Monday, November 7, 2011

WLP001 v Wyeast 1056 Results

The citra IPA Jeremy and I recently brewed was the first batch I've actually oxygenated vs simply aerated. After reading Yeast by Jamil Zainasheff and Chris White, I decided to invest the few bucks in a mostly proper oxygenation setup in order to get my fermentation that much more optimal. We brewed for a ten gallon yield, split the batch in half and pitched starters of WLP001 and Wyeast 1056 into two separate fermentors. Each 5 gallon better bottle got a 30 second shot of pure oxygen through a 5 micron stone. Both 2 liter starters were treated identically with yeast nutrient and splitting time on the stir plate.

Fermentation took off pretty quickly for both (an expected outcome) but over the course of fermentation, I experienced a level of attention from WLP001 which was a completely unexpected outcome.

OG on this beer was 1.065 and the target finishing gravity should have been around 1.016. On this batch the WLP001 made it all of the way down to 1.008. This puts the attenuation rate at 85% instead of the typical 75%. The Wyeast ended up right around 1.016. Jeremy got the WLP batch, so I haven't had the opportunity to do a side by side of carbonated, conditioned beer, but my preliminary tasting indicated that the WLP version was more neutral and thinner than the Wyeast version. The latter had some of the faint sulfury character I've picked up on the last few batches we've fermented with Wyeast 1056.

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