Anyone have experience with London Ale III?

[Rambleon]

Plan on brewing up an ESB soon and have been going back and forth in which yeast to use. It seems 75% of brewers prefer the 002/1968 since it's supposedly Fuller's strain. Then there the other camp that says Fullers ESB isn't very representative of the style and they advocate Whitbread or S-04 or something like that. Anyone ever do anything with Wyeast's London Ale III? He my recipe just for fun. I think it's mostly Jamil derived.

11# Marris Otter
.5# c-20
.25# c-120

Fuggles and Kent Goldings throughout.

 

[frazier]

Well I've only used it once, on a porter that we'll be repeating soon. It came out great. I'll be using it again.

If you're really "going back and forth" (I do that a lot, too), then your only choice is to flip a coin, see how you like the result, and try the other later (unless you really like the result).

Cheers!

ETA: A very good discussion of English yeasts here.

 

[Trail]

I've got a dark mild in the fermenter beginning its third week. Delicious, even though it's green - a bit drier than S-04 in my experience. That said, I've had excellent results using S-04 for my bitter - it's the only beer I've re-brewed so far, with the third batch down to 12 growlers and one sixer after only two weeks of drinkin'.

It's popular with folks, is what I'm saying.

Your recipe looks nice - I'm assuming it's a five-gal. If you're really having trouble picking, why not split the batch and do it with both yeasts? You'll get a very clear idea of what the differences are.

 

[Beernik]

I like London III. It leaves a soft fruitiness in the background. My recommendation, though , is to mash low with it since it is a lower attenuating yeast. I got 70% attenuation with it mashing an Amber at 149F. When I mashed higher than that, it was left sweet. Thankfully it was a sweet stout.

 

[ICWiener]

I've used it twice. Once in an ordinary bitter and once in a wheat porter. It's nice. Somewhat sweet and fruity. Didn't attenuate all that great for me, but the beer didn't seem to suffer much for it.

 

[USAFSooner]

I've used both strains and would use either again.

 

[Trail]

Curious that I found it drier than SA-04... this doesn't appear to be the norm. Might have been oxygenation issues on my part suring the early batches, though.

 

[Brewtah]

I am brewing a strong now. Be warned this is a true TOP cropper. Leave enough headspace. I am on day 14 and I just added 12 oz beet sugar. Yeast is blowing through the airlock again. It takes a long time for tbe yeast to drop back down. Keep temps a bit lower, I hear it can be a bit estery. I started ferment at 62F. I am at 67F now. I probably mashed a bit high at 156F.

 

[MindenMan]

I use ESB 1968 for every beer I brew. APA, IPA, Amber, Porter, well, you get it. If you are going to make classic English Ales, the little bit of fruitiness/esters that are produced are expected. I mash everything at 152F, and adjust my grain bill to suit my yeast/style. ESB 1968 will be happy at much lower temps than what is reported in the profile. I use this yeast for 5 to 6 generations without any troubles, and have gone as far as 10 generations, but the yeast was over attenuating and what seemed like just boozy alcohol, so I started fresh. Hey, if I can save $30 to $40 on a few successive batches from not buying yeast, the "savings" go into the creation of 2 more batches. Free beer, what a concept!

 

[ICWiener]

Be warned this is a true TOP cropper.

Shoot, I totally forgot about that. It made a very thick skin on my beers, never did fall back into the beer. I had to break it up with a spoon.

 

[Rambleon]

Just an update: I used the London Ale III in the recipe I wrote in the first post of the thread. One week in and the kruesen is just starting to fall, probably because I've been swirling it a couple times a day. It went from 1.061 to 1.018 bringing it to 68% apparent attenuation. Hopefully it'll come down a little more but the hydro sample was great. There is a softness to it that is wonderful. I can tell its still a tad sweet but it's balanced at the same time. When I first tasted it my first thought was how similar it tasted to Boddingtons pub ale. Anyway, I'll check back in next week with the next sample.