I am pretty sure most of you have never heard of this Wyeast Ringwood Ale Yeast before, even if you are a seasoned brewer. Even Wyeast Asia doesn’t carry this particular type of yeast in Singapore, so I am sure it is not a popular yeast that a lot of people use. In the forums, most brewers had not heard of this yeast either, let alone use it for their beers. It got me a little curious as why is it no that popular. I mean, this is an ale yeast and making home brew ales is more common than making lagers, so a lot of brewers should have tried using this yeast, right? No, that’s not really true. One of the reasons could be that it is a produces a lot of fruity ester and for people so used to drinking lagers, it may not suit the general taste. Yes, that’s right, too much lagers and tiger beers, we are so used to tasteless beers that we can’t appreciate good beers anymore. And this yeast also produces a large amount of diacetyl which will taste buttery! Yucks! This would require some really good “diacetyl” rest which basically means aging at a slightly higher temperatures after finish fermenting. This will force the yeast to eat up the diacetyl and reduce the buttery taste in the beer.

But from what I read, it can also produce some very complex and malty flavours in the beer. So this should be a plus for the Ringwood Yeast. A lot of home brewers love to have such a taste profile in this beers and this beer is very flocculant and will definitely produce a very clear beer. This is also something which a lot of brewers also strive for - clear beer without much sediment. For me, I also like a clear beer. Just feel a little uneasy to see little sediments and small white stuff floating in my beer. And I am sure that a lot of my friends will also appreciate a clean clear beer than one that looks cloudy.

Anyway, I am using this yeast to make my Blue Mountain Lager. You may be surprised to see that I have used an Ale Yeast to do a lager. Well, that’s because in Singapore’s weather, it’s next to impossible to do a lager without any special equipment or fridge. So although the ingredients are for making lagers, the beer will be an ale. Not much problem there, as ale yeast can easily ferment and produce alcohol and nice beer with light malt extract and from lager malt extract. And it is a very powerful yeast. It finished the majority of the fermenting in just 36 hours! My airlock was bubbling happily and then it suddenly stopped somewhere the next evening!

Well, only time will tell whether the beer will be tasty or not. I really hope that it will be a good one for me and my friends to enjoy.