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Author Topic: Yeast Study on Chico Strains  (Read 6367 times)

Offline denny

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #30 on: February 02, 2021, 11:05:39 am »
This is definitely “inside baseball” for yeast nerds.

I need help with this one.

Baseball is a famously boring American game made tolerable through beer and hot dogs. "Inside baseball" is a term referring to a discussion so technical or esoteric no quantity of beer or hot dogs could make it tolerable for the layperson.

BR-97 is an improved version of BR-96, and might be the source for 1056 is what I'm reading. 7407 is a lager strain, and not related to BR-96?

I had thought US05 was the Chico strain, is that not the case?

Assuming 1056 is, then US05 is also.
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Offline denny

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #31 on: February 02, 2021, 11:06:41 am »
One of the SN personnel on a podcast said that the house strain is now more flocculant than the commercial Chico strains. If find it plausible that BRY-97 is the SN house strain.

I might try and bump up the SN yeast from bottles of Pale Ale. Anyone know that the use the same strain for bottling?

According to my sources there and what I learned at Beer Camp, yes they do.
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Offline hopfenundmalz

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #32 on: February 02, 2021, 01:14:39 pm »
One of the SN personnel on a podcast said that the house strain is now more flocculant than the commercial Chico strains. If find it plausible that BRY-97 is the SN house strain.

I might try and bump up the SN yeast from bottles of Pale Ale. Anyone know that the use the same strain for bottling?

According to my sources there and what I learned at Beer Camp, yes they do.

I was pretty sure of that, but wanted verification. Thanks.
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Offline YeastIsInteresting

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #33 on: February 02, 2021, 02:05:36 pm »
This is definitely “inside baseball” for yeast nerds.

I need help with this one.

Baseball is a famously boring American game made tolerable through beer and hot dogs. "Inside baseball" is a term referring to a discussion so technical or esoteric no quantity of beer or hot dogs could make it tolerable for the layperson.

BR-97 is an improved version of BR-96, and might be the source for 1056 is what I'm reading. 7407 is a lager strain, and not related to BR-96?

I had thought US05 was the Chico strain, is that not the case?

Thank you for the explanation.

Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #34 on: February 02, 2021, 02:25:07 pm »
To summarise and to remain on topic, is the consensus that Y-7407 (Ballentine Beer Pitching Strain) was banked at Siebel as BRY-96.  This was then subsequently picked up by Sierra Nevada and has since become known as Chico.  Lallemand released BRY-96 rather confusingly as BRY-97, and hence is the true dry form of SN's Chico strain?  Is this potentially a lager strain?  How does the Narragansett deposit information tie in with all this?

Anyway, I'm now tempted to try NCYC 4307!

No, BRY-96 has a different, yet to be identified source.  Chris Large is the graduate student on the team that is studying brewhouse mutations of BRY-96 and its offspring.  Through genetic sequencing, the team has determined that BRY-96 does not descend from Y-7407 or Y-7408.

Ballantine was purchased by Falstaff in 1972.  Falstaff had previously purchased Narragansett in 1965.  When Falstaff closed Ballantine, production of Ballantine XXX ale was moved to Narragansett.  We have all assumed that the ale culture was moved to Narragansett as well.  However, it clearly was not moved if BRY-96 was deposited by Narragansett because the reception date for BRY-96 of 4/1/1967 predates the move by seven years.  The original Siebel yeast culture publication stated that BRY-96 came from a brewery formerly operating on the East Coast.   It was assumed that Ballantine was the brewery to whom Siebel was referring because Ballantine is the only defunct historical ale brewery anyone under age 80 or so can remember.





By the way, Y-7408 is a true top-cropper.  It is rumored that the culture was brought to this country from Scotland by Arhibald MacKechnie who was one of Ballantine’s brewmasters.  Here is what Y-7408 looked like in use at Ballantine:




With the information that Eric has added to this thread about Narragansett acquiring the Hanley Brewing Company's brands, James Hanley may be the original U.S. source for BRY-96.  The James Hanley Brewing Company owned Rhode Island's largest ale brewery, as can be seen on the beer tray at this URL: http://trayman.net/TrayDetail/Animals/hanleys%20Red.htm


Offline YeastIsInteresting

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #35 on: February 03, 2021, 03:06:33 am »
OK, so very much tying in with what my Lallemand contact stated.  BRY-96 was deposited by Narragansett in 1967.  Lallemand released BRY-96 as...BRY-97...according to this person.  Which is odd.

Offline erockrph

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #36 on: February 03, 2021, 09:29:25 am »
With the information that Eric has added to this thread about Narragansett acquiring the Hanley Brewing Company's brands, James Hanley may be the original U.S. source for BRY-96.  The James Hanley Brewing Company owned Rhode Island's largest ale brewery, as can be seen on the beer tray at this URL: http://trayman.net/TrayDetail/Animals/hanleys%20Red.htm

Given that Hanley built several other breweries in the pre-prohibition era going back to the late 1800's, it is very possible that the yeast strain that became synonymous with one of the most prominent California breweries in the late 20th century can be traced back through late 19th-century Rhode Island, taking it from one corner of the country to the other. Sort of like Ancestry.com for yeast strains :)

Also, this really makes me want to try to hunt down Hanley's Extra Pale Ale recipe.
« Last Edit: February 03, 2021, 09:31:03 am by erockrph »
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Offline BrewBama

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #37 on: February 03, 2021, 10:17:48 am »
...
Also, this really makes me want to try to hunt down Hanley's Extra Pale Ale recipe.

If you find it please share. Sounds good.


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Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #38 on: February 03, 2021, 02:22:00 pm »
Okay, I stand corrected and down the rabbit hole we go. While most of the Narragansett advertising that one finds on the web is focused on their lager product, searching for breweriana revealed that Narragansett historically brewed what they labeled “Half Stock Banquet Ale.”   While I am probably most likely wrong, it appears that the lager product received more focus after the acquisition of the James Hanley Brewing Company. I do not know why that is so, but Rudolph Haffenreffer passed away in 1954, leaving his sons in charge of Narragansett, so that may have had something to do with the company’s shift in focus.  I still believe that there is a chance that Narragansett’s ale culture may have originated with Hanley because Hanley predated their opening.  It was not uncommon for breweries to share yeast cultures.

What I want to know is what prompted Narragansett to bank the culture with Siebel?  Falstaff owned Narragansett in 1967.  Did Falstaff’s or Narragansett’s management team decide to get out of ale production?  If Narragansett banked the culture with Siebel, then they may have also banked it with Wallerstein Labs, which had its own culture collection (there are several Wallerstain cultures in the ARS NRRL).  J.E. Siebel and Max Wallerstein where contemporaries.  They were both brewing scientists.   Something that a lot of people do not know is that the Anchor Steam culture is not a historical steam beer culture.  Anchor acquired it from Wallerstein Labs in the mid-seventies.  That was when Fritz Maytag was overhauling Anchor to improve quality.   There is some evidence that the Anchor culture descends from the Christian Schmidt lager culture, which Siebel holds as BRY-118.  It is available from Wyeast as 2272-PC North American Lager.

Back to the rabbit hole...
« Last Edit: February 07, 2021, 09:24:07 am by Saccharomyces »

Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #39 on: February 07, 2021, 09:22:37 am »
I am hedging my bets on the origin of the yeast culture known as BRY-96. Here's the latest addition to my brewery (not the Thermapen).



« Last Edit: February 07, 2021, 09:25:18 am by Saccharomyces »

Offline dmtaylor

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #40 on: February 07, 2021, 10:36:09 am »
Dave

The world will become a much more pleasant place to live when each and every one of us realizes that we are all idiots.

Offline Saccharomyces

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #41 on: February 07, 2021, 11:48:47 am »
Well, the one guy who knew for certain left this world in 2017.  I would have loved to been able to pick his brain for a few hours.

https://www.narragansettbeer.com/2017/03/celebrating-the-life-of-bill-anderson?age-verified=29d235af98

Offline Descardeci

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #42 on: February 18, 2021, 12:36:58 pm »
Wow all the information, this was a awesome topic

Offline martyartie

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Re: Yeast Study on Chico Strains
« Reply #43 on: August 06, 2022, 10:52:06 pm »
A couple of points of history:

"There appears to be no historical data that points to Narragansett producing ale before Falstaff moved production of Ballantine XXX to Narragansett."

Narragansett's line-up in August 1933, consisted of light and dark lagers, light and dark ales and porter, all available in bottles and on draft  (Portsmouth Herald, Portsmouth, Rhode Island, August 29 1933, p5 )

"It is rumored that the culture was brought to this country from Scotland by Arhibald MacKechnie who was one of Ballantine’s brewmasters."

 Archibald Ferguson MacKechnie, born in Glasgow, had been working at Watney's brewery in Mortlake, London before emigrating to Canada before World War One. So no.