Personally, I wouldn't. While BE-256 (in my personal and limited experience) is sometimes slow to carbonate, it usually does get the job done in the end, and I would give such big beers plenty of cellar time anyway. I also suspect that part of the problem may be that BE-256 can drop like a...
That's not quite how yeast behaves. Take high stress fermentations, for example. At high alcohol levels yeast produces smaller daughter cells, and there is considerable indication that this has to do with DNA changes since those smaller daughter cells continue to produce smaller offspring cells...
For some home brewers this may be true, for others it may not be. If you are an advanced brewer with proper control over your mash temperature, wort composition and what not, 10% difference in attenuation will matter. For others who don't care about 2 degrees mash temperature difference, wort pH...
You are talking about mutation, not adaptation. They're different things. People living at high altitude develop a different physiology than those living at sea level. This is not genetic mutation; it's adaptation. Yeast does the latter. Natural selection does not play a role in this process. It...
First off, the idea of "random mutation" is inaccurate. Yeast does not mutate randomly more often or more easily than any other organism. DNA replication failure, ionizing radiation or chemical factors may influence yeast like it may influence you or me, which is to say, rarely and only under...
White Labs says it's POF+. I asked them. I've also brewed with it and I'm getting typical Belgian spicy phenols. That said, though, WLP540 has a more muted phenol profile than WLP-500-503.
I doubt even that. Belgian abbey yeasts have some wine yeast in their ancestry (hence their proclivity for...
Why? WLP540 is POF+ while BE-256 is POF-. Apples and oranges.
I can believe BE-256 being of English rather than Belgian origins, though. It's not the worst Fermentis have done. They used to position S-33 (which is plain old EDME) as a Belgian yeast as well (!) and until a few years ago they...
Interesting. I've also come across BE-256 beers that were extremely slow to carbonate. This yeast seems to struggle somewhat with bottle conditioning, which further strengthens my personal opinion that this is NOT an Abbey strain. In a professional brewing context (with exact control over DO...
My money is on these being repacked/rebranded mainstrain yeasts from Fermentis and Lallemand. Yeasts like "Four" and "Five" are not hard to identify as SafAle S-04 and US-05. Lallemand strains match many others. Then there's AEB, Mauri and what not. Fudge the characteristics a little, rename it...
Saisons have a spicy character, yes, but they are not the only style characterized by the typical Belgian spicy phenols. Check the BJCP style guide, categories 24-26. All beers listed there include spicy phenols in the aroma description. Yes, balanced with tons of fruity esters, but they are an...
It does still apply. It's POF- and it always will be. Yes, it' s highly attenuating, high in isoamyl aetate esters and with a fairly high alcohol tolerance. But that's it. Trust Fermentis to position a POF- yeast as an abbey strain! :no: But then, they used to market S-33 (i.e. basic EDME) as a...
Pitch moderately and ferment not too cold and you'll have more banana than you know what to do with. :) Depending on gravity, beware of "hot" alcohols, though, so don't overdo it on the temperature. But yeah, it should work well with chocolate(ish) flavours.
Which brings up an interesting point. Hop bitterness is often reduced over time, mainly by the oxidation of alpha and beta acids. Gruit bitterness, on the other hand (e.g. from Wormwood or Quassia) is not based on alpha or beta acids but on other compounds. This suggests they respond differently...