Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Share your experiences of using brewing yeast.
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gaunt_paul
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Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by gaunt_paul » Wed Apr 06, 2022 8:00 pm

Hello all,
I've been looking for a dry yeast that can produce characterful British styles, after using liquid yeast for years and wanting to take an occasional short cut. I brewed a best bitter a few weeks back using the Lalbrew "Verdant IPA" dry yeast, one sachet sprinkled straight on to 20 litres of wort at 1.041, fermented at 20c. It's done a pretty good job, the beer's really good, nice hop character but with a bit of what you need to hold a bitter together though can't quite put my finger on what the yeast has brought to the table yet.

Have any of you used this yeast? What are your experiences like so far? I'm even more interested if you've used it in beer that isn't a hazy IPA, though all comments very welcome indeed.

Cheers!

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Fr_Marc
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Re: Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by Fr_Marc » Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:30 pm

I brewed two beers with Verdant IPA yeast recently, an Irish Red Ale and a Stout. The Stout was pitched on the yeast cake of the Red Ale. Both beers were fermented without temperature control at 21C room temperature. The Irish Red Ale had an OG of 1.043 and finished 1.013FG, the Stout fermented from 1.051OG to 1.015FG.
The smell during fermentation was most enjoyable, the small basement room filled with a most delicate apricot aroma. I bottle conditioned.
Both beers dropped very bright, the Irish Red turned out crystal clear six weeks after botteling.
While I enjoy both brews very much and would brew them again in the future, I am still a little bit disappointed by the lack of yeast character in the finished product. The apricot aroma is all but gone. There is much less of a fruity character left then what I was hoping for. Perhaps I was expecting too much.
One final thought: The fruity/estery character is a little bit stronger in the Irish Red (which had the dry yeast sprinkled on) than in the Stout (which was fermented on the fresh yeast cake), so it might be true that you have to stress the yeast a little to get more character out of it.
I will be using Verdant IPA yeast again, but at the moment I enjoy the Ringwood Ale Yeast and the Fuller‘s yeast harvested from some bottles of 1845 better due to their fruity aroma.

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bitter_dave
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Re: Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by bitter_dave » Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:31 pm

I have seen some positive write-ups on another certain homebrew forum about using it to make Bitters etc. so interested to hear what people here think.

It has a very wide expected attenuation range according to the Malt Miller website at least (72-82%). What did you get Paul?

gaunt_paul
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Re: Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by gaunt_paul » Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:37 am

bitter_dave wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:31 pm
I have seen some positive write-ups on another certain homebrew forum about using it to make Bitters etc. so interested to hear what people here think.

It has a very wide expected attenuation range according to the Malt Miller website at least (72-82%). What did you get Paul?
My attentuation was on the lower end, I got 74% in the bitter and 70% in a dark mild which i haven't tapped yet. Both were mashed close to 70 degrees celsius to limit attenuation, so this may have been different if i'd mashed at a lower temperature

gaunt_paul
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Re: Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by gaunt_paul » Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:47 am

Fr_Marc wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:30 pm
I brewed two beers with Verdant IPA yeast recently, an Irish Red Ale and a Stout. The Stout was pitched on the yeast cake of the Red Ale. Both beers were fermented without temperature control at 21C room temperature. The Irish Red Ale had an OG of 1.043 and finished 1.013FG, the Stout fermented from 1.051OG to 1.015FG.
The smell during fermentation was most enjoyable, the small basement room filled with a most delicate apricot aroma. I bottle conditioned.
Both beers dropped very bright, the Irish Red turned out crystal clear six weeks after botteling.
While I enjoy both brews very much and would brew them again in the future, I am still a little bit disappointed by the lack of yeast character in the finished product. The apricot aroma is all but gone. There is much less of a fruity character left then what I was hoping for. Perhaps I was expecting too much.
One final thought: The fruity/estery character is a little bit stronger in the Irish Red (which had the dry yeast sprinkled on) than in the Stout (which was fermented on the fresh yeast cake), so it might be true that you have to stress the yeast a little to get more character out of it.
I will be using Verdant IPA yeast again, but at the moment I enjoy the Ringwood Ale Yeast and the Fuller‘s yeast harvested from some bottles of 1845 better due to their fruity aroma.
Thanks for sharing. It's very interesting to hear how this has worked out.
I can't say that I've picked up any apricot at all in my bitter, though there is a little something over and above a very clean beer. I do have to admit to being weary of tasting notes from manufacturers these days, as I've often been disappointed when expecting the reality to match. I noticed lallemand suggested apricot and have definitely tasted that in Verdant beers. I might try ramping the fermentation temperature up a bit higher in future to see what else comes through.

I'll be brewing on saturday if all goes well and have another sachet of this stuff to try out. Possibly another bitter with some Olicana hops this time

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bitter_dave
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Re: Lalbrew Verdant IPA dry yeast

Post by bitter_dave » Thu Apr 07, 2022 12:54 pm

gaunt_paul wrote:
Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:37 am
bitter_dave wrote:
Wed Apr 06, 2022 9:31 pm
I have seen some positive write-ups on another certain homebrew forum about using it to make Bitters etc. so interested to hear what people here think.

It has a very wide expected attenuation range according to the Malt Miller website at least (72-82%). What did you get Paul?
My attentuation was on the lower end, I got 74% in the bitter and 70% in a dark mild which i haven't tapped yet. Both were mashed close to 70 degrees celsius to limit attenuation, so this may have been different if i'd mashed at a lower temperature
That's useful to know, thanks.

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