Comments on Ted's Homebrew Journal: London ESB vs. American 2

jason, Over the years, I've become much more aware...

2008-03-25T10:44:00.000-06:00

jason,

Over the years, I've become much more aware of the beer styles I prefer and the yeast strains that perform the best for my tastes. Though, I will always be experimenting, I expect to settle on a few strains. With time and experience, most brewers eventually find their favorites. You will too. But the more styles you like (I like a lot), the more yeast strains and styles you need to explore, so it may take many years to establish a good understanding.

"I figure in after a year or two, or more, I may f...

2008-03-25T09:52:00.000-06:00

"I figure in after a year or two, or more, I may find my favorite ale yeast. One that I can re-use indefintiely, on that gives me the results I prefer for most every batch. Kindof like how Rogue operates."

Harpoon does the same. they use the same (their own) ale yeast for all batches.

Thanks Adam,If I find either strain settling out e...

2008-03-21T21:00:00.000-06:00

Thanks Adam,

If I find either strain settling out early, I may give the carboy a good twist, to get the yeast into suspension a bit.

Let me know if the ESB turns out sweeter. I've us...

2008-03-20T08:40:00.000-06:00

Let me know if the ESB turns out sweeter. I've used an English Ale yeast before and found that it fell out of suspension before all the malt was converted.

Gotta love playing with and controlling the variables :-)

Kevin, I like what you are trying to do. I figure ...

2008-03-19T15:23:00.000-06:00

Kevin,

I like what you are trying to do. I figure in after a year or two, or more, I may find my favorite ale yeast. One that I can re-use indefintiely, on that gives me the results I prefer for most every batch. Kindof like how Rogue operates.

Planning many batches in a row, or in some sort of sequence, and reusing the yeast, is really the best way to go. Glad to see you doing that. I tend to plan out many batches in a row. In this case, I'm planning two batches at a time...should be good times. Lots of good brew to try out and compare!

Thanks for sharing your thoughts and plans.

From what I've read, that is exactly how the Engli...

2008-03-19T09:07:00.000-06:00

From what I've read, that is exactly how the English Ale yeasts are supposed to work. In fact, I'm doing a pale ale next, and selected the American for that exact reason. The London yeast was going to be fine for the batch I am doing next, but wasn't really what I was looking for on the batches I was going to do subsequently.

I'm finding that a lot lately. Since I'm trying to harvest yeast, I'm basically trying to plan out what I'm going to be brewing all summer, and pick the yeast to be the best for as many batches as possible. Right now, I'm guessing I'll need two different yeasts to get me through. My other option would be to just take over the fridge with jars of harvested yeast, but I think my wife would probably take issue with that.

Thanks. Interesting. I will brew a new batch to go...

2008-03-18T14:22:00.000-06:00

Thanks. Interesting. I will brew a new batch to go over the yeast cakes every 2 weeks. No secondary for these. Just bottle them, and then rack new wort right over. I let all my beers go about 2 weeks in primary.

I'm expecting to still see some activity with the ESB at bottling time.

My experience with LESB is that it moves at it's o...

2008-03-18T13:33:00.000-06:00

My experience with LESB is that it moves at it's own pace. where I'm normally able to rack over after 4 days, it's usually 5-6 days with the ESB. If it's a big beer, even longer. Good experiment.