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Yeast Blending in Homebrew

As seen in my American Brown Ale and Cascade Pale Ale recipes (still to come), I combined two yeast strains into the same wort.  I had a couple reasons for doing this, primarily for my own curiosity. First, I have always been amazed at how well Safale-04 flocculates out. Getting clear beer is never an issue with S-04.  I also love the English flavor profile that it brings to the table for those styles of beers.  US-05 however, is a really clean flavor producer and is perfect for any American style ale.  However, it is a really crappy flocculator.  It takes some time for it to flocculate out completely.  It’s not impossible and a little cold storage will help it along.  So my primary reason to blend the two together was to see if the high flocculation of S-04 would also bind up the US-05 and pull both yeasts out at once.  Only time will tell…  I am expecting to get a slight diminished English character but not a completely clean American yeast character. But my main reason for the experiment was to test the flocculation cooperativity hypothesis.

My second reason for blending was that I only had one packet of either yeast type and they were both pushing their suggested expiration date.  In normal circumstances, I would have pitched two packets of the same dried yeast.  So I decided to use both as a good opportunity to try my flocculation experiment while still provided a high enough yeast cell count for the pitch.

Lastly, if by some weird luck I get a unique tasting combination with the two yeasts, I would maybe be on my way to developing a “house” strain of yeast.  I plan to collect and store some of the blended cake for future use in a mason jars.

Read more to find further insights into my yeast blending experiment.

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4 Comments

  1. Umberto

    Interesting experiment, did you make two separate starters or a single one with both strains?

  2. Well it was dry yeast so normally starters aren’t a good practice there. I just rehydrated the two packets in sterilized water together about 15 minutes prior to pitching.

  3. I start all before pitching; and actually have 4 yeasts going in a Dark Dandelion Ale right now, that also has varied sugars, and a citrus. Could take a long storage to see how it will balance out. Am hoping for a complex profile in the fairly heavy Brew, with residual yeast possibly capable of taking on varied conditions and sugars.

    Smells great, anyway…hope it comes thru well.

  4. Dustin Olsen

    Anyone experiment with an ale and lager yeast blends

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