[Bret]

Hey Drew--what is the best yeast for express brewing in you experience?

[dbeechum]

I tend to use a British yeast, my usual is either Thames Valley or Essex (seasonal). I would recommend against Ringwood, but that's my general recommendation since I hate that yeast. The standard White Labs British strains work great as well.

[tschmidlin]

i also like S-04, and Wyeast 1028, 1084, and 1098.

[Bret]

Thanks, Drew.  I've been thinking about Thames Valley anyway.  Hey Tom, I've used 1028 plenty--a house fav.  Used 1084 lots, too. Guess I'll have to play with 1098 now as well.  I have not experimented with the different strains enough.  Left that as my constant when dialing in other stuff.

[Kit B]

Kit, I warned ya didn't I?

And yeah for brown ales!

Yep...Sadly, I bought the yeast, before I read your article & didn't have anything else on hand.

[a10t2]

1272 is a good choice for a fast turnaround IMO. It's basically just a more flocculant Chico.

[morticaixavier]

Alright. I have a question on this topic as well.

Normally I don't worry to much about clarity and with floccy yeast it's really not much of an issue but I am mid speed brew for a party on the 17th with my brew club and I want to impress them   so I am trying to get a really clear beer. I used WLP002 and that, in my experience leaves the beer pretty clear after cold crashing but I want to go ahead and fine it according to the schedule in the zymurgy article. But I only have the 1 keg so there is no fining in the keg and transfering to a clean keg.

Should I add the 'gelatine' (agar actually as I am a vegetarian, but same difference) to the primary tonight? or should I keg tonight and add the finings in the keg, just blow out the first pint tomorrow?

If in the keg would it work to add the disolved gelatin to the empty keg and then rack the beer on top of it to mix?

**EDIT to explain status of brew**

I brewed friday night og 1.033 sg last night (Tuesday) was 1.012 which is fine for me. Put it in the fridge to crash last night. The plan was to fine in primary tomorrow night (wednesday) and keg thursday. I was going to just leave a fair amount of beer behind in the primary to avoid as much yeast/trub as I can.

[tschmidlin]

Alright. I have a question on this topic as well.

In your case I would recommend a secondary vessel for fining, then keg it.

[Kit B]

If you can, you should probably give it a couple of days, to settle.
I used gelatine & the carboy was still cloudy, after 2 days.

[morticaixavier]

If you can, you should probably give it a couple of days, to settle.
I used gelatine & the carboy was still cloudy, after 2 days.

Alright. I have a question on this topic as well.

In your case I would recommend a secondary vessel for fining, then keg it.

okay that works for me. I will transfer to a secondary tonight, add gelatine and keg on thursday. That actually works nicely cause I would like to save that yeast cake.

[bluesman]

You can follow Tom's suggestion in confidence, but I also think you could just add the gelatin into the cold crashed primary then keg after a couple days. I usually avoid a secondary if at all possible. Although you'll be fine either way, especially since you're consuming the beer right away anyway.

[Kit B]

Does gelatin muck up the cake & render it useless?

[bo]

Does gelatin muck up the cake & render it useless?

Yes it will screw up your cake. Rack to a secondary first or do this in your keg and rack from the top of it.

[morticaixavier]

I went with toms suggestion. I purged the recieving carboy with co2 (as much as I can without a carboy cap) using the empty keg and cobra tap. added the agar solution and racked on top of it then back into the cold fridge. tomorrow I keg.

[morticaixavier]

Alright, so here I sit, 6 days almost to the minute from pitching yeast and sipping from my ridiculously hopped session ale.

It's a 1.033 down to 1.010 and 65 IBU. perfectly carbed after about 10 minutes shaking the keg. yum