In Focus: Pacific Ale Yeast
WLP041 Pacific Ale Yeast
A popular ale yeast from the Pacific Northwest. The yeast will clear
from the beer well, and leave a malty profile. More fruity than
WLP002, English Ale Yeast. Good yeast for English style ales
including milds, bitters, IPA, porters, and English style stouts.
Attenuation: 65-70%
Flocculation: High
Optimum Fermentation Temperature: 65-68°F
Alcohol Tolerance: Medium
MiniFerment data:
What is MiniFerment? White Labs yeast strains were
tested using the same wort in its proprietary MiniFerment process.
The process simulates large-scale brewing. To
learn more about MiniFerment click here.
To learn more about understanding the data, click here.
GC Data not available for this strain
Final Gravity:
2.9 degrees Plato
Hours it takes to get to 50 percent attenuation: 48
Final attenuation: 76.2 percent
Reviews:
Write your own review
"I was apprehensive about using this
strain ... but ... "
By: Joe
Date: Oct. 19, 2011
Beers brewed: Amber
Comments: Made a 1 L starter, and it was going crazy after
stirring overnight. Added it to the wort and didn't show signs of
fermentation until after ~24 h. Not a very intense fermentation like
other yeasts (i.e. California or Edinburgh). I was a little worried
about the temperature, which was consistent between 64-66 F for 8
days. Checked gravity before secondary: 1.020 from OG of 1.058.
Smells and tastes like a PNW beer! I was apprehensive about using
this yeast after reading some reviews but I'm convinced now this is
a great, unique strain that I definitely plan on using again.
"It started slow, but ... "
By: Ken from Anaheim
Date: April 23, 2011
Beers brewed: Keller
Comments: I brewed a 10 gal. batch of Keller. It's my 5th in
a row with the same grain bill but different yeast strains. Keller
is an unfiltered beer of ale or lager
yeast adding no extremities to malt & hops. It's a simple beer of
maybe 5%. What I noticed is the yeast
responded fast, to a starter. It stared slow, but after two weeks it
finished. Be patient, 8 weeks w/ conditioning its a winner!
" ... not as forgiving ... "
By: Chris
Date: April 15, 2011
Beers brewed: Sierra Nevada Porter Clone
Comments: Used WLP041 since local supply store was out of
WLP001. This yeast is both excruciatingly slow to finish and
incredibly sensitive to temperature. Took 3-4 days to show any signs
of fermentation (pitched @ 70 degrees per instructions on vial, keep
ambient temperature @ 66). Temps in fermenter were pretty steady and
held between 68 and 70 degrees. Once fermentation started, took 7
days to complete; racked to secondary for another 7 days and
bottled. After four weeks in the bottle, overwhelming banana flavor
crushes the palate. Can only assume that fermenting temps were too
high, even though just a degree or two over the recommended temp for
this strain. Definitely not as forgiving as WLP001. Did get 69%
attenuation out of it, too bad the beer tastes bananas.
" ... thought I'd try a yeast I've
never used ... "
By: Keano
Date: March 31, 2011
Beers brewed: APA
Comments: Like many of you I thought I'd try a yeast I've
never used before and pitched some WLP041 into an APA. I made a
pretty healthy yeast starter and split the 1600ML starter between 10
gallons. Shortly after splitting my starter between the two batches
I wish I had tried separate yeasts for comparative purposes...too
late now. I had a very vigorous ferment within the first 24 hours.
The fermenters stayed around 68 for about a week and then went
to my basement to finish. A few weeks went by and I just kegged them
to realize they finished at 1033 with a 1066 OG. This is the first
time I've missed my final gravity by that much. I'm not sure if I
kegged too soon, but I would have thought that about a month in the
fermenter would have been sufficient to fully attenuate. Maybe this
particular yeast is a creeper...
"Ridiculously slow ... "
By: peavey_ray
Date: Jan. 9, 2011
Beers brewed: IPA
Comments: Ridiculously slow fermentation...I used a 1L
starter and the krazen developed within a few hours, but after 4
days the fermentation seemed to be complete (64F). After 7 days I
moved the beer to a secondary and the fermentation became active
again and developed another krazen.
" ... slow is an understatement ... "
By: anonymous
Date: Nov. 20, 2010
Beers brewed: IPA
Comments: To say this yeast is slow is an understatement. One
liter starter pitched and wort infused with oxygen. Started pretty
quickly. Starting gravity 1.060. After five days fermenting at 67F,
the gravity is 1.032. Beer tastes very good, but I won't be using it
again as it ferments at a snails pace.
"It ferments cleanly ... "
By: bruguru
Date: March 21, 2010
Beers brewed: American amber ale
Comments: My favorite yeast is wlp005, very malty, with
different levels of malty rich flavors. That being said wlp041 is no
wlp005. Ferments clean, almost too dry for an ESB, or anything
English. I make my ambers with the 005, and this just left them
lacking in flavors and complexity. Ferments well, and makes a very
nice beer, but do not use it if your going for classic ESB tastes.
Like all of the American yeasts, it ferments cleanly, accentuates
the hops, but I found it left the beer lacking in character.
"I look forward to ... "
By: Jason Osicka
Date: May 12, 2009
Beers brewed: APA
Comments: A fantastic yeast to brew an American Pale Ale. The
local home brew store said they haven't had anyone brew an APA with
this yeast yet. Well...the yeast leaves a nice malty profile in the
finish, not too much fruit and it cleared very well, just as
advertised. My results are spot on with Charlie E. Fort's except I
had no troubles fermenting between 64-68F (started out at 64 and
increased to 68 over 2 days). Although I did achieve an astounding
78.4% attenuation over 9 days, which agrees with Charlie Fort's
statement about a long fermentation. I pitched a 1900 mL starter and
was actively fermenting within 3 hours. Fermentation was so vigorous
that I had to use a blow-off tube instead of the trusty airlock. I
achieved 78% att by using an upward infusion mash, staring at 138F
and rising to 150F over 20 minutes. Hold at 150F for 70 minutes. I
look forward to using this yeast in a Brown Porter.
" ... my favorite yeast"
By: Charles E. Fort
Date: May 7, 2009
Beers brewed: APA
Comments: This has become my favorite yeast. I could tell it
was going to be good after tasting the beer that I decanted off of
the 1L starter. They always taste intensely estery since they
ferment at higher temps than recommended but this one was smooth and
somewhat good. After pitching the yeast I get about a 7 hour lag
time and then away it goes. I get one of the biggest krausens I've
ever had and it's very important to keep the fermentation
temperature at 65 degrees or your results will bee too estery. After
four days the fermentation will begin to slow down and you can allow
the temperature to creep up to 68 in order the beer to finish out as
completely as possible. It takes about 10 days for the primary
fermentation to complete which is a little longer that some of the
other more popular yeasts like WLP001. Once again, it's very
important to keep the fermentation at 65 degrees which means you
will want to use a refrigerator to control the temps for this yeast.
But the results are well worth it as this yeast has produced some of
the best APA's and Blond Ales that I have ever brewed. The results
are estery but not over powering. It has a smoothness to it which is
not normally associated with big estrery flavor profiles. I hope
White Labs keeps this one in the year-round line up.
"Bananas"
By: Brian
Date: April 24, 2009
Beers brewed: IPA
Comments: My IPA is still in primary, but it was time to take
a gravity reading after 5 days of fermentation. The
very first thing I thought was BANANAS! Why
does my beer taste like bananas? I've had this with a weizen yeast,
but it was totally unexpected with this. I have not used this yeast
before. Anyone else get this?
"Great malty IPA ... "
By: Tony V.
Date: Sunday, Feb. 11, 2006
Beers brewed: IPA
Comments: Great yeast! A little slow to attenuate for me, but
produced a great malty IPA with an intense fruity ester that went
well with Amarillo hops. I'm glad it's a year round strain now! I
want to try it in an English Bitter next time.
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