Verdant IPA

[nallum]

So what do home brewers think about Verdant IPA yeast? I've used it a few times now. Tried to work with it by repitching wet, but it just lacks basic qualities of a good English yeast strain. I find it actually incredibly one-dimensional with a really unbalanced 'peachy-vanilla' thing going on. It's a disaster for a traditional English ale, frankly. I can see how new-age hop heads like it, especially with all those dodgy American hops, but, quite frankly, I'm sure they'd be as happy pitching dried bread yeast. I don't think they could tell the bloody difference. I got interested when it was claimed to be 'an English cask yeast'. It does seem to carry on slowly beyond 'FG', but that's about it. Isn't it amazing what wankers in marketing can sell us, hook, line and sinker?

[Eric]

Verdant IPA yeast first came to my attention on an American forum, with several positive reviews, although more recently several who at first raved about it have reported findings like yourself. Initial advertising implied it was a renown product from a highly regarded brewery, but when researching the Verdant brewery, they appeared to be a relatively recent startup and accounts at Companies House suggested the company structure was top heavy and likely had big plans and expectations.


Murphy's Technical Data Sheet advises .....
LalBrew® Verdant IPA was specially selected in collaboration with Verdant Brewing Co. (UK)
for its ability to produce a variety of hop-forward and malty beers. Prominent notes of
apricot and undertones of tropical fruit and citrus merge seamlessly with hop aromas. With
medium-high attenuation, LalBrew® Verdant IPA leaves a soft and balanced malt profile with
slightly more body than a typical American IPA yeast strain. This highly versatile strain is well
suited for a variety of beer styles including NEIPA, English IPA, American Pale, English Bitter,
Sweet Stout and Sours.

This suggests it was aimed at the recent Craft Beer craze which, in my opinion, is currently in its death throws. I wonder what agreement there might be between LalBrew and Verdant, especially if the desire for tropical fruit beers continues to decline.

I haven't tried it for the reasons above.

[nallum]

That sounds about right, Eric. I read somewhere too that the brewery sample originally sent to Lallemand was multi strain/variant and only one isolate was propagated. I’ve used it 3-4 times over the last 18 months or so, out of curiosity or on a whim with no wet yeast to hand. I should have noted earlier that I’ve found it quite inconsistent in terms of attenuation direct from the pack, with attenuation (in comparable worts) ranging from 76-88%. Nor have I observed the ‘huge yeast head’ some have reported. I found it dense and not much more than 2” deep every time. It’s possible that it struggles to remain stable through the drying process. Perhaps Verdant have their supply banked and managed differently somewhere else.

On a positive note, it adds a little more confidence to my conclusion, after more than two years experimenting with dry yeast; dry brewer’s yeast ‘works’ depending on expectations but isn’t a substitute for wet yeast.

[Eric]

Yes, I've a feeling the strain didn't originate from an existing wet strain at the Verdant brewery, but more likely a dry strain development in need of an outlet aided by strong advertising. I don't know, but would bet that Verdant Brewery pitch dry yeast under an advantageous term contract with the manufacturer.

As you know, I mostly pitch live yeast from Brewlab slants plus a couple kindly given to me by yourself, although currently there are 30 litres of lager conditioning at -1C with another 30 litres due for brewing tomorrow, both from a dried version of S Pastorianus. It would seem that commonly available dried yeasts are likely bottom fermenting, and are not as effective as selected and regularly pitched wet yeast, the only problem to those being the need for significantly larger fermentation vessels to retain the yeast covering.