[S. cerevisiae]

I am not certain if it is or not.  One of the Marston strains is available as WLP026. 

[S. cerevisiae]

Jeff, by the way, I do not purchase yeast from White Labs or Wyeast very often, but your posts piqued my interest in WLP022 Essex Ale (a.k.a. Ridley's strain).   I undoubtedly saved a vial of WLP022 from the trash bin by purchasing it the weekend before NHC.  It's "best by" date was 6/12/2015.  I started it yesterday in 500ml of 10% w/v wort.  It has been slowly waking up.  If it does not kick into high gear in the next few hours, I may decide to plate it and grow a new culture from a healthy colony.  WLP022 is seasonal for us mere mortals.

[hopfenundmalz]

Jeff, by the way, I do not purchase yeast from White Labs or Wyeast very often, but your posts piqued my interest in WLP022 Essex Ale (a.k.a. Ridley's strain).   I undoubtedly saved a vial of WLP022 from the trash bin by purchasing it the weekend before NHC.  It's "best by" date was 6/12/2015.  I started it yesterday in 500ml of 10% w/v wort.  It has been slowly waking up.  If it does not kick into high gear in the next few hours, I may decide to plate it and grow a new culture from a healthy colony.  WLP022 is seasonal for us mere mortals.

The only way I can get it through the year is that a local Brewpub, Grizzley Peak in Ann Arbor uses it as the house strain. It is a top cropper, and the head brewer says they are over 90 generations on it. I like the fruity esters it kicks out.

It was brought back from Ridley's by Jeff Renner, who was visiting a former club member who repatriated to Chelmsford in Essex, before Ridley went under. Jeff also was instrumental in getting WLP833 (ayinger) to White Labs. He did the home brewing community some big favors getting those yeasts to Chris White.

[S. cerevisiae]

The weird thing is that WLP022 did not form a head on my starter, not even a foam head. I am wondering if the vial was mislabeled.  I always get a yeast head on my starters with top croppers when starting from slant.   I made a promise to myself that I would not bank any yeast strain that I can acquire without laying out a c-note, but I may plate and bank this strain just because it is not available year round.

[S. cerevisiae]

I had to delay brewing for two days, so I let starter ferment out, decanted the spent wort, and transferred the slurry to a larger media bottle with 600ml of 10% wort.   WLP022 formed a head this time.  The batch formed a head in less than 12 hours (it more than likely reached low krausen in around , so there you have it, a White Labs culture that lived several months in a LHBS refrigerator that was opened and closed many times a day and used after the "best by" date fermenting like a fresh out the lab culture.

By the way, the Ridley's strain is one flocculent yeast strain.  The sediment breaks loose in large clumps when disturbed. It's difficult to truly appreciate a flocculent culture until one uses a non-flocculent culture such as NCYC 1108.  NCYC 1108 sediments well.  It just does not want to stay in place after sedimentation.