yeast culture from two yeasts

[micromaniac]

what would be the results of mixing 50/50 in a bottle, two brews with different yeasts and culturing this yeast up at a later date.would this give a different strain or would the one yeast overpower the other.planing to bottle a sussex ,a devon and a mixture of both.

[trucker5774]

This has come up before...........I wish I had paid attention then I would know why it's not done!

[Wolfy]

If anything it will give you a mix of properties from both of the yeasts, you will not get a different strain, just a combination of both.
It's not an uncommon thing to do, sometimes a yeast is fermented with one yeast for its flavour profile and another is added to obtain the required attenuation.
Once the two yeasts have been mixed for some time (most likely for successive batches) you may find that one starts to dominate, but if its an even mix of both yeasts when pitched, they should both grow and perform much the same as each individual yeast would.

[boingy]

Of course, you could end up with the worst of both worlds. You could end up with dreadful flocculation and attenuation and a crap flavour profile. The only way to find out is to try it. I would also expect one to dominate the other fairly quickly, just because nature tends to work that way.

[Hogarth]

Adnams use two different yeasts. As Wolfy says, one strain comes to dominate over time, and they have to start again with a fresh mix.

[flytact]

BYO Magazine did a study on adding different yeast together and commenting on the results. I recall it was mostly adding dry to the "first" yeast. Just looked it up and the article is in the December '09 issue, which unfortunately is not online. I'll try to dig up the article and scan it for you.
In the meantime, here's something I found while digging on their website: http://www.byo.com/stories/article/indi ... l-together

[micromaniac]

thanks lads thats a no no then,when you think about it if it was so easy to do thier would millions of yeast strains out there

[Wolfy]

thanks lads thats a no no then,when you think about it if it was so easy to do thier would millions of yeast strains out there

Actually, I don't think that is true, as I said, you are not crossing two different strains to make a hybrid or a combination of the two, you are using two different strains that remain different through-out the process.

Brewlab sell at least 2 dual strain yeast slopes and probably have more if you ask them.
Some famous breweries have until recently or still do use dual-strain yeasts.

The reason that you don't see them so much is that they are much harder to maintain; selecting, propagating and growing a single strain is significantly easier than dealing with multiple strains, especially when the balance between the two strains is also important. Its for this reason (more than any other IMHO) that most commercial yeast suppliers sell yeast only in specific individual strains, and that most breweries find it easier to deal with only one strain.