WLP 013 London Ale and American hops

[pornstache]

I recently brewed an APA very similar to Jamil's (the version that uses victory instead of crystal) and had a ton of wlp 013 slurry on hand, so used that instead of the standard American ale yeast. It seems to have magically erased all traces of centennial and cascade aroma and flavor, has anyone else had this experience? Given that centennial and cascades aren't the easiest to come by these days I was less than thrilled, tho it is a nice clean beer. I dry hopped with a half ounce of each and the beer is now closer to what I wanted.

Otherwise I love the strain, it works amazingly quickly. I used it on a robust porter recently andI swear fermentation was done in 2 days or less. Attenuates well and doesn't seem to floc out prematurely. I'm curious to see what other's experiences are. Thanks!

[HopRunner]

I used 013 on a recent batch of Brown Ale with Willamette hops. It tasted great. I didn't hop it very high so the lack of strong hop flavor didn't register as a problem. I don't remember my calculated IBU's off the top of my head but the beer tasted appropriately hopped when it was done.

I'm sure that doesn't help much, I guess I'm just sayin' when I tasted the brown ale I didn't go, "Hey, where'd the hops go?".

[SacoDeToro]

That should work just fine. Avery Brewing uses the Wyeast London ale yeast (1028) as their house yeast, which is reportedly the same strain as WLP013.

[pornstache]

Ahhh, thanks for the Avery info. It's crazy stuff, ferments insanely quickly.
I think I'll split some 10 gallon batches w/ it and the plain 'ol cal ale yeast to see if I'm crazy or if it really does knock the edge off hop flavor/aroma..

[BrewerJ]

I have split batches of an over the top hoppy pale ale with both cal ale and wlp 002. The english version 002 was noticeably less hoppy than the the other half using cal ale. In my results 002 english yeast do tend to mask hop flavor and aroma but not the bitterness.