Even since my last trip to Vermont I've been fascinated with the Conan yeast strain. It's roots are from Greg Noonan of the Vermont Pub & Brewery and supposedly it has English roots. If you're not familiar it's supposed to kick off a bit of peach, essentially act as hop steroids, and is Heady Toppers claim to fame. I've loved the APAs I've brewed with it but it's tough to tell where the hops end and the yeast begins.
My last brew was an American IPA that I decided to split batch with the Yeast Bay's Vermont Ale (Conan) and S-05. I took inspiration from a local brewery and went 80% Pale, 10% white wheat, 10% flaked oats for the grain bill with a touch of acid malt for pH. The hops were Chinook, F7, Amarillo, & Cascade all added during a 170f hop stand or dry hopped. Bittering was from a single CTZ charge at 60m. The beer that I was inspired by (same grain bill and Conan) said they serve it up super fresh, 2 to 3 weeks from brew day. Going off of this I cold crashed after 14 days and served on day 21.
For the S-05 I simply added the packet to the wort. Vermont Ale was a 3rd generation mason jar of washed yeast boosted up with a starter.
At day 21 I hosted a little party and tapped the two. Overwhelmingly everyone preferred the Conan beer (10 Conan, 3 S-05) and it tasted like a completely different beer - although surprisingly the yeast character almost seemed more Belgium than English. However there was a major variable affecting the experiment - there was a touch of diacytel flavor in the S-05. I've never had this problem with S-05 before but I've also usually don't cold crash at 2 weeks and usually brew lower gravity beers.
So in the end the experiment was pretty flawed so I'll probably redo with a fresh vial of Vermont Ale and 1056 or something. But the takeaway was still that Conan adds a crap ton of flavor to an IPA and worth experimenting more with.