WLP 060 Yeast Blend questions

[TimBrewz]

I recently got the ball rolling on a new batch of yeast: WLP 060 which is a blend of WLP 001(chico) 051( anchor ale) and 810 (anchor steam lager). I made a basic blonde ale (1.047, 21 IBU) last week. It is down to 1.009 already without a starter. Fermented at 65-68f Tastes really clean and has a little lager taste that is nice. I am thinking it will be a great yeast for American ales.

I have been doing a series of beers starting with low gravity brews, then doing increasingly higher gravity beers with the slurry of yeast to explore new strains. It just occurred to me that fermentation conditions which affect all pure strains of yeast and cause the yeast to adapt and evolve (house strains) might be exponentially more difficult to predict and control with this blend of ale and lager yeasts.

Would fermenting this yeast in the lager temp range cause more reproduction of the lager yeast? Could the ratio of each yeast strain change due to temperature, oxygenation, pH, etc?

I ask this because I am thinking of making this yeast a house yeast for a while. I like its unique lager character while having enough familiar American ale character to let hops pop. So, is WLP 060 more likely to change character over time due to fermentation practices?

 

[bierhaus15]

Would fermenting this yeast in the lager temp range cause more reproduction of the lager yeast? Could the ratio of each yeast strain change due to temperature, oxygenation, pH, etc?

This has been my experience. I've used this yeast quite a lot and I just did a series of three beers using WLP060, re-pitching a portion of the yeast slurry for each consecutive batch. All were fermented at 60-62F, internal temp.

The first beer was a Cali Common (with starter) and the resulting yeast character was lightly fruity with some lager-type flavor; overall it reminded me of a cleaner, wy1272.

The second beer was an APA. The yeast in this one produced a rather strange fermentation characteristic, as right after pitching the yeast produced a thin krausen and chugged along for a nearly a week (typical of the cali-lager strain) before dropping out. However, after that, one of the other yeasts took over, producing a huge krausen with ample blowoff. This beer is very clean tasting, like the cleanest 1056/001 yeast I've ever used.

The third beer was an Irish Red. This time around the fermentation was all Cali-lager, with the same thin krausen and steady fermentation. No signs of any other yeast activity like the last batch. The resulting beer is very lager-like, best clarity of the three, with little to no esters.

Given my results, I'd say the first beer I brewed with this yeast blend was the least lager-like and the last beer was pretty much all lager-flavor. This is to be expected, given that my temps for all three beers were pretty cold. I've had good results with this yeast at low temp before - I like it in clean/hoppy beers - but I don't know if I would make a habit of repitching the yeast, especially if each consecutive batch would just become more lager-like. (At least at low temps).

 

[TimBrewz]

Thanks! Your reply is about as perfect as I could hope for! My blonde started with a typical ale krausen then had the lager krausen you mention. My beer is now at 1.006, and really tasty. Since I kept the beer in the ale temp range I think I have maintained the original proportions of each strain, but who knows? Setting up for a hoppy APA now.

Cheers, Tim