Wyeast 2112 San Fran lager for beers OTHER than Cal Common?

[jimlin]

I've got a batch of california common beer (from BCS) that I'm about to move into a secondary. I had made a good sized starter (about 2L+) that I decanted and pitched into the Cal Common. Ferment took off quickly and vigorously for a few days and steady ever since.

Wondering what other styles I could possibly reuse this yeast with. I could work it so I could brew soon, and rack right onto the yeast cake left after I rack the Cal Common to the secondary. I've never done this before, and do worry about the other remains at the bottom of the carboy though I used all NBrewer hops and don't use hop sacks. I left as much of the sludge behind in the kettle as possible by using a racking cane to transfer the wort.

Thoughts?

I had considered just dumping/cleaning the yeast from the carboy and brewing a pale, but curious if there are styles I could try with the existing 2112. I don't have a fridge for fermentation. I basically kept the Cal Common at 60° by using a tub of water and the cold of the cement floor in our basement.

[spiderwrangler]

Since you're not able to keep lager ferment temps otherwise, might try using your San Fran to attempt a few other lager type styles and make your own hybrids...

[Hoser]

Baltic Porter per Gordon Strong

[BDawg]

+1 on Baltic Porter
Also, Irish Red would do well with this yeast.

Try a few American Ale recipes, like APA, Am. Brown, Cream Ale (gotta wash the yeast first), and IIPA.
Basically, any beer that relies on a clean, low ester yeast profile will do well when brewed with that yeast.

HTH-

[bikefoolery]

I make a simple blond ale with the San Fran lager yeast as well.

The Fool

[brewinhard]

A biere de garde would be interesting with this yeast too!

PS - if you don't feel like washing the yeast, you could just sanitize your lip of your carboy, and carefully pour 2 cups or so into a sanitized container and then just pitch that directly into your chilled batch of wort immediately. It will be just fine w/o rinsing (although rinsing will give you healthier yeast).

[Pharmbrewer]

I recently took a miabock grain bill and used NB hops at a cal common bitterness ratio. I fermented at 48F. The beer came out ok but I found that at that temp I still got quite a bit of fusel alcohols. I had fresh yeast and made a starter on a stir plate, however I only did one step on the starter so that could have been a result of not quite pitching enough yeast for a beer that big OG=1.072. In the end I concluded the beer would have been better using a german lager strain. Just my 0.2 on this particular Lager hybrid.

oh and +1 on the baltic porter

Prost!
Dan

[Fritz Eye]

I agree on the Baltic Porter. But if Porteers are not your bag, I also did an American Red using this yeast. Be careful on the hopping rates, this clean yeast really lets the IBUs come through, probably even more than Chico.