New Dry Lager Yeast?

Barry,

I have no personal experience with S-189. It is my understanding that this yeast strain has been available for quite some time but only available in 500 gram ‘bricks’ from Fermentis. Some US homebrew suppliers would ‘break up’ the brick and repackage in packets. One example is American Brewmaster: http://www.americanbrewmaster.com/Swiss-Lager-Yeast-Saflager-S-189-11-g

It would appear that Fermentis has recently made a decision to package S-189 in homebrew size packets (11.5 grams).

Hopefully some other homebrewers who purchased the ‘bricks’ or the re-packaged packets in the past will have some more input here.

Cheers!

 

My best guess is that it's a dry version of the Samichlaus yeast (which was once brewed by Hurlimann - the source Fermentis cites for S-189). White Labs has released this in the past as the Platinum Strain WLP885 "Zurich Lager" - and it may even be a regular offering these days.

I've only used 885 once - and can't really comment on its performance. The batch I fermented with it ended up being nothing more than a very large starter for a 1 bbl batch a friend was planning. As such, I racked my beer off of the cake before it was fully attenuated and I never got to taste a sample of the 1 bbl batch. AFAIK, it may still be aging in a barrel somewhere!

 

Happy to see this. I look forward to giving it a try. Dry lager yeasts are convenient because they help you get around the need to make large starters. I've played around with S-23 a couple times and thought it made a tasty beer but lacked the clean character of a lager. Fermentis 34/70 has been my go-to dry yeast for lagers. It's been cleaner for me than S-23, although I did decide in a side-by-side comparison that a liquid variety was better (but it was not derived from the same strain, so the comparison arguably is apples and oranges).

Because S-189 has periodically been available from suppliers who have repackaged bricks of it, you can find discussions of it on this and other homebrew forums.

 

Do you think we should hydrate or sprinkle on top? Just kidding! Have a great weekend!

 

Jack,
On an aside not to threadjack, are there a lot of 500g bricks out there that aren't available for the 11g homebrew scale? I'm starting to think about how many yeasts I haen't ever used.

 

It's a good question. I was looking into large bricks about a year ago (I was thinking about some yeast experiments that I apparently shelved in the face of new responsibilities). I may not have thoroughly discovered all there is out there, but at the time S189 and K-97 seemed to only be in bricks or repacked bricks. Now both seem to be available pre-packed. There was a Diamond lager strain from Danstar that I seem to recall only seeing in bricks.

 

I am not an expert here. I went to the Danstar website and noted a number of yeast strains that are depicted in 500 gram packages:

• CBC-1
• Diamond Lager
• BRY-97
• Munich Classic Ale

Maybe you can also obtain the above listed yeast strains in smaller sachets (e.g., re-packaged) as well?

Cheers!

 

CBC-1. BRY-97, and Munich Classic have been available as pre-packaged sachets. Here is an online retailer carrying all of them http://labelpeelers.com/lallemand/

Point of confusion -- Munich Classic appears that it may be a lager yeast but Munich is a hefe yeast. Adding to this confusing is that they call both of them Munich on the web page, even though the picture shows a sachet of Munich Classic.

 

Good to know. It seems like the link I posted misadvertised Munich Classic. It appears the Munich and Munich Classic are the same thing. Confusing. The closeup of the sachet on the Williams site clearly IDs it as wheat beer yeast.

 

More information from the Danstar website:

"Saccharomyces cerevisae selected from the Doemens Academy Yeast Culture Collection. Munich Classic wheat beer yeast strain is used by a number of commercial breweries to produce a flavorful, full body and aromatic Bavarian-style wheat beer."

Cheers!

 

Now why didn't I think of that? I guess I just wanted to believe there was another lager strain out there. Not the case.

 

Peter, I just gotta ask: how many lager yeast strains are needed? Is it just an issue of dry lager yeast?

In the interest of transparency while I am personally a fan of the dry yeast format but I will only buy dry ale yeast. I have always been pleased by the overall performance of liquid lager yeast that I have never been tempted to brew with dry lager yeast.

Cheers!

 

I don't know how many you need, but I'd like to try them all! Plus, as a dry yeast user you understand the advantages. They don't just apply to ales.

FWIW, I'm thinking of a Maibock with S189

 

Well you'll have to let up know how it goes, just be sure to use 2 packs to get the pitch rate high enough

Another new yeast I noticed recently is the SafCider, wonder how it would do in a beer I boiled down to half its original volume and diluted with apple juice....?

 

LOL!

Yeah, I really don't see it that way. I am happy to use a single sachet of dry ale yeast for the beers I brew but for a lager I would feel the need to use two sachets for a lager. For a lager I would just as well just make a yeast starter from a single smack-pack of liquid lager yeast. But I suppose I should state that is just me!?!

Cheers!

P.S. For every lager that I have brewed using liquid yeast (and starter) I have never had an issue with diacetyl and I have never, ever conducted a D-rest.

 

I don't understand why you find it acceptable to use dry yeast in an ale but not a lager. Is it the cost of buying an extra satchet of yeast? You might be talking about another 5 dollars, on average? Different strokes. I'd rather pay $5 than build a giant starter.One thing that has thwarted my liquid yeast lagers is that several times I have ordered a liquid lager yeast from Northern Brewer or Midwest, and it arrived close to the end of its shelf life, because they don't sell a lot. Or, I end up not brewing as planned, and the yeast gets old in my fridge. Either way, the viability of the yeast is presumably low and either a larger than anticipated starter is needed, or I need to order another pack of yeast. Now, you and I subscribe to a different notion on how big a starter should be, so maybe I am being too conservative. However, I do not really want to build starters that require stepping up or require more than 1.75 liter

I don't think diacetyl has anything to do with whether the yeast was dry or liquid, and for that matter, ale or lager. They all produce diacetyl and the all clean it up. If you treat it right and are patient. I have struggled with diacetyl 3 times and only one of them involved a lager strain. And that was liquid. This past year, I had two diacetyl problems with BRY-97, a dry ale yeast, derived from the same source as 1272, allegedly.