Hey! So I know that it is possible to pitch two different yeast strains into a beer but I've only ever seen this done with Belgians, wits, sours, etc. My idea is this, what if I were to brew a massive stout with a super high starting gravity and pitch some standard 1084 Irish Ale yeast AND 4347 extreme fermentation yeast (a distillers strain)? It's said that 4347 is clean and dry so I figure it should ferment out really clean and the 1084 would provide the appropriate mouth feel. Am I nuts or is this a good idea?
Only one way to find out My guess is that one of the two strains would end up dominating the profile...but I don't think it would result in a disaster or anything, so why not give it a shot and report back...
I have used Chico with Irish ale in a stout with mixed results. I don't like super dry imperial stouts, I like some mouthfeel and feel the sweetness of a higher fg stout balances the roasted malt bitterness.
I would let the Irish yeast finish, then add a BIG starter of the distillers yeast. Maybe even add some oxygen. The flavor will already be there, the distillers yeast should just dry it out. The mouthfeel I'm not too sure about, it would depend on the recipe.
Realistically, I'd hope for a higher ABV, but yes. That's basically what I'm aiming for is a super high ABV stout. But with the hopes that the Irish yeast keeps the mouthfeel of a good stout.
Your mouthfeel has a direct relationship with the FG (although there are other factors involved also). If you use the distillers yeast to get the FG down and the ABV up, then you will lose mouthfeel. Can I ask what sort of ABV you are aiming at?
Hoping to get 15% or more on ABV. Really talking insanely high ABV. The inspiration came from World Wide Stout which is 15-20%.
Have never tried something like this for obvious reasons. However, from other threads I've read over the years the general advice is: You don't want to destroy your yeast. Make a big starter of your irish ale yeast. Feed sugar (and some recommend oxygen) in daily or so increments during fermentation. Once you get to the max ABV tolerance for that strain, pitch a big starter of your high abv tolerant strain (there are ale strains like White Labs 099 that purport to handle up to 25% if you don't want to use a distillers strain). There are threads out there, search for World Wide Stout or 120 minute clones, the process will be the same. As for mouthfeel I'd recommend making sure your FG isn't too low. Also, oats, wheat, carapils, dextrin, etc... can help here. My recommendation, find a slightly higher alcohol tolerant yeast and make a 12-14% ABV imperial stout and call it a day.
Maybe try using Yeast Bay Dry Belgian Ale. It claims 12-16% ABV and an insane 85-100% attenuation, depending on grist. So maybe that would let you make your big stout without adding sugar? The ester descriptions don't sound overly stout to me, but it's an option.
Compared to some people's experiments... 15% isn't insane Considering that 1084 is rated up to 12% ABV, if you nurture your beer you should be able to get 15% out of it. I'm talking proper pitching calculations, proper oxygenating, temperature control, etc. If you are familiar / comfortable with these things, then you should just be able to pitch 1084 and not wory about copitching other yeasts. If you aren't, i'd probably recommend getting comfortable before attempting this (it's not really that hard). A 15% brew that isn't made properly will be both undrinkable and really expensive.
I brew a 16%abv imperial stout regularly. No fermentables added post boil, I ferment at 66 for a week then ramp up a degree a day until I hit 72 and hold it for a week or so. My 30 gallon mash tun isn't big enough to get 20 fermented gallons of a Stout this boku, so I supplement with about 18lbs of lme in the boil. I use pacman yeast, lots of nutrients, lots of aeration (pure oxygen), and if you don't have solid fermentation control don't even consider it. The last time I brewed it I threw 8oz of cocoa powder and aged it on nibs for a while. It was amazing. So I brewed it again like that and threw it in a 10 gallon Whisky barrel. That was in August, so still waiting to try it!
I have played around with mixing yeasts, both intentionally and accidentally. I can't say I've discovered amazing things with it. I generally have experienced results that are compromises between clean and less clean strains, flocculant and less flocculant strains, and so forth.
