Home Distiller

I do all my work in the basement and most of the year it is below 70° and a good part of that is under 63°. When I have the woodstove burning I use bakers and have good luck with it. I mainly do a high rye Bourbon style and like spicy funk. I strip on the grain. And would rather not build a heated ferment cabinet. I'm not worried about speed but I want it to ferment. These are a few that I'm looking at:
WY1214
Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Belgian Abbey) - 1214
WY1007
Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (German Ale) - 1007
WY2565
Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Kolsch) - 2565
DY40
Dry Yeast - Nottingham Ale
DY25
Dry Yeast - Safale S-04
DY27
Dry Yeast - Safbrew S-33
WY1728
Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Scottish) - 1728
MCF
Michegan wild corn funk (Have a stalled ferment that I added it to to restart it)

Any body have any input?

How about Lalvin EC-1118? Ferments cleanly and will do its thing down to 60*f.
One of my two main choices besides baker's.

tp

T-Pee wrote:How about Lalvin EC-1118? Ferments cleanly and will do its thing down to 60*f.
One of my two main choices besides baker's.

tp

I thought about that one also but from what I read it is gonna be to "clean" tasting. But I'll keep it in mind.

S-04,05 gets my vote.

Even though my 05 finally petered out. Guess I abused it a little too much.

Belgian, but first make a starter to build up yeast cells. When you pitch the fermentation will warm itself up.

jedneck wrote:...These are a few that I'm looking at:

Some I've used (for beers)....

jedneck wrote:WY1214 Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Belgian Abbey) - 1214

I love this one for beer, especially a Trippel. But it gets estery if fermented in the 85-ish range. It produces a good malt flavor too. However, I don't think you can ferment it as low as 65 to 70*F....very, very slow attenuation at those temps.

jedneck wrote:WY1007 Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (German Ale) - 1007

I think this one is best. It is malty, yet clean tasting. Fermented in the 62 to 68*F range, it is low in esters and phenolics.

jedneck wrote:WY2565 Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Kolsch) - 2565

This one is "wine-like" with a somewhat "creamy" malt character. It has a delicate tasting malt flavor profile and can be tempermental with fermentation temperatures. You'll need plenty of time for attenuation with the Kolsch yeast too, as it isn't quite as flocculant as other choices.

jedneck wrote:DY40 Nottingham Ale
DY25 Dry Yeast - Safale S-04
DY27 Dry Yeast - Safbrew S-33

I have no experience with these.

jedneck wrote:WY1728 Yeast (Liquid) - Wyeast (Scottish) - 1728

I love this one for smokey scottish ales, especially a stron Scotch. It does produce some phenols and can make a lot of esters when fermented warmer. Cooler ferments tend to have less "fruitiness", however. It may work down between 65 to 70*F, although it will be slower. It is highly flocculant and usually settles very clear in the fermenter.

And one you don't list, but would also be ideal...WY2112 California Common (it may be the same as the Safale S-05). It is an ale yeast but it adapted to lager, so it starts well in the 70's and finishes clean and malty if fermented cooler. Although Wyeast claims it to be highly flocculant, for me it tends to be more "powdery" than flocculant. If you've got the time for it, I believe this to be a good choice too.

As you can tell, I like the liquid strains for beer fermenting and have used many of them over time. I have favorites for different styles of beers. And I have even used the WY2206 Bavarian lager yeast for an all malt whiskey. It turned out very good, but the cold fermentation takes a loooooooong time.
ss

Just a thought or two, Jed
Since your stripping on the grain, how fast the yeast clears after it's done, probably doesn't matter.
If I was fermenting in a cool basement. I'd want to give the yeast a running head start.
I'd use a big starter and pitch the yeast while the mash was warm.
And insulate the fermenter.
On the question of what yeast to use, remember your going to be stripping on the grain with the yeast still in it.
I'd pick the yeast that has a nice smell while it's being boiled

With bakers I usually pitch a 1/4 cup of bakers dry and cover at 90-95° and usually it finishes before temp drops to far and it stalls.I cover each fermenter with an old blanket to insulate. This is when it is 75°in my little corner.
Now that it is 54° bakers don't stand a chance. I have a 20 gallon cereal sugar head that stalled in 2 days with bakers.

I hear what your saying, bakers slows to a stop when the temps drop.
Maybe a yeast made for lager beer would do what you need

http://www.onebeer.net/yeaststrains_lager.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
http://www.onebeer.net/yeaststrains_ale.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow
Here is where I'm gettin my info. I just found the lager yeast page. I know that both don't have all yeast but its a start. I'm off to look at lager yeast

Just guessing, but having a lager yeast with high attenuation might be best.
For fermenting a mash or wash, I'd want a yeast that can consume all the available sugar

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yea ... erminology" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

shadylane wrote:Just guessing, but having a lager yeast with high attenuation might be best.
For fermenting a mash or wash, I'd want a yeast that can consume all the available sugar

http://howtobrew.com/book/section-1/yea ... erminology" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow

That's what my simple redneck brain is telling me.

Never underestimate a "simple redneck brain"
We can wash and rinse it with alcohol and reuse it.

shadylane wrote:Never underestimate a "simple redneck brain"
We can wash and rinse it with alcohol and reuse it.

Amen. I'm gonna start washin it right now.

jedneck wrote:

shadylane wrote:Never underestimate a "simple redneck brain"
We can wash and rinse it with alcohol and reuse it.

Amen. I'm gonna start washin it right now.

I'm done past the wash and rinse cycle.
Figure it's time to call it a night before the spin cycle begins

Jedneck when you figure out one that works well please let us know. I will be moving all ferments to the basement to be out of the way.. and its always cool down here.. So this will be perfect.. if you find a real winner. In the winter can hit mid to low 50's in the basement...

B

Bitter right now I am leaning towards a lager yeast. Still not sure which one .

Yeah I was doing the same.

B

I used two yeasts in my last one, pitched bakers from the get go and did a lager yeast starter at the same time.
Once it stalled I threw in the lager yeast to finish it.
the lager yeast took over at 1.015 and finished at 1.001.

Your choices are more limited below 65 degrees, but there are still quite a few beer yeasts that thrive and even prefer cooler temperatures.

In dry yeasts, Saflager 34/70 is a good choice, prefering temps under 60.
People report great results with Nottingham at lower temps, and it's a high attenuator.

Pretty much any of the Wyeast / White Labs lager strains will work for you. Some will produce a lot of sulfur odors while fermenting, and generally need to be brought up to temperatures above 60 or so for a few days after ferment to get rid of diacetyl. They all like a big starter though, so you'd need to spend some time ramping up the yeast quantity before pitching.

You mentioned 1007, German ale yeast. It produces a very nice clean product in the low 60's.

If you use the WYEAST strains, but make an active starter first, you can pitch with a higher cell count which will induce a faster, more vigorous fermentation. This will actually cause the temperature of the ferment itself to rise, meaning you don't have to worry too much about the temperature of your basement.

To insulate is the key. I used yoga mats to get them off the concrete. Wrapped in sleeping bags these AG, US-05 ferments hold 67 degrees in a room that is 50 degrees.

Jedneck,

Its 59-60F in my basement and I am fermenting a beer with Dry Yeast - Nottingham Ale .. its so active at that its foaming over!

The other thing I am trying is I had the spent grains from the brew so making a sugar head from them. I am using a 15g 5 day cooler and got the temp to 90F and pitched about 1/4 cup of bakers. Its going to hard the temp is upto 100F (Started it last night) so another obtion is ferment in a cooler as the yeast will produce ther own heat. I do believe I wil need some heat at later stages of the fementation for it to ferment dry though.. So aquarium heater is ready.

B

Nottingham is a beast at that temperature range and will ferment really clean.

At higher temperatures though (75+), it tends to throw some weird flavors, very phenolic.