Beer Forum

We held a club competition earlier this year to see who could brew the best "Lite" American-style lager. So I grew up a vial of WLP840 in a 2-liter starter and pitched it in Jamil's "Anderstone Light" recipe. Followed Jamil's fermentation schedule and thought it came out just right. It even had a little of that green-apple character that Bud has. The other thing I noticed is that this yeast powered through the beer in around nine days and was ready to rack by two weeks. The other lager strains I've used, WLP830 and 833, have always needed three weeks. My initial guess was the short fermentation was due to the low gravity of the recipe.

However, I have since re-pitched into a Boh Pils (1.056) and a Dunkel (1.050) and experienced the same short fermentations. Terminal gravities are right where they should be and the beer is very clean and well-fermented. I may continue to use this yeast as my house lager strain as it allows me to turn over my lager fridge much faster. Anybody else have experience with this yeast?

Would anyone know how this would compare with Cry Havoc when making lagers? From what I understand, both would come from AB, just a few decades apart...

Thanks,
Alan

i don't have any experience with this yeast but am interested to hear others' results. it would make sense that the big breweries would use a yeast like that for quick turnaround, and if you are getting the character you want in the pils and dunkel it sounds like a great idea. want to try it now in my next lager...

I am planning on brewing this beer soon, however, I would like to use one of the available dry lager yeasts: Fermentis S-23 or S-3470. Has anyone used either of these to make this beer and if so could you offer any input as to how it turned out?