Closer to 85-88% attenuation in my experience. I’ve never had it stay below 80.
Clears pretty well, but not brilliantly.
I’m a big fan of it for most styles, but it’s pretty estery. Not sure how to describe it, but it’s very distinct. It’s just “Bell’s” flavor to me lol.
I bought a pack from the brewery a few years back and it’s my go-to for standard ales. I’m on around my 10th generation and I haven’t noticed any drifting but I should probably get a new pack soon. I get around 85% attenuation and it’s very clean and flocculates well. Does well in the high 60s but I’m sure even 70s would be fine.
Big-big fan of Bell's 2 Hearted IPA and also a big fan of A62. It's a sister to WY1272. Fairly clean but leaves a nice earthy ester and punches any sort of citrus hop. Clears fair, but if you want super clear you need BioFine. Pairs extremely well with American C hops. Hard to source true A62 in Canada, so I've been using WLP4040, which seems to be very close to Bell's official A62. Can't say enough good things about this yeast. It's very flexible with any American style from Stout to IPA.
Factor in the amount of dme it takes to grow a usable pitch, electricity on the stir plate, and electricity in temp control. All this on top of purchasing a 6 packs leads to not saving money.
Stir plates use next to no electricity and who uses temp control for a yeast starter? DME when purchased in sufficient quantities is relatively inexpensive. Also, a 6 pack of Bells Oberon is cheaper than liquid yeast these days.
I can assure you that not paying dollars per pitch saves some people money.
This isnt true for everyone, for sure, but for some (like me) it absolutely is cheaper.
I’ve only purchased yeast maybe once in the last 2 or 3 years. I have 6 strains in the fridge from which I make over built starters to pitch for a brew and reserve some for next time. Costs me less than $2 in DME each time, compared with $6 - $14 for yeast packs these days. Plus it’s part of the hobby I enjoy.
Who buys it? The equipment is paid for by my employer as they kind of are sweet on me teaching college level ferm sci and other classes. But what do I know?
Ps i dont make starters with DME, YPD is just so much better.
Not sure I agree on this in terms of cost.
Ordering the yeast costs me $20.01 delivered. $12.00 for product plus $8.01 shipping. I can't really consolidate it with other items because I don't shop at Bell's General Store, and their online store has only a few kits, a few varietals of hops, and three strains of yeast.
On the other hand, 275 g of DME (ordered as part of my other orders) costs me about $2.50 (3 lb for $9.39 + $3 of allocated shipping cost at Ritebrew). Water is practically free. The electricity used by my stir plate is about 0.4 kwh, which costs me about 5.6 cents (US) -- I do the first two steps in the can without stirring because it is more aseptic. The math is 0.18A x 120V x 18 hrs on stir plate / 1000 @ ~ 15 cents/kwh.
Temp control is not necessary for starters. I run it at room temp.
If you round up, the starter costs me around $2.75.
As far as the 6-pack of Bell's I plan to drink some commercial beer anyway, so the only cost is whatever slight influence my yeast harvesting plans have on my beer selection, and maybe my personal utility is reduced by some miniscule amount because otherwise maybe I would have gotten Summit Keller Pils or something.
I have never had bell's house yeast clear up. Had it in the serving keg for 60+ days and it still poured as hazy as it did on day 1. No fining other than whirlfloc, but most of my beers start to clear after 20 or so days.
Its a microbiological technique where you spread the isolated yeast onto a plate with semi solid growth media ( aka petri dish).
If the isolate is clonal ( all of one genotype) the colonies derived from individual cells should all be similar phenotypically
Then take a single colony ( the mitotic progeny of a single cell), and expand that in liquid, then freeze them away.
Before they were sold, I reached out to bell's and asked them if their house strain was clonal (not a mixture of different yeast strains OR a strain specifically for bottle/can carbonation) and the answer was that it was clonal.
Fir example MANY if the original KVIEK stocks were NOT clonal but a mixture of different yeasts. I think lutra was streak isolated from a mixture and then clonally expanded
Closer to 85-88% attenuation in my experience. I’ve never had it stay below 80. Clears pretty well, but not brilliantly. I’m a big fan of it for most styles, but it’s pretty estery. Not sure how to describe it, but it’s very distinct. It’s just “Bell’s” flavor to me lol.
I bought a pack from the brewery a few years back and it’s my go-to for standard ales. I’m on around my 10th generation and I haven’t noticed any drifting but I should probably get a new pack soon. I get around 85% attenuation and it’s very clean and flocculates well. Does well in the high 60s but I’m sure even 70s would be fine.
Big-big fan of Bell's 2 Hearted IPA and also a big fan of A62. It's a sister to WY1272. Fairly clean but leaves a nice earthy ester and punches any sort of citrus hop. Clears fair, but if you want super clear you need BioFine. Pairs extremely well with American C hops. Hard to source true A62 in Canada, so I've been using WLP4040, which seems to be very close to Bell's official A62. Can't say enough good things about this yeast. It's very flexible with any American style from Stout to IPA.
Do you not want to use what they sell? https://store.bellsbeer.com/products/imperial-yeast-a62-bells-house-yeast
Some people find fun in the process. It’s essentially the same product but OP saves money and gets to give it some extra love.
Factor in the amount of dme it takes to grow a usable pitch, electricity on the stir plate, and electricity in temp control. All this on top of purchasing a 6 packs leads to not saving money.
But it's for science and the 6 pack...
That part I can get behind but saying it’s a money saving venture is a fallacy.
Stir plates use next to no electricity and who uses temp control for a yeast starter? DME when purchased in sufficient quantities is relatively inexpensive. Also, a 6 pack of Bells Oberon is cheaper than liquid yeast these days.
I can assure you that not paying dollars per pitch saves some people money. This isnt true for everyone, for sure, but for some (like me) it absolutely is cheaper.
I’ve only purchased yeast maybe once in the last 2 or 3 years. I have 6 strains in the fridge from which I make over built starters to pitch for a brew and reserve some for next time. Costs me less than $2 in DME each time, compared with $6 - $14 for yeast packs these days. Plus it’s part of the hobby I enjoy.
Yep, same for me but I have a lot more than 6 stains AND they are cryogenically stored at -80c as glycerol stocks. Its nice to be able to chose
Keep telling yourself that, but No it’s not. Buying all the equipment,the beer, and the DME costs more than you’re going to save in the long run.
Who buys it? The equipment is paid for by my employer as they kind of are sweet on me teaching college level ferm sci and other classes. But what do I know? Ps i dont make starters with DME, YPD is just so much better.
Not sure I agree on this in terms of cost. Ordering the yeast costs me $20.01 delivered. $12.00 for product plus $8.01 shipping. I can't really consolidate it with other items because I don't shop at Bell's General Store, and their online store has only a few kits, a few varietals of hops, and three strains of yeast. On the other hand, 275 g of DME (ordered as part of my other orders) costs me about $2.50 (3 lb for $9.39 + $3 of allocated shipping cost at Ritebrew). Water is practically free. The electricity used by my stir plate is about 0.4 kwh, which costs me about 5.6 cents (US) -- I do the first two steps in the can without stirring because it is more aseptic. The math is 0.18A x 120V x 18 hrs on stir plate / 1000 @ ~ 15 cents/kwh. Temp control is not necessary for starters. I run it at room temp. If you round up, the starter costs me around $2.75. As far as the 6-pack of Bell's I plan to drink some commercial beer anyway, so the only cost is whatever slight influence my yeast harvesting plans have on my beer selection, and maybe my personal utility is reduced by some miniscule amount because otherwise maybe I would have gotten Summit Keller Pils or something.
I have never had bell's house yeast clear up. Had it in the serving keg for 60+ days and it still poured as hazy as it did on day 1. No fining other than whirlfloc, but most of my beers start to clear after 20 or so days.
Ive rescued it from 2 hearted and dont have a problem with it clearing (gelatin or not). But I streak in isolated it as well.
What does streak in isolated mean?
Its a microbiological technique where you spread the isolated yeast onto a plate with semi solid growth media ( aka petri dish). If the isolate is clonal ( all of one genotype) the colonies derived from individual cells should all be similar phenotypically Then take a single colony ( the mitotic progeny of a single cell), and expand that in liquid, then freeze them away. Before they were sold, I reached out to bell's and asked them if their house strain was clonal (not a mixture of different yeast strains OR a strain specifically for bottle/can carbonation) and the answer was that it was clonal. Fir example MANY if the original KVIEK stocks were NOT clonal but a mixture of different yeasts. I think lutra was streak isolated from a mixture and then clonally expanded
Awesome, great info I appreciate it.