Does yeast have an impact on flavor?

[tmckenzie]

I have no earthly idea. On rye, and I am retty sure this is what happened when they tried making ldi rye in canada, if you run rye fresh off of fermetation which can be 24 hours, you get one flavor, a more melay malty flavor. Spice, like that in ldi comes from secondary fermetaion. Letting a yeast flor from the air form a cap on the mash.

[fricky]

I was skeptical about the taste imparted by the various Four Roses yeasts. I was fortunate enough to be invited to their tasting lab where I was given the opportunity to taste white dog produced from their various yeasts. Although I don't enjoy drinking white dog, there were significant differences.

[Beer&Bourbon]

I was skeptical about the taste imparted by the various Four Roses yeasts. I was fortunate enough to be invited to their tasting lab where I was given the opportunity to taste white dog produced from their various yeasts. Although I don't enjoy drinking white dog, there were significant differences.

That's certainly a much better experiment, but most of us don't get to try the 4R unaged variants against each other. Since I don't much care for white dog either, this would be a purely academic exercise (but one that I'd likely invest in with a group if they make the white dog available).

[Happyhour24x7]

I was lucky to be invited to an event with Dave Perkins from High West, and one of the cool,whiskey geek things he brought was some samples from their OMG rye. apparently, that whiskey is made from a blend of 3 different distillates, all with identical mashbills and distilling time; the only difference is they use three different yeasts. he brought us samples of each pure distillate, unaged, the only variable between them the yeast strain. I can tell you they was a staggering difference between the three. that drove it home to me that yeast was a far more important component than I had thought prior to that event.

[squire]

I always appreciate first hand impressions HH, your experience mirrors what I would have expected.

[HighInTheMtns]

I was lucky to be invited to an event with Dave Perkins from High West, and one of the cool,whiskey geek things he brought was some samples from their OMG rye. apparently, that whiskey is made from a blend of 3 different distillates, all with identical mashbills and distilling time; the only difference is they use three different yeasts. he brought us samples of each pure distillate, unaged, the only variable between them the yeast strain. I can tell you they was a staggering difference between the three. that drove it home to me that yeast was a far more important component than I had thought prior to that event.

Interesting to see that Jim Rutledge's influence on HW extends even to different yeast strains.