Danstar dry yeast American West Coast BRY- 97

[Tilt]

I saw this new yeast the other day and decided to give it a go.

Danstar BRY-97

After looking up the American and Oz forums it looks like a possible sub for S05.  Comments said it was a bit slow to start and it could strip a bit of bitterness as it settles - but they say its clean and flocs and attentuates well.

My lot took 24hrs to kick off at 18 degrees in a 1052 beer.  Since then its gone spacko with a healthy 3-4inch  krasuen.  I've yet to taste or measure the ferment results 4 days in but alls looking good so far.

Does anyone else have experience with this yeast?

[Ralph]

No experience, but this thread over here does give a bunch of homebrewers opinions on it http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/anyone-try-bry-97-yet-333553/index...

Your experience so far seems consistent with most people in the thread above.

Nice to have another dry yeast in the selection though!

[Ralph]

Hmmm sounds like it acts a bit like the Nottingham they do, with a few less esters. This quote seems to sum up what many people found in big hoppy beers with it 

I logged on just to post about my IPA test I did with US-05 vs BRY-97 and I find this. I brewed 10 gallons of American IPA and put into two fermenters. I rehydrated one packet of US-05 and one of BRY-97, each with 150mL of 90F filtered water. I pitched at 75F and kept in a temperature controlled fridge at 64F. I checked again about 16 hours later and the US-05 had a nice, healthy 2" krausen. No activity on the BRY-97. I checked again 22 hours after pitching and the BRY-97 had a 2" krausen. Waited 1 week for primary to finish. Dry hopped for 2 weeks in secondary. Kegged and carbed for 2 days before tasting. 

Results:

The US-05 finishes with more bitternes. It also leave more hop flavor on your tongue. The aroma is clean with a slight hint of esters. The hop presence is definitely stronger than the BRY-97. 

The BRY-97 doesn't finish very bitter. Instead it brings out more of the maltiness and C-60 in the recipe. The aroma is very sweet (due to the C-60, I believe) but not very hoppy. The Crystal malt stays on the tongue more than the hops, so it doesn't really taste like an IPA overall. 

After tasting the difference, I can 100% say that I'm sticking with US-05. It was a fun experiment to try the West Coast strain, but it just killed my hop aroma and flavor. The beer I made with it was OK, but the US-05 had much more complexity. If I didn't know better, I would swear they are from different batches. 

Cheers,

Bruno

[Tilt]

Thanks Ralph - sounds like a good side by side comparison write up.  Have to say the pitch hot and ferment low isn't my preferred way of fermenting though - I pitched at 18 and kept it there for 72hours, now its on the slow rise to 21 over 5 days to finish off.  

Another US post I read suggested it was a dry form of Wyeast Pacman.  I've not used that either but maybe others here have?  Might be worth a head to head with that sometime. 

As you say though - good to have another dry option. As with any yeast it'll be good to know how to brew to its strengths.

[Tilt]

3 generations down the track with this yeast now (an NZPA, Porter and an American Brown) and I've got to say I like it as a decent dry yeast. 

For me the lag time hasn't been more than 24 hours and yep, it drags a bit of hop juice with it as it settles out - but it ferments clean and relatively fast, attenuates and flocs well and works well across a reasonable temp range. 

Best of all I don't get the peachy flavour and dusty yeast suspension of S05. 

From now on its taking a pozi in the fridge as the back up dry yeast for my clean ales.

[Ralph]

No peach and no US05 haze is a good thing. Just need to up the hop juice a bit by the sound of things?

[Tilt]

Thats about it - extra hops, always a good thing! 

[Crusader-Rob]

nice Write up Tilt. Might have to run some test brews myself.

As it strips out some of the hop flavour, would you has at a guess of how much more hopping you'd add to get the same or similar?

[Tilt]

Sipping on the most recent beer right now.  I increased the hops at all additions except the dry hop by 50%.  Its ended up a bit too much and out of balance so I'd go with a 20-30% increase on my standard recipe next time around.