London Ale III | RVA 132 Manchester

It’s no secret that London Ale III (Wyeast 1318) has been a favorite among homebrewers for super juicy New England style IPAs. I can think of three possible reasons why the strain appears to work so well in these beers:

Seemingly natural ability to leave a soft and smooth mouthfeel (possibly higher glycerol production )

Both strains are advertised as high flocculating yeasts, which generally means the beer clears up as the yeast cells adhere to form flocs and either rise to the surface or drop to the bottom of the fermenter. However, strangely in the case of dry hopped NE style IPAs with these strains, they do not clear up at all. Some have reported these strains clear up just fine without dry hops. It’s possible this may have the added benefit of leaving

more hop oils in suspension along with the yeast as less of the yeast cells are striping the oils. It’s unclear to me so far as to why exactly these beers are so hazy after dry hopping. Flocculation is complicated processes affected by numerous parameters such as nutrient conditions, dissolved oxygen, pH, fermentation temperature, and yeast handling and storage conditions. Part of the haze may be coming from the higher level of chloride I’m incorporating to enhance the mouthfeel’s softeness, as higher chloride levels has been found to hinder yeast flocculation. In addition, the increased chloride levels is in part because high sulfate levels has been found to have a “clear negative correlation” to perceived hop flavors.

The lower attenuation you get with the strain seems to combine to do a few things like boost the perceived sweetness, increase the mouthfeel, and keep the beer from getting to dry, which in my opinion can increase the bitterness perception. Although I’ve had many beers finish rather high, but still come across dry on the palate.

London Ale III has always been rumored to stem from Boddington Brewery originally located in Manchester. Nicknamed (given by the brewery itself) in the 1990’s, “The Cream of Manchester,” there is a big clue that the brewery itself considered their beers to have an incredibly soft palate, thanks in large part to their yeast strain. But does London Ale III really stem from the Boddington strain? After all, why would it be called London Ale III if it’s from Manchester? I’m not good with geography, but I have Google Maps, and London and Manchester are about 200 miles away from each other!

RVA is a relatively new yeast lab located in Richmond, Virginia and one of their many strains happens to be (and this is exactly how they list it on their website) RVA 132 Manchester Ale (Boddington). Now that leaves no guessing, this strain is in fact a Boddington strain from Manchester!

The two strains sure seen to be pretty similar in terms of the commercial descriptions:

Wyeast 1318 | RVA 132

Flocculation: High | High

Attenuation: 71-75% | 70-75%

Suggested Fermentation Temperature: 64-74F | 65-72F

Alcohol Tolerance: 10% ABV | 10% ABV

I decided to do a side-by-side of the two strains and see for myself how they compare in a New England Style IPA. Keep in mind this isn’t a proper side-by-side, although the two beers shared the same mash, grist, and fermentation temperatures, I chose slightly different hops for the dry hops as well as allowed one of the beers to have a higher original gravity (I needed to brew two different beers for the National Homebrew Competition and I didn’t want 10 gallons of the same beer on tap). To do this, both beers were mashed together and ran off into two separate boil pots. One of the boil pots (the one I needed to be in IPA territory for purposes of the competition) I allowed more of the first runnings in, which of course raised the original gravity. I then allowed more of the sparge runnings into the second beer, which lowered its original gravity top pale ale territory.

The RVA Manchester Ale yeast went into the slightly lower gravity beer and was dry hopped with Amarillo and Citra and the London Ale III beer went into the slightly higher gravity beer and was dry hopped with Galaxy and Citra. Both beer’s turned out great (more specifics below), but the RVA yeast produced an incredibly flavorful beer that had a touch of vanilla that I’m quite certain is a yeast derived flavor/aroma. The London Ale III beer was great too, but there was a clear difference in the two strains which was easy to pickup on despite having different dry hops. I personally liked the RVA beer better, but the London Ale III beer placed 1st in the American IPA category advancing to the finals in this years American Homebrewers Association Competition in the Philadelphia judging center. Despite comments from the judges like “soupy clarity – excessive for hop haze” and “hazy” the beer won out in the mini-Best of Show round against likely clearer beers, which in part shows that this cloudier beer style does come with increased hop flavor. As this haze is truly a product of the NEIPA brewing process and yeast selection and not an intended end goal.

RVA Manchester Amarillo/Citra | London Ale III Galaxy/Citra