Porter yeasts

[wolfej50]

I now have a few small batch fermentor vessels. I'd like to do an experiment in which I brew a batch of a relatively standard porter, then distribute the same wort to the small batch vessels, then use different yeasts. What yeasts are typical for porters and are there any descriptions of their contributions specifically to porter? Most taste notes I see are fairly generic.
Thanks for any advice.

 

[masonsjax]

Seems like most porter recipes call for the whitbread strain or similar english ale yeast. I prefer cleaner yeast like chico, pacman, or even kölsch. I might use Conan on my next one.

 

[ArcaneXor]

My go to yeast for my brown porter is WLP 005. I also quite like WLP 013.

 

[Peruvian802]

I've used Ringwood, Windsor, and US 05

 

[rmyurick]

I like Wyeast 1028 for a porter, but 1968 is also good. I think Great Lakes uses 1028 for Edmund Fitzgerald.

 

[porterpounder]

Try the 1469 Yorkshire. Awesome yeast for porters, browns and bitters.

 

[hogwash]

My favorite porter that I've brewed used ringwood. Adds a nice complexity and complements the malts well. US05, et al. make for a less interesting beer, imo.

 

[IslandLizard]

Agree on using a traditional British Yeast. WY1469 sounds very interesting.

I used WY1968 (London ESB Ale, Fullers) for a Deschutes Black Butte Porter clone (a Brown Porter) and it came out very nice and smooth. WLP002 is similar.

WY1318 (London Ale III, Bodingtons) is also an interesting yeast.

 

[Malticulous]

Porter can be either American or British. Picking a strain depends on how much yeast character you want, how strong the wort is and how dry you want the finished beer. I've used a lot of different yeast in porters and I don't think I found one I would not use agan. Nottingham has made me many fine porters. I have one with US-05 fermenting now. I like WLP007 too. I guess I like it dry.

 

[wolfej50]

Well, started my brew using SafAle 04, 05, and SafBrew 33. (Those are what my LHBS carried).

 

[DromJohn]

For my Anchor Porter I used WLP001 California Ale.
For my Cherry Porter I used WLP011 European Ale (aiming for a Baltic porter.)

I was happy with both.

 

[Sir-Hops-A-Lot]

I'm interested in hearing how they ferment and taste.
I am currently fermenting a Brown Ale (Monkey Paw) with British Ale 1098, S-04, and S-33.

 

[JKaranka]

Recreating Whitbread 1952 ES right now and S04 is smelling delicious. Most often I use Nottingham for porter and stout, unless I want high OG and I go for S33.

 

[masonsjax]

I've been using Pacman on porters with excellent results.

 

[wolfej50]

I promised I'd post back on the results, so here are some preliminary results. After about 3-4 weeks bottle conditioning I had my son, my wife, and myself take comparison tastes of the three different beers. As a recap, I prepared a porter wort, then split the wort into three small batch fermenters with three different yeasts: Safale-04 (1 1/2 gal), Safale-05 (1 1/2 gal), and Safbrew-33 (2 gal). All were very active and I probably should have attached blow-off tubes, but I'm still acquiring basic equipment. Nevertheless, all produced drinkable brews. The 04 and 05 were very close in taste. My wife and I thought the 04 might have left a bit of an unpleasant after taste. The 33 was a bit sweeter then either of the other two. My son thought the 04 had a more 'rounded' taste, but the 05 (his fav) was more of what he thought a porter should be. My fav was the 33. While it was a bit sweeter by comparison, it wasn't a sweet beverage. I thought the balance was more to my liking. I'm out of town for a few weeks and I look forward to sampling again after some more bottle conditioning.