Yeast Strains for NE IPA's

[Morrey]

In a general sense, I suppose there are several ingredient choices to balance in making an outstanding New England Juicy IPA: Yeast selection; Grain/adjunct bill; Hop bill and varietals, Water profile.

I make NEIPA beers frequently so I always have them on hand with the goal of having the beers fresh. I modeled my grain bill from Braufessor, constantly play with various hops, use 135 Cl to 75 SO4, and gravitate toward wy1318 yeast. Basically hops are my biggest variable.

Then I visited White Labs Tasting Room in Asheville, NC where I discovered the impact yeast can have on a beer. Of course this is White Labs so we are only discussing WLP yeast, not 1318 from Wyeast.

They offered a split batch NEIPA with 4 different yeasts suited for IPA's. The beer was identical with the exception of the yeast being used: WLP001 California Ale, WLP066 London Fog Ale, WLP644 Sacc Trois and WLP008 East Coast Ale.

This was a great experience to have 4 samples of the same beer side by side with various yeast strains making it easy to pick the yeast we liked for this particular beer.

WLP001 was my least favorite. US-05 or WLP001 is the workhorse in my brewery lineup, so this was an eyeopener. But I believe this is just NEIPA specific as the 001 finished drier than the others, had no flavor influence and was completely neutral. BUT - this is the way 001 yeast is SUPPOSED to be. Gotcha, but lets pick a different beer to use the ever popular 001.

WLP066 London Fog was by far our favorite scoring well into the 40's. It had a soft fruity nuance, left a perfect touch of residual sweetness along with a richness unlike the others. Top selection of the 4. Lets order a full pint of this one.

WLP644 Sacc Trois scored 2nd in our scores. I like this yeast, so I had my wife arrange the flight as a blind test for me due to bias. There was a tiny hint of funky that I liked and everything was just right. The mouthfeel was the top of the 4 samples only being edged slightly overall by 066. This one deserves a pint too.

WLP008 is reported to be a top favorite among NE IPA brewers. I didn't feel this way, and scored it as simply a "meh" yeast. There was not much to dislike about it ie off flavors, but here wasn't much to like about it either. I called this a take it or leave it yeast and ranked it slightly above 001 in this beer.

These yeasts may be completely different in some other beer, so I wont say any of these are failures (in my opinion) by any means. But having 4 yeasts side by side in a split batch is a luxury I've not been afforded. I bought WLP066 while in AVL, so now I'll do my own split batch experiment. I plan to pit WLP066 against WY1318 and see how they compare. The show is on!!!

 

[MrPowers]

I've wanted to do a a split batch with WLP066 and WY1318 as well. You'll have to let us know how it turns out.

 

[specharka]

I’ve been meaning to try WLP066, and there’s actually a White Labs tasting room about 45 minutes away from me. I’ve never actually seen it on sale at my LHBS, so it seems like I should make the trek as well...

This is a great idea, so please keep this thread updated!

 

[Upthewazzu]

Interesting, and very cool. I am not a fan of 1318, to me it puts off a rubber-y almost metallic flavor. I've used it in roughly 4 batches of NEIPA's so I know it's the yeast and not a process flaw. I have a package of WLP644 in my fridge so I'm excited to try this one, and I'll have to grab a package of London Fog for sure now that you've described it so well.

 

[Morrey]

Thanks for the replies. I find it exceptionally difficult to judge a beer (yeast) from "memory" against a beer I am drinking at the time, so this side by side comparison was especially valuable to me. I figure White Labs has the gear to do this right, so I would venture to say these 4 yeast strains in a 4 way split batch would have been precision controlled with little or no process variations involved.

Since I have used 1318 darn near exclusively in NE IPAs to date, I am most anxious to see how WLP066 and WY1318 compare side by side. As I said before, memory is not a keen tool for me to use in pair-wise comparisons since I like to go back and forth between the samples in front of me. I'll be doing my own split batch experimentation within a few weeks and will be sure to continue this thread forward. More to come....

 

[Sbe2]

Currently i have 066 Gen 4 and 1318 Gen 6 in my inventory all brewed with NEIPAs except with my most recent Citra Cream Ale. Sometimes 066 can get attenuate in to the 80s so don’t be shocked if your FG ends up being lower than expected. The Cream Ale mentioned has been in the keg for two weeks and has not cleared even with gelatin. Usually with 1056 they are crystal clear by now.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I just received NEEPAH blend from Bootleg. I generally do split batches nearly every time. Interested in Fog, please post results.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

I've done a few NEIPAs with Imperial's "Juice" yeast with good results. An added plus is that the Imperial cans contain 200b cells so it's possible to brew with just one if the gravity's not too high.

 

[day_trippr]

fwiw, I did six neipas split between a38 and 1318 and nobody could discern any difference. I'm convinced they're the same strain...

Cheers!

 

[mongoose33]

I brewed a Hazy Little Thing (Sierra Nevada) clone 12 days ago, used WLP001. You're right, Morrey, the WLP001 finished somewhat dry, FG at 1.009. Lots of juiciness in this beer, though truth be told at 12 days, it still has a little to go.

When I was at White Labs in June, they only had two beers for sampling differing by only the yeast. They were wheat beers, not my favorite style. They used 060 and 380. Shocking difference in flavors, just from the yeast. Of course, 380 is for Hefes, and 060 is actually a blend of 3 yeasts.

I'd have loved to do the four beers like that.

 

[couchsending]

I was under the impression that 1318, Juice, London Fog are all the same strain.

1272 is the yeast Bissell Brothers uses.

S04/007

The seasonal A30 is a little odd but send to work well for hoppy beers.

Other Half uses 1056 for a lot of their beers.

1469 is very peachy at warmer temps.

1007 fermented in the upper 60s is very fruit forward.

It all just depends on what you’re looking for. If you want increased fruit like Ester production or something clean that lets hops really shine.


You should be able to control FG by malt selection and mash temps. It’s all about learning more about each yeast and not just doing the exact thing for every strain.

 

[Morrey]

It’s all about learning more about each yeast and not just doing the exact thing for every strain.

I agree - plus each specific yeast can be handled or treated in certain ways to coax nuances from that particular strain. For example, WLP300 Hefe can be pitched at different rates and fermented at varying temps to produce unique results.

 

[Morrey]

I brewed a Hazy Little Thing (Sierra Nevada) clone 12 days ago, used WLP001. You're right, Morrey, the WLP001 finished somewhat dry, FG at 1.009. Lots of juiciness in this beer, though truth be told at 12 days, it still has a little to go.

When I was at White Labs in June, they only had two beers for sampling differing by only the yeast. They were wheat beers, not my favorite style. They used 060 and 380. Shocking difference in flavors, just from the yeast. Of course, 380 is for Hefes, and 060 is actually a blend of 3 yeasts.

I'd have loved to do the four beers like that.

I had the wife treat my 4 samples as a blind taste test since I would have been biased toward the more familiar strains. I expect that White Labs treated the beers the same although each strain has its own specific temp ranges, etc. Not sure what WL actually did in this regard. But as homebrewers, like @couchsending says, we can coax the best traits from each yeast given some familiarity with each strain.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I was under the impression that 1318, Juice, London Fog are all the same strain.

WL may be positioning London Fog to be used in the same sorts of beers as 1318, but what brewing evidence I've seen suggests it brews differently.

FWIW the internet reckons that 1318 and WLP775 - English Cider share the same origins (but may have diverged a little since then).

I'd love to know where London Fog comes from though, presumably it's somewhere like Mann's (London-based, crap attenuation, not connected with any other yeasts from US companies).

 

[beervoid]

Other Half uses 1056 for a lot of their beers.

May I ask if you have any source or how do you know this?
cheers

 

[Jag75]

GY054 for the win

 

[Boleslaus]

I'm also a huge fan of 1318. I switched to it for most of my ales from 1056 and have been happy with the change in nearly all my recipes.

That being said, I've enjoyed reading some of the yeast genotype articles out there and plan to do a similar split batch experiment on my own IPA. I'm thinking of 1056 and 1318 as a baseline, 2 English yeasts similar to 1318 just to compare/contrast what I actually like about 1318 as opposed to 1056, and then 1 wild-card yeast.

 

[couchsending]

May I ask if you have any source or how do you know this?
cheers

I honestly don’t remember where I saw that... I seem to think it was reliable at the time. Was probably two years ago now. No clue if they still use it or not.