Even as I’m writing this, I fully realize that writing a series on yeast is of particular interest to homebrewers. Nevertheless, I’m still hoping that numerous people will find this to be an interesting posting series.  Let me mention briefly how I arrived at the idea for this series, and then, contrary to what might seem to be the more diachronic option, I’ll explain what the series is going to be.

I’ve recently grown weary of my attempts to find anything out about some particular yeast strains. For instance, I recently tried to investigate wlp655 (White Lab’s Sour Mix).  White Lab basically repeats on their website the information that is on their tube, which is frustrating.  Almost every site that I searched pretty much quoted the White Lab site.  Don’t get me wrong, White Labs makes good yeast, but the functionality and resourcefulness of their website stinks.  As for their chart, I know that people might think that looking at it would be helpful.  Yet, even the information on that is fairly limited.

The other way to find out about the yeast performance is to search through a Cambridge University student’s doctoral dissertation on a particular yeast strain.  Believe me when I say that I know the research is invaluable to getting a better understand of yeast, beer, etc.  But sifting through that information to find out a respiration period of a yeast is time consuming.  I guess I’m simply grousing about the problem, right?  Wrong!

This is where this series comes in.  Here is what I plan to do from now on when I brew: I’m going to name the yeast and company that I’m using, how long it took until I started seeing fermentation, what sort of performance I got out of the yeast, and possibly mention the basic gravities and alcohol ranges within which I worked.  Of course, style and taste qualities will be included in my assessment.  In addition, methodology will be a part of the equation. Sorry, I probably won’t include most of the recipes (although I might occasionally include one).  I’ve gotten fed up with not being able to find this stuff in many places, so I’m doing something about it.

Am I an expert on yeast behavior?  No.  I’m just looking to help the reader know what happened in my case, get some feedback from them, and help others know what to expect.  I’m not going to write on something I’ve not used.  This will be a highly subjective understanding of what I’m seeing…but sometimes experience is the best teacher.

My greatest hope is that I can make someone else feel better about what and how their yeast is doing.

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