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Lager yeast
I was reading an article on brewing lagers in BYO, and one of the tips was to pick one lager yeast strain and stick with it. that way you would learn its characteristics and what it does in various situations. What do you all think of this? And what would be a good choice for a lager yeast if you did choose one? The only ones I've used were White Labs American Lager and San Fran Lager. The American Lager yeast left some apple notes, but that could have been ferm temp not quite low enough. The 2 beers I made with S.F Lager yeast I fermented at 62F, and they both came out good. If I start to make more lagers, I might want to ferment at lager temps though. let's hear everyone's thoughts on this.....
Wyeast 2206 Bavarian Lager fermented at 50 and then a diacetyl rest at 60 followed by a fairly long lagering time (4+ wks) makes a damn fine lager and is my favorite. Messing around with Wyeast 2308 Munich Lager right now and it has been really good for me in the past as well.
I tried and liked WY2206 this past year too. I found that I should have pitched more and oxygenated better because the o'fest I made with it was a little fruitier than I would have thought. Then again I don't have a lot of experience yet with lager brewing.
I brewed a Baltic Porter on the east cake, again I didn't oxygenate appropriately for the big OG of a Baltic Porter, so I paid the price with under attenuation.
I am planning three more lagers next year and I am trying to decide if I know enough about WY2206 or if its time to try something else like German Lager from White labs. I want to try the mexican lager yeast too actually, but its only available for a short period of the year, I'd have to "ranch it" if I wanted to brew several times with it.
Anyway.... I am trying that approach of sticking with one lager yeast and going for it. It makes sense to me as a good approach. But I think I was trying to illustrate that you need to play with a couple up front to pick one YOU like then get to know it really well.
I think your right, I need to try one or 2 more yeasts then stick with one. The SF yeast has been good, and I may even decide to come back to it, but I think the next lager I do, I'll use either WL800 Pilsner Lager, or Czech Budejovice Lager WL802. Then I'll make a few batches with whichever one I go with, try to master it.
I was going to brew up a Cali Common, using White Labs San Fran lager yeast this weekend, and Thursday I made a 4 liter starter, planning on cooling it Saturday night to brew on Sunday. But Saturday night came, and the starter didn't seem to be doing anything. It didn't have any beer smell to it either, just smelled like unfermented wort. So that brew is postponed, and I ordered a vial of 802 Budejovic lager yeast. Picked that one due to the description saying low diacetyl production, and it had good reviews on White Lab's site. I'll see how it turns out and then stick with it for several batches.
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