Author: Marshall Schott

It was over 2 years ago now I heard about a new dry yeast strain purported to ferment fast, clean, and drop clear quickly all while imparting some yeast character. Resembling many traits of the yeast I’d recently developed a love for, WLP090 San Diego Super Yeast, I was excited about the prospect of having a dry equivalent handy for those unplanned brew days, something that would produce a beer with more character than the all-too-convenient Safale US-05 strain. Back in February 2013, I split a 10 gallon batch of my Brown Ale and fermented half with BRY-97 while WLP002 English Ale Yeast was pitched into the other. You can read about all the details of that process and those (anecdotal) results over at HomeBrewTalk, suffice it to say the beers seemed to taste different to friends and me. The most poignant recollection I have about that experiment is how incredibly long it took for the BRY-97 batch to show signs of active fermentation, an observation validated by the experiences of many other homebrewers.

The following June, Rebel Brewer conducted a fantastic experiment where they compared 4 different American ale yeasts in a split-batch of the same Session IPA– WLP001 vs. Safale US-05 vs. Mangrove Jack’s M44 vs. Danstar BRY-97. Similar to my experiment, they noted the BRY-97 batch appeared to lag a bit longer than the others, showing only minimal signs of fermentation activity 24 hours post-pitch, at which point the other 3 were at high krausen. While fermentation lasted slightly longer on the BRY-97 batch, attenuation was noted to be similar to the other strains, reaching the same FG as both WLP001 and M44. Finally, it would appear the beer fermented with BRY-97 was the least enjoyed of the 4, with one taster noting diacetyl, while the US-05 fared much better. Read the blog post to see which yeast was the favorite!

As much as I appreciate side-by-side comparisons, I remained curious just how different BRY-97 really was from other popular clean fermenting strains, so I designed a proper xBmt comparing it to the ubiquitous Safale US-05.

| PURPOSE |

To evaluate the general distinguishability of 2 beers produced from a split-batch of the same wort and each fermented with a different yeast strain– Danstar BRY-97 and Safale US-05.

| METHODS |

What makes dry yeast so convenient to me, even more than the fact it usually costs slightly less than liquid varieties, is the fact it doesn’t require the making of a starter, which consequently makes spur-of-the-moment brew days more possible. That’s exactly what this was! I woke up real early one Sunday morning and couldn’t get back to sleep, so rather than lie around obsessing about it and fidgeting to the point of waking my wife, I threw together a very simple single-hop APA recipe (pic below) and was mashed-in within the hour. Thanks to BeerSmith, I hit my target mash temperature of 150°F on the nose where it remained throughout a 45 minute saccharification rest before being collected in my boil kettle where it met a FWH charge of Mosaic hops.

As the wort was boiling, I cleaned my MLT, got the yeast out of cold storage, and measured out the rest of the boil hops.

With the boil complete, I used my Hydra IC to rapidly chill the wort to my target fermentation temperature of 66°F.

Despite the results from the rehydration xBmt, I still choose to prepare my dry yeast in this manner because it’s super easy and provides me some sense of security I’m not murdering half the cells in the pack. Cheap insurance.

I’ve been having great success rehydrating for about 15 minutes in 75°F to 90°F… here it comes… tap water. Plain old, unsantized, non-boiled water straight from my kitchen faucet. If your water is shit, please don’t do this, it’s certainly not “best practice.” The US-05 slurry was a creamy white while the BRY-97 slurry looked much browner in comparison. They were pitched into their respective carboys that were sitting in my cool ferm chamber.

In my experience, dry yeast usually takes a bit more time to show signs of activity when compared to liquid yeasts, particularly when using a starter. This wasn’t the case at all for these beers, as the US-05 batch had developed a hearty krausen after only 8 hours.

Despite BRY-97’s reputation as being a very slow starter, that batch was kicking along just fine at 20 hours post-pitch.

By 36 hours into fermentation, the beers looked very similar.

High krausen for both seemed to occur right around the 3 day mark, with the BRY-97 batch fermenting with such vigor that it created a slight mess. This is when I ramped the temp to encourage complete attenuation.

I took an initial hydrometer reading at 6 days into fermentation, the point at which the krausen on each batch had completely dropped and airlocks were no longer bubbling.

A difference of about .001 SG, not too shabby. I let the beers sit another couple days before measuring the FG again, when it confirmed the first I proceeded to cold crash, fine with gelatin, and package.

They were carbonated and ready for sampling just a few days later. One difference was clear right off the get-go.

| RESULTS |

Over the span of 12 days, 15 people participated in this xBmt including BJCP provisional judges, a professional brewer, experienced homebrewers, and longtime craft beer nerds. Each taster was blindly served 3 samples, 2 fermented with US-05 and 1 fermented with BRY-97, then asked to select the one they believed was different from the others. While 9 (p<0.05) participants would have had to correctly identify the BRY-97 beer as being different to imply significance, only 6 were capable of doing so.

Following the initial triangle test, the nature of the xBmt was revealed to participants and they were asked to complete a second triangle test. The results were exactly the same, no one changed their mind.

Of the 6 participants who correctly identified the different sample in the first triangle test, 3 reported preferring the beer fermented with BRY-97, 2 preferred the US-05 beer, and 1 person apparently forgot to answer. When asked to identify the beer they believed was fermented with BRY-97, 3 chose correctly while the other 3 endorsed I have no clue.

My Impressions: When served these beers 4 times in opaque cups by friends who not only randomized their order but changed which beer was the odd-one-out, I was accurate a single time, less than what we might expect if my selection random chance. Did I notice a difference in flavor, aroma, or mouthfeel? Absolutely! At least when I was drinking from clear glasses that I served myself. And in these moments, my preference swung slightly toward the beer fermented with US-05… because it was prettier.

| DISCUSSION |

To me, yeast is one of the more interesting aspects of brewing, I’m always stoked to do these types of comparisons. While these results would suggest the distinguishable differences between US-05 and BRY-97 weren’t all that drastic, the truth of the matter is they were different.

There’s no denying it– the fact these beers were fermented with different yeasts made them different beers. This xBmt supports the idea that 2 notably clean dry ale yeasts, US-05 and BRY-97, have similar enough characteristics that many drinkers will likely be unable to distinguish 2 beers fermented with either strain. That’s it. It doesn’t prove they’re the same strain, it doesn’t prove they perform the same, it doesn’t prove anything. That being said…

Results like these leave me comfortable accepting I can probably get away with substitutions if, for example, my local shop sells one strain and not the other. Perhaps you’ve been dying to make a homebrew version of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale but the shop you frequent is out of US-05, I’ve absolutely no qualms recommending replacing it with BRY-97, chances are the resultant beer will turn out pretty damn similar.

I’m curious how others have experienced Danstar BRY-97 West Coast Ale yeast. Did you experience a nail-bitingly long lag? Was the attenuation what you expected? How did it compare to other yeasts you’ve used. Please share your thoughts in the comments section below. Cheers!

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