Yeast Comparison: The Competition

As mentioned before, my local home brew shop (Weekend Brewer http://www.weekendbrewer.com/) held a competition for the different beers brewed for the ClusterBrew. My dad and I brewed a Smoked Oatmeal Porter for the competition. He used English Yeast and I used California Common Yeast. I listed the details of the beer and the tasting results in different posts. The next step was the competition and here are the results! (For a more detailed listing go here https://www.facebook.com/weekend.brewer.3)

1st Place: The smoked porter with the Cal Common yeast actually won first place! The judges scored the beers in typical BJCP fashion with a 44/50. All judges agreed on a pleasant smoky character that was well-balanced with the other malts. They also mentioned a creamy texture from the oatmeal. The first place prize was a Blichmann floor burner and a $50 gift card to the Weekend Brewer.

The actual burner shown here has unistrut attached to the side of it. This add-on was not included.

3rd Place: The other smoked porter (with English yeast) actually tied with four other beers for third place. All judges a agreed the beer was well-balanced with a light smoke character and specialty malt. 3rd place prize was a $25 gift card to the Weekend Brewer.


After weighing all the results from the taste tests, and most notably, the Competition. I would say this yeast comparison experiment went pretty well. I would also say the base recipe for the smoked porter is a great one. If you wanted to have a really interesting yeast, then go with the WLP810 (Cal Common), but typical English yeast will work as well.

Special thanks to the Weekend Brewer for hosting the Cluster Brew event!!