Author Topic: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!  (Read 17190 times)

Offline DrewG

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #15 on: May 29, 2012, 07:22:27 am »
Quote
Ok....it did help a LOT. I had to repeatedly vent them. Probably did it every 20 minutes until the starter was done, chilled, and ready to go. Then took a few more vents after shaking and finally no mess!

Such a simple stupid practice but helps so much.

Thanks again

I should have clarified cracking the seal, vent for a few seconds, and repeat but you figured that out anyway. Glad it helped.
"Well, the Mexicans got a saying - what cannot be remedied must be endured."

-Barbarosa

Offline DaveR

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #16 on: May 29, 2012, 11:51:09 am »
A few months ago I had a vial of WLP090 that was just out of date. I made a starter with it. The starter never seemed to take off like other yeast. After it sat for a week in the refrigerator I decanted and pitched an underwhelming (at least to my eye) amount of yeast into a half batch destined for a small corny keg. Then I left town.

When I returned a few days later it didn't appear that the yeast had every taken off. But it had. The gravity was 1.012. OG had been 1.062. I've never seen a yeast ferment that quickly. I pitched some of the cake from that batch into a fairly high gravity IPA. That fermented down to 1.012 as well. The fermentation didn't appear any more robust than I normally see with WLP001. It did, however, seem to finish more quickly.

Both batches made with WLP090 turned out quite well. I don't see any real advantage over WLP001. For me fermentation time isn't a big issue. Hard to know a yeast really well after only using it twice, though. I'll probably try it again, soon. I just built a chamber that will allow me to control fermentation temps. Most of the beers I made over the two last summers have had issues. It wasn't the strain of yeast. It was because I wasn't able to keep fermentation temps down low enough.     

Offline dee

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #17 on: May 29, 2012, 02:49:57 pm »
I recently brewed 10 gallons of a low gravity red ale (1.043) as an experiment and pitched WLP090 in one bucket and US05 in the other.  I made a 2 liter starter for the 090 and used recently harvested US05 slurry.  The recipe was very simple with 3 malts and 25 IBU so there wasn't much place for flaws to hide.  Both yeast strains were pitched at 65 degrees and held there for 4 days.  The 090 had a vigorous start and was already dropping by day 4 so I let it free rise to finish up after that.  I ended up kegging the WLP090 batch after 7 days and carbed and crashed.  By day 10 it was clean and drinkable with no esters or off flavors.  The US05 batch was lagging quite a bit and even by day 12 it still wasn't even close to the 090 in clarity or flavor.  I believe San Diego Super Yeast does work as advertised.  I plan on brewing a pilsner recipe with it next and if the results are the same, I'll probably make this my house yeast strain.  The turnaround is outstanding with, in my opinion, no downside.  It's similar to WLP007 in that respect but I believe it is cleaner, quicker.     

Offline TrippleRippleBrewer

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #18 on: May 29, 2012, 07:01:27 pm »
I recently brewed 10 gallons of a low gravity red ale (1.043) as an experiment and pitched WLP090 in one bucket and US05 in the other.  I made a 2 liter starter for the 090 and used recently harvested US05 slurry.  The recipe was very simple with 3 malts and 25 IBU so there wasn't much place for flaws to hide.  Both yeast strains were pitched at 65 degrees and held there for 4 days.  The 090 had a vigorous start and was already dropping by day 4 so I let it free rise to finish up after that.  I ended up kegging the WLP090 batch after 7 days and carbed and crashed.  By day 10 it was clean and drinkable with no esters or off flavors.  The US05 batch was lagging quite a bit and even by day 12 it still wasn't even close to the 090 in clarity or flavor.  I believe San Diego Super Yeast does work as advertised.  I plan on brewing a pilsner recipe with it next and if the results are the same, I'll probably make this my house yeast strain.  The turnaround is outstanding with, in my opinion, no downside.  It's similar to WLP007 in that respect but I believe it is cleaner, quicker.   

If you brew a Pils style with it, please let us know how it turned out!
I've considered doing a Pils with ale yeast numerous times but never tried it. I'm sitting on three Oz of Czech Saaz right now too.

I really appreciate the feedback everyone.
Thanks
Steve

Offline davidgzach

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #19 on: May 30, 2012, 06:39:19 am »
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I guess I'm brand-loyal.

Funny how that goes, isn't it? I used a Wyeast pack once, had a bad experience with it that likely had nothing to do with the quality of the product, yet now I never use anything that doesn't start with WLP.

I had a bad experience with some WL830 and have used only Wyeast since.  I do however think the smack pack is easier to handle.

Dave
Dave Zach

Offline FirstStateBrewer

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #20 on: May 30, 2012, 07:32:57 am »
Quote
I guess I'm brand-loyal.

Funny how that goes, isn't it? I used a Wyeast pack once, had a bad experience with it that likely had nothing to do with the quality of the product, yet now I never use anything that doesn't start with WLP.

I had a bad experience with some WL830 and have used only Wyeast since.  I do however think the smack pack is easier to handle.

Dave
I just used the Wyeast Kölsch on Monday, but the smack pack wouldn't smack!  No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get that inner pouch of wort to burst.  But, it didn't matter.  The starter worked fine and my batch of Kölsch bubbling away in the fermenter right now.  But, that stupid smack pack put me in a bad mood!

Given the choice, I think I will always buy White Labs yeast.
Scott B

Offline jmcamerlengo

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #21 on: May 30, 2012, 07:53:51 am »
Don't get cornered into buying one brand of yeast.  I have found that the same strains from different companies perform very differently and taste quite different.  I did a Kolsch recently and split the batch between both companies Kolsch strains. They performed different in fermentation and tasted quite different as well. You may find you prefer one companies strain opposed to another in a lot of cases.
Jason
-Head Brewer, Brewtus Brewers in the Shenango Valley. Hopefully opening a brewpub/nano brewery in the next couple years.

Offline erockrph

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #22 on: May 30, 2012, 08:43:50 am »
I'll be honest, I usually use White Labs only because their numbering system is a hell of a lot easier for me to remember (at least for most of the yeasts I use or am interested in). Even though I haven't used 570 or 500 or 090 yet, I know what they are. I have no clue what their Wyeast equivalents are without looking them up (other than there is no Wyeast equivalent for 090). I love the one Wyeast strain I've used (3638), so I'm sure I'll dabble in the future, but I just naturally gravitate to the White Labs versions because I know what they are.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline skyler

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #23 on: June 10, 2012, 01:04:50 pm »
I often find that for a "family" of yeasts, like the "American Ale" family, for example, there is one strain that I far prefer over all others 90% of the time. Of all the American Ale strains - WLP001/Wyeast 1056/US-05, WLP051/Wyeast 1272, Wyeast 1450, WLP090, Wyeast 1332 (which isn't really in the same category, IMO), ECY10, and Pacman, I quite liked ECY10, but since it is an insane hassle to get that on the west coast, I just don't bother. Otherwise, I like Pacman 90% of the time, because it is VERY clean, flocculant, consistent, and it lets me ferment VERY cold. But since it can be somewhat difficult for me to obtain Pacman in the bay area (needing to drive 30 min to get some for $3 more than I pay for other yeast strains), I prefer good ol' WLP001/Wyeast 1056 over all the others 90% of the time. And since I can always get fresh slurry of it for free from nearby brewpubs, I just really think WLP001 is the bee's knees. It is fast, consistent, alcohol tolerant, fairly temperature tolerant (I am pretty happy with its performance anywhere from 58F to 68F), and my only real problem with it is that it can be a pain to get the yeast to fall out of suspension, even with a cold crash and gelatin (no yeast has ever given me as much trouble as US-05 in this arena).

I used WLP090 3 times from the same vial. The first beer I made, a hoppy red session ale, came out fine, though it fermented no faster than WLP001 and it was far less flocculant than Pacman. It also finished a little higher than expected. I then tried it in a porter that I have brewed several times before, usually with English ale strains - it came out as expected. The attenuation was notably less aggressive than with other American Ale strains (70% - which is the same as that recipe will give me with Wyeast 1318). And finally I   brewed a big red rye ale with WLP090 - this one oddly fermented quite dry (83% attenuation) and tasted fine. What I gather is that WLP090 is an acceptable, if tempermental strain. It will ferment very dry or very sweet, depending on wort fermentability, and it is fairly neutral, but doesn't help the hops "shine" the way that Pacman, Chico, and ECY10 do. All in all, I would consider it a decent strain, but its speed didn't really outperform WLP001, though it was more flocculant. If I wanted a flocculant, turbo-speed yeast, I would just use WLP002/Wyeast 1968 and ferment at about 62F.

Offline TrippleRippleBrewer

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #24 on: June 10, 2012, 03:47:02 pm »
I threw 5oz of pellets into each carboy last week Sunday. 2oz Centennial, 1oz Citra, 1oz Chinook, 1oz Columbus. Letting them sit two weeks or so. Three weeks total on the yeast and hopefully plenty of time to let them clear. S05 was quite turbid compared to WLP090 last week when I added pellets to primary. I'm away on vacation out of state. When I get home I will rack to kegs. I wonder if the fast fermenting 090 would be more predisposed to autolysis sooner than S05, WLP001, or Wyeast 1056? Looking forward to taste testing!


Offline erockrph

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #25 on: June 27, 2012, 08:31:53 pm »
The head brewer from Union Station Brewery in Providence just told me that they use this yeast for their house ale strain. I noticed a distinct yeasty note in their ales - definitely not as clean as I assumed this strain would be. In fact, I was expecting him to say that they used a British strain. It could be from his fermentation schedule, though. He starts at 70 for the first day, then drops to 65 to finish out. I generally go the other direction with Cal Ale strains. I liked the character it gave to their brown ale and porter, but not so much for their APA's.

He said they repitch for about 10 generations, by the way.
Eric B.

Finally got around to starting a homebrewing blog: The Hop Whisperer

Offline TrippleRippleBrewer

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Re: White Labs San Diego Superyeast!
« Reply #26 on: June 29, 2012, 09:18:48 am »
The head brewer from Union Station Brewery in Providence just told me that they use this yeast for their house ale strain. I noticed a distinct yeasty note in their ales - definitely not as clean as I assumed this strain would be. In fact, I was expecting him to say that they used a British strain. It could be from his fermentation schedule, though. He starts at 70 for the first day, then drops to 65 to finish out. I generally go the other direction with Cal Ale strains. I liked the character it gave to their brown ale and porter, but not so much for their APA's.

He said they repitch for about 10 generations, by the way.

Gee 10 seems like more than I've heard most brewers go for....I recall 5 is a safer number but I'm sure they've sorted that out. I think you get mutations and other problems past a certain point. Might explain your yeasty tasting experience but so would over pitching.

I have yet to taste my IPA made with this yeast. It's been kegged for over a week now. Sat on dry hops for two weeks. The S05 version tastes great.

I can see how this would make a good house yeast since it's so damn fast fermenting. So long as it's clean, this would be a helpful aspect in some situations. It also cleared a lot better / faster than S05 but S05 isn't exactly known for it's floc performance! Happens eventually but takes weeks in the keg.

My brother in law is opening a new brewery. I'm going to have him try it and see what he thinks for a few pilot beers early in the game. He's brewing almost exclusively American ales using WLP001 or 1056 and I convinced him to try S05 which he uses mostly now. If my IPA turns out, he might be interested in switching to the 090.