[S. cerevisiae]

I prefer Bry 97 (Wyeast 1272 and White Labs WLP051) to Bry 96 (Wyeast 1056 and White Labs WLP001) as well. 

[chumley]

Ditto.  BRY 97 has become my go to yeast for IPAs.

[JKBREWINGJPKT]

Wyeast 1272 is Siebel Bry 97.   Wyeast 1056 is Siebel Bry 96 (which was originally a Ballantine strain).  Both strains are available in dry form.  US-05 is Bry 96.  Danstar Bry 97 is Siebel Bry 97.  Lallemand owns the Siebel Institute of Technology.   Bry 97 is a slow starter, but it produces a beautiful beer that is more malt forward than Bry 96.  If using dry Bry 97, it is important to pitch at least 1 gram per liter (i.e., two packages in a 5-gallon batch).

How slow is this known to start?  I made a 1L starter at 1.038 gravity with a stir plate from a Wyeast 1272 pack, had good krausen/foam/activity for about a day and kept it spinning for two days (because of a delay in brew day due to a unexpected schedule conflict) then crashed in fridge for about 6 hours.  Brewed a Pale Ale at 1.048 OG (that had a super stuck mash --at 154 degrees-- due to a lot of rye and not nearly enough rice hulls, leading to stirring the mash and a cloudy wort), decanted the starter and let it warm up a bit, pitched the yeast and have no bubbles in the blow off after 40 hours.  Did I screw up my yeast and/or wort somewhere along the way or will this take off an be ok?

[S. cerevisiae]

BRY 97 is slow to start, and the use of a stir plate did not improve the situation.  Stir plates can stress yeast cells.

[Al Hounos]

Good timing! Two days ago I brewed a pale ale with a smack pack of this (11L/3gal, 1.046, didn't feel a starter was totally necessary) and it was bubbling away slowly but steadily at 24hrs at 18C ambient.

Skimmed off the brown head and I'm going to top crop directly into an IPA I'm making today. (3gal, 1.060). First time using this yeast and first time top cropping, so I'm pretty excited. Will update in a few weeks!

[S. cerevisiae]

Skimmed off the brown head and I'm going to top crop directly into an IPA I'm making today. (3gal, 1.060). First time using this yeast and first time top cropping, so I'm pretty excited. Will update in a few weeks!

You need to make certain that you are skimming yeast and not just foam.   Foam contains very few yeast cells.

[hopshead]

I recently brewed with the White Labs version, WLP051.  Two weeks ago I made a shaken not stirred starter, and pitched it to an American Stout about 20 hours later.  I top cropped the yeast about 30 hours after pitch.  I will make another starter to go on that harvest and pitch an IPA that I will brew this weekend.  I am very excited to brew this IPA with the second generation of this yeast.  I haven't kegged the stout yet, but I am hopeful it will be great.

[Al Hounos]

Skimmed off the brown head and I'm going to top crop directly into an IPA I'm making today. (3gal, 1.060). First time using this yeast and first time top cropping, so I'm pretty excited. Will update in a few weeks!

You need to make certain that you are skimming yeast and not just foam.   Foam contains very few yeast cells.

I was worried about that, so I pulled about 300ml of liquid as well. Hopefully that will be sufficient.

[S. cerevisiae]

I top cropped the yeast about 30 hours after pitch.  I will make another starter to go on that harvest and pitch an IPA that I will brew this weekend.

How much thick slurry did you get obtain when the culture settled down?  If you cropped a little green beer with the yeast and you have at least 70 milliliters of slurry (preferably 100ml), you are good to go without making a starter.  Top-cropped yeast is basically all yeast after the brown head has been removed.  A milliliter of pure yeast contains upwards of 3 billion cells.

[hopshead]

I top cropped the yeast about 30 hours after pitch.  I will make another starter to go on that harvest and pitch an IPA that I will brew this weekend.

How much thick slurry did you get obtain when the culture settled down?  If you cropped a little green beer with the yeast and you have at least 70 milliliters of slurry (preferably 100ml), you are good to go without making a starter.  Top-cropped yeast is basically all yeast after the brown head has been removed.  A milliliter of pure yeast contains upwards of 3 billion cells.

I will take a picture of it when I get home and post here.  I measured the "crop" by weight and collected 71 grams then added a little bit (maybe a pint or so) of "green beer."  I let that ferment out for 4 days or so (probably too long, I just forgot about it) just so the yeast is stored under beer.  It has been sitting in my fridge for about a week now.  I bet that there is plenty of yeast for the next batch already in what was collected, but I am guessing that I need to wake up the yeast and get them eating at sugars in the starter just before I pitch the next batch. 

[denny]

Mark, could you define "slow starter"?  I haven't used 1272 in years but I don't recall it being any slower than anything else.  So I'm wondering if slow starts are normal for me.

[S. cerevisiae]

By that statement, I meant that the amount of time between pitching and signs of visible fermentation is usually longer than normal with Siebel BRY 97 (a.k.a. Wyeast 1272, White Labs WLP051, and Lallemand BRY 97).  The liquid cultures do not take as long to get going as the dry offering, but the strain does appear take its sweet old time getting up to speed.   I do not know if BRY 97 experiences a longer than normal lag phase or if the replication period is longer than other strains.  The old thing about BRY 97 is that fermentation is over fairly quickly after visible signs of fermentation appear, which leads me to believe that the strain loses viability faster than other strains.

[Delo]

I am more of a lurker than a poster.  I have used BR-97, East Coast Yeast version, on several Ballantine IPAs and Pale ales, and other beers.  Everything I have experienced has been what Mark has posted.  I have pitched it fairly fresh yeast in a low gravity pale ale without a starter and it was slow to take off, like over 24 hrs, but it came out fine. This yeast has become my yeast for ipas, but I prefer more malt taste in my beers or not as neutral as 1056.  Never had a tart or fruity tastes at ferm temps at lower 60s but  I did have a high fermentation temp issue once, in the 70s, and with the combo of hops the beer was a strawberry bomb.  It comes down to a preference thing and in a really hoppy west coast IPA you probably wont notice a difference.  BTW love bobs burgers. 

[denny]

By that statement, I meant that the amount of time between pitching and signs of visible fermentation is usually longer than normal with Siebel BRY 97 (a.k.a. Wyeast 1272, White Labs WLP051, and Lallemand BRY 97).  The liquid cultures do not take as long to get going as the dry offering, but the strain does appear take its sweet old time getting up to speed.   I do not know if BRY 97 experiences a longer than normal lag phase or if the replication period is longer than other strains.  The old thing about BRY 97 is that fermentation is over fairly quickly after visible signs of fermentation appear, which leads me to believe that the strain loses viability faster than other strains.

I guess what I was hoping for was more of a definition of long, short, and normal.

[S. cerevisiae]

The East Coast Yeast version is NRRL Y-7408.   Your experience confirms my belief that NRRL 7408 and BRY 97 are the same strain.  The $10,000 question is did G.W. Lange deposit the strains into both collections?  Or did Siebel acquire the strains from the NRRL?  My assumption is that BRY 96 had the lower accession number in the Ballantine collection because the strains appear in the same sequence in the Siebel and NRRL collections.  That ordering is not by chance.

NRRL Y-7407  (Siebel BRY 96)
  Accession numbers in other collections: Lange 2
  Isolated from (substrate): BR, Beer pitching yeast
  Substrate location: Ballantine Brewery, New Jersey, USA
  Comments: ID from 26S renal partial sequences.
 
NRRL Y-7408 (Siebel BRY 97)
  Accession numbers in other collections: Lange 4
  Isolated from (substrate): BR, Ale pitching yeast
  Substrate location: Ballantine Brewery, New Jersey, USA
  Comments: ID from 26S rDNA partial sequences