[erockrph]

I saw a vial of this at the LHBS, and since I still have about 30 pounds of MO in my basement, I thought I'd give it a try. I was wondering what everyone else's experiences have been with this strain. I've got some ideas of what to brew with it, but I haven't settled on anything definite yet. I'm thinking English Brown or Bitter > ESB or something similar to Old Peculiar > Barleywine.

So, some more specific questions:

Does anyone know what brewery it's from? Guessing Sam Smith's?

What fermentation temps do you recommend to get a nice fruity English ester character?

Since it's the Yorkshire Square strain, I was thinking of fermenting it "open" for the first few days (i.e., in a bucket with a mesh bag draped over the opening to keep critters out). Has anyone tried this? I've heard it increases esters - does that mean I should drop the fermentation temps a bit to compensate for this?

I've never top-cropped before, but this sounds like a good strain to start with. Any top-cropping recommendations with this yeast?

[HoosierBrew]

I need to try to find some - you would think it's Sam Smith's. It'd be hard to go wrong with any of their styles, if in fact that's the source. A Nut Brown or ESB would be great. I like the open fermentation idea a lot - 67 or 68F should definitely give you some fruitiness I would think.

[erockrph]

I need to try to find some - you would think it's Sam Smith's. It'd be hard to go wrong with any of their styles, if in fact that's the source.

Yeah, I'm kicking myself for not holding out a little longer to brew my oatmeal stout now...

[HoosierBrew]

Also, you'd think Wyeast wouldn't be far behind getting one out. Maybe we should send (Michael) Dawson an email. He's brand manager now.

[dannyjed]

I don't know anything about that yeast strain. A guy in my club open ferments all of his beers by covering the fermentor loosely with plastic wrap. His beers are top notch, in fact, he won a gold in the NHC in 2003. He got the idea of open fermentation after visiting Jolly Pumpkin and checking out their facility.

[erockrph]

I don't know anything about that yeast strain. A guy in my club open ferments all of his beers by covering the fermentor loosely with plastic wrap. His beers are top notch, in fact, he won a gold in the NHC in 2003. He got the idea of open fermentation after visiting Jolly Pumpkin and checking out their facility.

I've been meaning to try this out since I saw the Brewing TV episode where Dawson tried it out. Supposedly it's good for hefe's as well.

[hopfenundmalz]

It could be Sam Samith's, Theakstons, or from Black Sheap. All of those are in N. Yorkshire and use Yorkshire Squares.

WY-1469 is the Timothy Taylor, as was was said to be from Keighly, which. Is the town Tomothy Taylor is from.

[HoosierBrew]

I've used the 1469 in a Landlord clone. Made a really good beer.

[hopfenundmalz]

I've used the 1469 in a Landlord clone. Made a really good beer.

Yes it does!

[erockrph]

Got my first brew up and running with this yeast yesterday. A pretty basic Nut Brown:

83.3% MO
11.1% 80L English Dark Crystal
5.6% Fawcett Pale Chocolate

1.047 OG
17 IBU EKG @ 60 min and 0.5 oz at flameout

Man, this is some chunky yeast! It took a long time for me to shake the floccing yeast back into suspension before pitching. I'm hoping I can keep it in the temp range I want. Upstairs is 72F and the basement is 59. Got the Brew Belt on it in the basement and hoping I can hit the mid 60's.

Still debating on whether an ESB or Old Peculier clone is up next...

[HoosierBrew]

Got my first brew up and running with this yeast yesterday. A pretty basic Nut Brown:

83.3% MO
11.1% 80L English Dark Crystal
5.6% Fawcett Pale Chocolate

1.047 OG
17 IBU EKG @ 60 min and 0.5 oz at flameout

Man, this is some chunky yeast! It took a long time for me to shake the floccing yeast back into suspension before pitching. I'm hoping I can keep it in the temp range I want. Upstairs is 72F and the basement is 59. Got the Brew Belt on it in the basement and hoping I can hit the mid 60's.

Still debating on whether an ESB or Old Peculier clone is up next...

I'll be curious to see how it comes out.  Looking forward to trying it.

[brewcrew7]

I used this yeast several years ago on a nut brown and oatmeal stout. I have no qualms with the yeast itself except that I feel it needs a bit of care to do what you want it to do. If you're adept at handling yeast and fermentations this shouldn't be an issue. The oatmeal stout was made on first pitch and I think the yeast quit early on me resulting in a good number of slow gusher bottles. The beer had a carbonic bite to it that just never seemed to go away and the batch was tough to get through (all 22oz bombers). Shortly after bottling I felt my batch was very close to SS Oatmeal Stout. I'd recommend doing a fast-ferment test or to let it get warmer or rouse the yeast as it nears the end to make sure you reach FG. This may not matter as much if you  are kegging however. The nut brown that followed had a bit of diacetyl in it but I felt it was a nice touch. Took 2nd in category in a local competition. If anything, I recall these were all fermented around 64F.

As far as the open fermentation goes, I did do a side by side once with this yeast in a bitter and the differences were only evident to me when the beer was drunk young during hydrometer tests and within a week or so after bottling After that the conditioning erased any extra character that the open ferment had over the airlocked batch. Even though I "open ferment" most of my batches, I think you get more effect when performed on a much bigger scale.

I have an "Old Peculier" fermenting with 1469 right now and plan to condition half of that on some Xmas pudding ingredients for a while. That yeast has been fun top cropping, I'm sure 037 is great as well.

[erockrph]

I used this yeast several years ago on a nut brown and oatmeal stout. I have no qualms with the yeast itself except that I feel it needs a bit of care to do what you want it to do. If you're adept at handling yeast and fermentations this shouldn't be an issue. The oatmeal stout was made on first pitch and I think the yeast quit early on me resulting in a good number of slow gusher bottles. The beer had a carbonic bite to it that just never seemed to go away and the batch was tough to get through (all 22oz bombers). Shortly after bottling I felt my batch was very close to SS Oatmeal Stout. I'd recommend doing a fast-ferment test or to let it get warmer or rouse the yeast as it nears the end to make sure you reach FG. This may not matter as much if you  are kegging however. The nut brown that followed had a bit of diacetyl in it but I felt it was a nice touch. Took 2nd in category in a local competition. If anything, I recall these were all fermented around 64F.

As far as the open fermentation goes, I did do a side by side once with this yeast in a bitter and the differences were only evident to me when the beer was drunk young during hydrometer tests and within a week or so after bottling After that the conditioning erased any extra character that the open ferment had over the airlocked batch. Even though I "open ferment" most of my batches, I think you get more effect when performed on a much bigger scale.

I have an "Old Peculier" fermenting with 1469 right now and plan to condition half of that on some Xmas pudding ingredients for a while. That yeast has been fun top cropping, I'm sure 037 is great as well.

Thanks for the tips! I have just under 3 gallons in a 6.5-gallon bucket, so I don't know if the lower height-to- surface area ratio will make any difference in the fermentation character. I'm simply using a sanitized paint strainer bag over the bucket so there shouldn't be any impediment to airflow.

Judging by how compact the yeast was in the vial, I can imagine that this must be super flocculant stuff. Once the krausen falls, I'll pop the lid on the bucket, then bring it upstairs to finish out and rouse it for a few days.

[morticaixavier]

I used this yeast several years ago on a nut brown and oatmeal stout. I have no qualms with the yeast itself except that I feel it needs a bit of care to do what you want it to do. If you're adept at handling yeast and fermentations this shouldn't be an issue. The oatmeal stout was made on first pitch and I think the yeast quit early on me resulting in a good number of slow gusher bottles. The beer had a carbonic bite to it that just never seemed to go away and the batch was tough to get through (all 22oz bombers). Shortly after bottling I felt my batch was very close to SS Oatmeal Stout. I'd recommend doing a fast-ferment test or to let it get warmer or rouse the yeast as it nears the end to make sure you reach FG. This may not matter as much if you  are kegging however. The nut brown that followed had a bit of diacetyl in it but I felt it was a nice touch. Took 2nd in category in a local competition. If anything, I recall these were all fermented around 64F.

As far as the open fermentation goes, I did do a side by side once with this yeast in a bitter and the differences were only evident to me when the beer was drunk young during hydrometer tests and within a week or so after bottling After that the conditioning erased any extra character that the open ferment had over the airlocked batch. Even though I "open ferment" most of my batches, I think you get more effect when performed on a much bigger scale.

I have an "Old Peculier" fermenting with 1469 right now and plan to condition half of that on some Xmas pudding ingredients for a while. That yeast has been fun top cropping, I'm sure 037 is great as well.

Thanks for the tips! I have just under 3 gallons in a 6.5-gallon bucket, so I don't know if the lower height-to- surface area ratio will make any difference in the fermentation character. I'm simply using a sanitized paint strainer bag over the bucket so there shouldn't be any impediment to airflow.

Judging by how compact the yeast was in the vial, I can imagine that this must be super flocculant stuff. Once the krausen falls, I'll pop the lid on the bucket, then bring it upstairs to finish out and rouse it for a few days.

having watched the anchor open fermenters work and seen that cool timelaps of the bigfoot fermenting at SN in open tanks I wonder if the whole 'open fermentation' on a homebrew scale where there is still a blanket of, if no pure co2 then atmosphere with significantly more co2 than ambient above the beer. those ferments overflow and there is 0 or even negative headspace in the fermenter.

Just a though. no science behind it whatsoever.

[erockrph]

having watched the anchor open fermenters work and seen that cool timelaps of the bigfoot fermenting at SN in open tanks I wonder if the whole 'open fermentation' on a homebrew scale where there is still a blanket of, if no pure co2 then atmosphere with significantly more co2 than ambient above the beer. those ferments overflow and there is 0 or even negative headspace in the fermenter.

Just a though. no science behind it whatsoever.

Interesting point. I may test this out once my basement gets up to ale temps. Split a batch - one goes in a 2 or 3-gallon bucket and one goes in a 6.5 gallon.

One nice side benefit of open fermentation is that my whole basement smells like Maris Otter and English Ale yeast. And it's also a caution never to do an open ferment on ciders...