I have not tried Diamond yet. Is it more or less the Lallemand analog of 34/70? In my head, I viewed it as the analog more of S-189. Or are its characteristics something in between these two strains?
I admittedly don't yet have a huge breadth of experience with dry yeast overall (I'm a relatively recent convert from liquid), but I do love 34/70 and S-189. I've been using these two for a while now and am very impressed. My pre-pro lager with S-189 is as good as beer gets, to my palate. Once there is a good dry yeast analog of Mexican lager WLP940, I will have my dry-lager-yeast quiver fully stocked (for now, I'll keep using 940...god I love that strain).
Question for our resident yeast expert Saccharomyces: I taste the off-flavor from dry yeast that you have mentioned in this and previous posts. With me, I can only describe it as musty/soapy. I suspect it's a fatty acid. Which makes sense, given that with the way dry yeast is propagated, they are enriched in fatty acids. I suspect that flavor is because some cells of dry yeast die at the initial pitch and the flavor comes from autolysis. Curious if you knew any research about this.