Yeast affect on colour

[HighHops]

For my latest experiment I made up three starters 1 week ago - Worthington white shield, Hopback summer lightning and Youngs Kew gold. I made a 7 gallon batch of pale ale yesterday with 1/2 lager malt and 1/2 marris otter. I used 3 demi johns to make a gallon up on each starter and the remaining 4 gallon went in the FV with rehydrated packet of windsor.

Brewed on Sunday and all went to plan, but the strange thing is after 24 hours all the brews are very different in colour. I didn't know yeast selection affected the colour so much!

[Hogarth]

Sounds like an interesting experiment, HH. I might be wrong, but if the batches are different colours now it's probably because each has a different amount of yeast in suspension: the more there is, the lighter the wort. Once the yeast has dropped out, my guess would be they'll return to the same colour again. That's my prediction, anyway. Keep us posted!

[HighHops]

I think you're right. The hopback is the lightest and is still quite murky whereas the worthies and the youngs are dark but clear. Don't know how this ties in but the hopback krausen was not as big as the others and died off quite quick. The other two are still on a blow tube.

[Wolfy]

Brewed on Sunday and all went to plan, but the strange thing is after 24 hours all the brews are very different in colour. I didn't know yeast selection affected the colour so much!

I think what you are seeing is just the different behavior characteristics of the yeast.
There seems to be lots of Hopback yeast in suspension during the fermentation while most of the Young's yeast has either settled to the bottom or is floating in the Kräusen.
What will be most interesting (would be great if you can take some pics) is to see the result - and if there is any difference - after fermentation has finished and all the yeast has settled out.

[HighHops]

Will keep you posted!

[Garth]

interesting experiment HH, nice one.

[mysterio]

Really looking forward to hearing about the flavour differences between the two, take detailed notes!

[HighHops]

What will be most interesting (would be great if you can take some pics) is to see the result - and if there is any difference - after fermentation has finished and all the yeast has settled out.

Darker to lighter . . .



After 1 week in primary, racked off to secondary for 1 week. All the beers have cleared up nicely but the hopback is still the lightest and the Youngs is the darkest. Noticed that very little yeast carried over to secondary on the worthies, which is a shame cause I wanted to make 5 gallon of White shield up tomorrow. Not enough to pitch though, I'll make it in to a starter for next week.

Bottling tomorrow. So should be able to do the taste test in a couple a weeks. Bottled the main 4 gallon of windsor yeast today...

[Wolfy]

After 1 week in primary, racked off to secondary for 1 week. All the beers have cleared up nicely but the hopback is still the lightest and the Youngs is the darkest. Noticed that very little yeast carried over to secondary on the worthies, which is a shame cause I wanted to make 5 gallon of White shield up tomorrow. Not enough to pitch though, I'll make it in to a starter for next week.

Bottling tomorrow. So should be able to do the taste test in a couple a weeks.

Interesting.
Is it just the photo or does the Hopback still have an amount of suspended yeast?
The White Shield looks very bright already though, interesting that the Youngs seems to be noticeably darker.
(Do you usually re-pitch from the yeast in the secondary and not the primary?)

The last test is when you pour it into a glass, the brightness an colour then, so we'll need one more set of photos just to be sure.

[HighHops]

Just realised after reading another post on hopback summer lightning that I never posted the final results of this experiment.

So here goes. As Hogarth and Wolfy suggested all the beers were very similar in colour after bottling and the yeast had dropped out.

The hop schedule was a nice blend of English hops with bobek at the end of the boil.
Challenger 40g 60 mins
Fuggles 18g 20 mins
EKG 13g 10 min
Bobek 7g 10 min
Bobek 5g 5 mins

All of the beers were very nice, but very different. The Young's was my favourite which from my notes I described as having a strong honey-like flavour. The hopback was nice but dry, finishing at 1004. The others finished at 1011-1014. The Worthies was the frutiest and had a noticable cherry aftertaste, which was unusual but not unpleasant. I kept the worthies yeast going for another 3 brews and the cherry flavour just seemed to get stronger with each generation.

[Bobba]

V interesting post HighHops!
After taking the time to put the yeast from a summer lightning bottle on slant last night, I found this post today. Could it be that the hopback yeast is no longer the primary strain?

[HighHops]

Hi Bobba

It definately had a drier finish on the hop back SL. I've wondered about this as I've read that duvel is bottled with champagne yeast to get that extra dry finish (and a bit of extra ABV for your malt). HBSL could well be bottled with another yeast IMO because the brew I made wasn't as tasty/fruity as the SL I've had on draught or as the other yeasts I used in this experiment. Personally I wouldn't use recovered SL bottled yeast again even though it was a nice pint. It just wasn't as nice as the Young's yeast or the Worthies.. or the dried windsor yeast actually.