I am contemplating mixing wyeast 1335 and 1056 in an ipa this weekend, but don't want it to ruin my beer. Anyone have any success with this, or any other yeast mixing?
It probably won't ruin your beer. While I have never mixed these particular strains, I do start and finish with 2 different strains to reach a particular goal. Any reason why? There is a possibility that you will not be able to tell.
White Labs does this all the time in their tasting room. I've had the opportunity to sample several of the beers brewed with each yeast in isolation and then as a co-pitch. In all of the cases, where beers were co-pitched with an attenuative yeast, either Cali Ale or San Diego Super yeast (WLP001 or WLP090), and a characterful yeast (e.g. Irish Ale, Bedford British WLP006, Fullers WLP002, etc.), the beer retained a good deal of the ester profile of the characterful yeast, with a slightly drier, cleaner, more attenuated finish. I noticed that beers fermented with Irish ale or Fullers ale and co-pitched WLP001/090 tended to also have less diacetyl than the single Irish or Fullers Ale pitches. Unfortunately I don't know the cell count ratios of the pitches White Labs was doing; might want to ask them if curious.
It is doubtful mixing these strains will ruin your beer. Most likely results are neutral or you may get the positive advantages of each strain. Check out Wyeast's website for the characteristics of each strain. If the combo sounds like what you are after, I say go for it. I've only mixed strains once (Saison strains) and the results were favorable. In theory you may come up with the best of both strains and have a superior brew. Nothing ventured . . . Here's more on the topic: http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/mixing-belgian-yeasts.65185/ And White Labs says "Brewers yeast can live happily together": http://www.whitelabs.com/content/using-multiple-yeast-strains
Gtreid, thanks for post! You're a mind reader. I was considering posting the very same thing, even to the point that I did a site search on synonym for mixing.
I like the crisp fruity charactaristics of the 1056. I like the malty characteristics of 1335. I have always used 1056 with my Ipa's in the past, but want to try something different. If both of these yeast's primary attributes come out, I would think I would have a very balanced profile. Then of course I will wreck that with my dry hop, but hey.
Some breweries use (or used) mixed strains. Youngs had, IIRC, a fast starter, one to do most of the fermentation, one to finish and clean up, according to the tour guide.
I have mixed WLP001 with WLP002 before and got good results. Slightly cleaner flavor than WLP002 alone and more attenuated as others have suggested. The main reason why I tried it was for flocculation though. I found that the super flocculating WLP002 seemed to help pull down some of the WLP001 as well. I always found WLP001 to flocc out sort of slow (which partially accounts for its higher attenuation than 002). Anyway, mixing yeasts is not going to hurt your beer.
