Yeast question from a homebrewer's perspective

[seabass]

I've had great results using the French saison yeast. Pitching at 83f and maintaining it throughout makes an incredible single malt. I'm pretty sure it's the same strain that westland uses for their single malt. It's an unmistakable flavor that is wonderful in single malt. I think I also get the same yeast flavor in stranahans. It's very similar anyway. Quick turnaround without a single downside that I can find.

[vagabondmountainman]

Its a great yeast. I like the bourbon that it makes but haven't tried it in a single malt. I hadn't heard of Westland until now I'll have to check it out. It sounds like an amazing grainbill. It would be an interesting mash to try. Do you have a recipe recommendation or guess as to the percentages of each grain? If I was designing it somewhat like a beer I guess it would be somewhere in the neighborhood of 70%-80 2 row, 10-15 % Munich, and 2.5 to 5% each or so of the extra special, chocolate and brown malts.

[seabass]

That's a pretty good start I think. If I remember right, it was about 4% of extra special and chocolate. Maybe more like 10% brown. He went over most of his process in a single malt matters podcast. Lots of good info on there.

[seabass]

The chocolate and extra special come across pretty strong at 4% for me. I'm sure the way you distill it will change how strong those flavors come across as well. The new make is like chocolate toffee with a bit of the belgian profile. Still no idea how it'll be after a year or two.

[vagabondmountainman]

Thanks. I'll check out the podcast if I can find it, otherwise I'll go with your recommendations and try something like 70% pale 12 Munich, 10 brown, and 4 each of the chocolate and extra special. I bet this one would make a great split batch---half of the mash hopped and boiled as a Belgian Dubble, and half unhopped and fermented as distillers beer. I've distilled a couple Belgain Quads that were Westvleteren 12/St Bernadous ABT 12 clones and they made amazing whiskey where the toffee and plum notes came across. The second runnings of my stouts make really nice whiskeys as well. I'm really excited to try this grainbill. Thanks a lot for the idea.

[Yodaspike]

Hi all
So i was wondering, cant get anything except bakers yeast, thus was wondering can i just take a bottle of ipa beer and add some water and sugar to make a starter, or is it a bit more difficult?

[Expat]

Hi all
So i was wondering, cant get anything except bakers yeast, thus was wondering can i just take a bottle of ipa beer and add some water and sugar to make a starter, or is it a bit more difficult?

Unlikely, most beer is pasteurized (i.e. everything is killed) before its shipped. There are a few brands which don't do that, but they are rare.
Probably would work with wine.

[Yodaspike]

Found some ipa beers here, which is supposedly unfiltered and unpasteurized, so was hoping that it should be as easy as just adding it to 1lt water and say 200gr sugar, wait a day or 2, if it starts to bubble then i guess all good

[Saltbush Bill]

Coopers brand beer from South Australia has a yeast sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
I've heard it can be done using it.

[Saltbush Bill]

This may be of use to you.
There is much more out there if you google or look at the beer brewer forums.
I know you can use the Coopers with the red label as well......pretty sure its exported to quite a lot of countries.

[Yodaspike]

will see if i can find some and give it a go.
Will be good if i can, then get a nice big batch going with it and then take a few bottles to keep for future projects

[Yodaspike]

A well, found some cheap and proper brewers yeast, malt and hops, gonna make a few starters and beer next week

[MartinCash]

IMO if you're looking to produce a good drink and are starting out, there's a reason why you get pointed at Tried and True, and a reason why many of those recipes use baker's yeast: it works and generally makes a good product.

If you're at the stage of your distilling when you approach a batch with a particular flavour profile in mind before you start, knowing how to achieve it, then you're not going to be necessarily tied to a recipe and yeast strain selection will more than likely play a big role in the particular profile. Not saying it may not be bakers yeast if that's the profile you're chasing.

Definitely baker's yeasts are different strains. I have used 4 separate brands in making rum and cereal washes: Italian pizza yeast, Egyptian yeast (can't say much about it, label in Arabic) and two local strains. They performed similarly and all made good product. I could not tell the difference unless I tasted side-by-side and then there might even have been other factors at play, such as dunder use, and how old / infected it was, fermentation temperature, duration of fermentation, whether I clarified the molasses before & after fermentation, etc.

[Bubbles2]

Hi all
So i was wondering, cant get anything except bakers yeast, thus was wondering can i just take a bottle of ipa beer and add some water and sugar to make a starter, or is it a bit more difficult?

Internet order
If you live in a crazy country where it is illegal to Brew....( was not so long ago here) Have any friends abroad? However if Beer is available than ordering brewing yeast does not sound out of the pic.

[Yodaspike]

Normally getting these things here are easy, but because of covid, none of the shops has anything, was lucky to find what i did.
Either way, got brewers yeast, is going slow buy steady so cant wait to taste the beer, but will keep a few litres for future projects, beter than buying yeast all the time

[Sulaiman]

Reading through this topic I think that I see why there is some disagreement,
Some are considering vodka, where presumably most of the flavours are left in the pot,
So yeast strain is not too important.

Others are considering whisky, rum etc. type products where I'm sure yeast strain, temperature, pH, nutrient types etc. have a significant impact on the flavour of the final product.
(plus, of course, the skill of the brewer and distiller)