That culture started out as Brewtek CL-50 California Pub Brewery. It is allegedly the culture that Mark Ruedrich acquired from UC Davis to use at the North Coast Brewing Company. From what I can ascertain, it is of British origin. I have worked with UC Davis to determine its accession number with no success because it was given to Mark before they re-organized their culture collection. In essence, the culture that became Wyeast 1450 is one of kind. It is the culture that put Red Seal Ale on the map. It is probably the best culture available to produce American Red Ale. BRY-97 is from a completely different lineage. It is a Siebel BRY-96 derivative.