(some yeasts, yes) can you mix different yeasts ?

[Drink It 2]

edited

guys, so my son asked me if different yeasts could be mixed together for fermenting, I thought I remember there was one brew that used mixed yeasts so I did a search and found the Mr B brew Novocain (

so the question remains, can you mix 2 different yeasts for fermenting ?

I then got thinking about my Mr B's Scottish Wee Heavy I will be doing in about a month, some say use the S-04 for a bready taste, and others say use the us-05 for a cleaner brew, what if the 2 were mixed, I was thinking 40% S-04 and 60% US-05, total of 6 grams for 2 gallons ?

Jim

[chronichaos 0]

that's a great question. I am curios to see what the borg has to say. :gulp:

[mashani 2]

I'd just use the S-04 in the wee heavy. It's a good yeast for that. It's clean for an English strain anyways.

S-05 won't make a wee heavy IMHO, they are supposed to have some yeast character, they are not supposed to be weak kneed american barleywine.

All that said, sure you can mix yeasts, but the typical reason for it is that you want the flavor of the initial yeast you pitch to be predominant, but you want more attenuation, so you pitch a different yeast that will ferment out more sugars after the first yeast stops working. You typically don't pitch them at the same time. That just leads to fights and it's hard to predict what you will get. EDIT: if you did pitch 2, and one of them was actually underpitched, it might surprise you and actually dominate the flavor depending on the strain. Like I said, your getting into "hard to predict" territory here.

IE regarding a good reason for example, I'm going to use Wyeast French Saison for my "Sorachi Saison", however if it doesn't dry out as much as I would like, I might hit it with some champaign yeast.

[bpgreen 209]

There are times when it makes sense to use different yeasts, but I think you want to have a plan for why you want to use two yeasts.

Using S-04 and US-05 together doesn't make a lot of sense to me. As you mentioned, S-04 is used to give a bready English ale characteristic to a beer and US-05 is used for a clean American ale flavor. So you're mixing a yeast that gives a clean finish with one that gives a bready finish. Do you want clean or bready?

[Gymrat 1]

I did a wee heavy with S 04. I wouldn't use any other yeast for it. It tasted identical to The Great Divide's Wee Heavy. One of the best beers I ever made.

[Drink It 2]

I will have to try to order the Great Divide's Wee Heavy, I have been drinking beer since 1978 and I have never seen or heard of a Wee Heavy until I found the Mr B site, but it sounds like something I would like so I bought 1 recipe,
many have said to use the S-04, I was just wondering if it would be too bready with only the S-04, so I asked,

anyhoo, I like asking these types of questions because they teach me a lot

thanks guys

Jim

[Drink It 2]

so the answer is yes, for at least S-04 and US-05, see my reply from Fermentist,

Dear Jim,

Yes you can mix both yeast.
Possibly decantation properties of Saf Ale S-O4 will not happen in the same efficiency than Saf Ale S-O4 alone.

Thanks for using Fermentis yeast.
Best regards.

Yves.

[Beer-lord 2]

I believe 04 is faster both at takeoff and in completing fermentation but it's probably not very much different that way than 05. I just used 04 in my Arrogant Bastard and it just about blew up but 2 days later, it's almost gone.

[willsr 0]

Yes, you can mix yeasts. All the yeast strains are the same organism. They don't attack each other and can live peacefully with each other within the constraints of the food supply. The different strains will contribute their proportion of character to the beer.

I think you don't see this very often commercially because you are basically relegating yourself to not re-using your yeast. The final yeast mixture is not the same as the initial yeast mixture because the yeast may propagate at different rates. If you were to re-use your yeast to make a second batch of the same beer, it would likely not taste the same because the yeast composition would contribute different flavor proportions than the first batch.

[Drink It 2]

I have been worried about getting tomuch of a Bready taste in my Wee Heavy with the S-04 alone, so when my son asked me about mixing I had a light pop on LOL

Jim

[mashani 2]

As has been said by folks, you will not get too much "bready" from S-04 in a wee heavy. It will taste more like a wee heavy is supposed to taste like if you use S-04.

Don't fear S-04. It is not a strong flavored yeast that will scream "I'M FREAKING ENGLISH!" in your beer. It's even nice in American IPAs.

[Drink It 2]

"mashani" It is not a strong flavored yeast that will scream "I'M FREAKING ENGLISH!"quote said:

:laugh:

you know this is a funny hobby, I find that just the thought of brewing a beer I wont like is actually scarier than brewing a beer I won't like

thank you !

Jim

[d3EP 0]

i know this wont help much but i had some jars with different yeasts, California 001, and the Pacman yeast. I used both in a batch and it was good. Tried the Denny's favorite once with a bit of left over pacman once and it was fine too. I think i like the beer i made with pacman the most, but denny's made a really good simcoe ipa. and cali was good too

good luck!

[mashani 2]

"Drink It" post=276435 said:

:laugh:

you know this is a funny hobby, I find that just the thought of brewing a beer I wont like is actually scarier than brewing a beer I won't like

thank you !

Jim

Really, there is no need to fear S-04 but mix it with S-05 if you want, I'm sure it would be fine. But if your afraid of S-04 then you don't even want to think about some of the yeasts I use LOL. They are like the :evil: when compared to S-04.

[frogmeat69 0]

"mashani" post=276508 said:

"Drink It" post=276435 said:

:laugh:

you know this is a funny hobby, I find that just the thought of brewing a beer I wont like is actually scarier than brewing a beer I won't like

thank you !

Jim

Really, there is no need to fear S-04 but mix it with S-05 if you want, I'm sure it would be fine. But if your afraid of S-04 then you don't even want to think about some of the yeasts I use LOL. They are like the :evil: when compared to S-04.

Mashani and his Satanic brews, he ferments them in a black cauldron and drinks them out of a human skull, all because of those damn belgian yeasts. That's why one of the most famous beers is named Duvel (devil in english).