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?
