Yeast for Imperial Amber

bilhelm96

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Last fall I made an Amber ale (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... army-amber) and used Wyeast 3787 - Trappist HG since I was re-picthing on the yeast cake to make a Mad Elf clone (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... oliday-ale). The beer was one of the best received beers I have made. I am making an Imperial version of it (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... army-amber) and am wondering if I should stick with Trappist HG or switch to a non-belgian yeast to reduce any fruity esters which might not go with the beer. My other go to yeast is Wyeast 1098 - British Ale.
 
Hey, if its the best beer you've brewed so far, why change it? i say stick with the yeast, honestly yeast character is the thing that is most often lacking from my other home brewer friends who use WLP001 and/or wyeast 1056. Go for it!
 
Decided to stick with Trappist HG. It's been in primary for a week and I took a sample today. Smells great and tastes good, and still fermenting. I held the beer at 65 for the first week which is the low end of the range for Trappist HG (64-78) to try and keep the fruitiness a little lower. Increasing the temp a degree per day until it gets to 70, then will hold it there until it finishes.
 
bilhelm96 said:
Last fall I made an Amber ale (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... army-amber) and used Wyeast 3787 - Trappist HG since I was re-picthing on the yeast cake to make a Mad Elf clone (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... oliday-ale). The beer was one of the best received beers I have made. I am making an Imperial version of it (http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/r ... army-amber) and am wondering if I should stick with Trappist HG or switch to a non-belgian yeast to reduce any fruity esters which might not go with the beer. My other go to yeast is Wyeast 1098 - British Ale.

The link to your original Amber recipe is showing a permission error, please make sure it is set to shared. I'm curious about it, thanks!
 
Yeast is a BIG contributor to flavor. If you're mostly happy with the beer, try tweaking the grain bill or the hops (one thing at a time!). But since the yeast is such a contributor to the flavor of a beer, don't mess with that unless something is very wrong.
 
Fermentation finally finished. It took 11 days for the yeast to drop from the top. Sample has a nice citrus aroma from and a slightly fruity taste up front. Calculating at 9.3% alcohol which is balanced by a smooth bitter finish. Going to wait about 9 more days before kegging and a week or so to carbonate.
 
So nine days turned to seven and I kegged today. Overshot my OG a little but hit my FG and got 78% attenuation from the TrappistHG yeast. Alcohol is about 9.5% and the final sample has a great cascade aroma, a slighty fruity mid palate, and smooth bitterness. The yeast was the right call and I will make this again.

While I call this beer an Imperial Amber, if I wanted to enter it into a competition I would add dry hops to it and call it an Imperial IPA.
 
Sounds delicious, thanks for posting the recipes.
 

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