White Labs Yeast – 810 San Francisco Lager White Labs

I’ve used this strain a few times now. It’s the only lager strain I’ve used, so I can’t give any good comparisons. I included some of the numbers I recorded (below) as it was information I couldn’t really find when I started using it.

I really love this strain. It’s malt forward and I’ve won a handful of awards with it (the Cal Common placed first in category at the CO State Fair last year, and the Schwarzbier took second at the Heart of the Valley Oregon comp this year) and it makes super tasty beer. Attenuation is noted usually around 75% when mashing at 150 for a moderate strength beer. Since all beers were lagered (at 35-40F, between 21 days to 6 weeks), I can’t say much for flocculation.

The Cal Common went from 1.049 to 1.012. I let it sit for about 20 days (give or take) after pitching and then lagered. Fermented at 58F – the beer had a really nice subtle fruity ester profile. I don’t know if it was an isolated incident, but there was a noticeable vanilla character for a few days after bottle conditioning. It subsided quickly and tasted fantastic. Coworker of mine has stated multiple times now this is his favorite beer I’ve made. I have a second batch going now.

The Schwarzbier went from 1.056 to 1.013, and was ready to lager after about 20 to 25 days (mashed at 150, fermented at 50). This one was super malt driven (about 48% Dark Munich – tons of wonderful toasty bread), great body, and had a really clean ester profile. It also went over really well, too, and I hope to re-brew this soon.

The more recent beer I made with the strain was a Smoked Baltic Honey Porter. I mashed at 149, OG was 1.070 and this went to 1.023 at 50F (I believe I had lower attenuation because the malt bill was 75% Dark Munich (I love the stuff) and the wort had a higher starting gravity). I added two pounds of honey (probably too much) right when fermentation stopped and it took the gravity up to 1.044. It fermented back down to 1.023 (to my surprise, I thought I’d get an additional point or two in there from the honey) in under a week. Not my favorite beer, but that was more a recipe design thing.

I was worried about bottle conditioning a higher gravity beer with WLP810 and after emailing White Labs, I decided against it. I brought the beer up to ambient room temperature and pitched a little WLP001. I was a little worried that the 001 might take it down a few more points in the bottle so I did a little premptive re-yeasting. The gravity came down around 3 points and I bottled a few days later.

I’m not sure how WLP810 will do with a Pilsner as the strain tends to be so malt forward – though I still plan on experimenting with it on styles of beer that are more malt driven. I have a Biere de Garde lagering now. I brewed a simple (low gravity) Blonde with the strain and it ended up being super clean and easy drinking (mashed at 148 for approximately 80% attenuation). The Bock I made (148 mash, 78% attenuation), minus the high bitterness (whoops), is a great representation of that style.

Not a bad “house lager strain,” though I’d like to eventually get around to trying some of the German lager yeasts. If you don’t have refrigeration, I’m more than sure you can get away with a tub of water, a fan, a tshirt, and some ice, and still make an excellent Cal Common.

One of my favorite strains. Highly versatile and easy to work with.