WLP009 Australian Ale Yeast

Started using this, on the recommendation of the local brew supply store, for the warm months here in Arizona where the only place in the house at 78 degrees was the few feet of hall in front of the thermostat, but it became the key component of our signature ale. Fermentations start frighteningly quickly and go aggressively but seems to take extra long to settle out.
After 10 days in the bottle, it mellows out. It's as good warm as cold. It's strongly flavored without being conspicuous (like an English ale or anything Flemish). It's most recognizably beer but it's chewy and malty rather than "clean". Drinking ale made with this yeast, you might wonder when it's from rather than where. I imagine it to taste like beer before it was heavily refined... even more like "pirate ale" than most homebrew, and it tastes that much less like what usually comes in a can.
I adore this yeast. When White Labs stopped stocking it, I spent days calling and searching before I tracked down nfghomebrew.com, who stocks it year-round. They half-joked, "White Labs makes it just for us". The reception to it in a pale ale from casual beer drinkers is always interesting, too -- it has a charisma where people who don't like anything but the blandest American lagers will sip it with interest. It's that likeability that really cemented it as our signature yeast -- it just became known as "that beer you guys brew" by our non-homebrewing friends as they asked for more.
(Editors Note: Any store can stock out-of-season platinum strains or discontinued strains if they order a minimum of 40 vials.)