Top-Fermenting Yeast: Examples & Popular Beers
If you’re looking for top-fermenting yeast examples, settle in. There are hundreds of strains to choose from and just as many, if not more, beer types to create. And it is likely some amazing brewery is out there crafting a new style as we speak. The next one could be you! So, what are we talking about when we enter a discussion on top-fermenting yeast?
Yeast and Beer
First, it is important to understand the role that yeast plays in beer. For 10,000 years, humans have been making beer, and even further back than that we have been making alcoholic beverages, though those early ones were typically made with wild honey.
Still, no matter the beverage, from mead to beer to wine, the most critical ingredient has always been yeast.
What happens in each of these cases, or in any case where a food or beverage is fermented, is that yeast is naturally attracted to the sugars in the food or drink, it gets in there, and it starts consuming the sugars for energy. The waste product, the result of this consumption, is alcohol and carbon dioxide.
So you see, mead, beer, wine, and even bread, don’t really need humans to add yeast to them to ferment. In fact, they never have.
Yeast is a living organism always on the hunt for the next sugary treat.
If you make a wort or a must or knead a dough and leave it out, yeast will find its way in.
That is exactly what happened for humans for thousands of years.
Someone would collect wild honey and mix it with water, grind grain and boil it in water, or crush grapes, and then leave the liquid out, exposed to the elements.
Yeast would find its way to the liquid, and within a matter of days, that yeast would not only consume the sugars in the liquid but also create a nice foamy cap on top to lock out oxygen, kill off any bad bacteria, and clean up after itself, mopping up most if not all off-flavors.
What Type of Yeast Is Top-Fermenting Yeast?
The type of yeast we are discussing here, the type that has been fermenting for thousands of years, since humans have been fermenting, is called Saccharomyces cerevisiae. There are hundreds of strains of S. cerevisiae, and commercial yeast vendors have categorized at least 400 of them for mass production and sale.
We call S. cerevisiae a top-fermenting yeast because you can see all of the activity during fermentation on the top of the liquid – that foamy cap, also called the krausen, is part of the top-fermenting process. Also, when fermentation is finished, the yeast will flocculate, or clump together, at the top of the vessel to be collected and either saved or discarded. Get our free guide on repitching yeast here: How to Reuse Beer Yeast: 3 Steps to Repitching Yeast Slurry
S. cerevisiae in the world of brewing is commonly referred to as ale yeast.
Ale is the type of beer we have been making since the beginning, and today, we only have one other major category of beer – lager.
Lager yeast, or Saccharomyces pastorianus, is a bottom-fermenting yeast, which means all of the activity, including yeast flocculation, takes place on the bottom of the fermentation vessel.
The other thing that makes ale yeast stand out, and the reason it was the first we encountered for fermentation, is that it can ferment in warm weather. Top-fermenting yeast will ferment between 60 degrees and 78 degrees Fahrenheit, perfect for fall fermentation right after the grain harvest.
It can also be served at warmer temperatures, which is when the subtle notes and flavors of the grain, the yeast, and the hops really come alive.
Lager yeast, in contrast, was not discovered until the 1400s, and only then because some monks in Bavaria thought to store their fermenting beer in cold caves. Lo and behold, they discovered a whole new yeast!
What Are the 5 Top-Fermented Beers?
So, now that you know that all beers are either ales or lagers, you know when you ask about the best top-fermented beers, you are asking about the best ales.
It is hard, obviously, to decide which are the best ales in the world of brewing, as there as so many, but we can say with ease that the most popular and most common ales are:
Brown Ale
Brown ale is the classic ale made from barley malt. The grain has been toasted to a dark color, and the beer is lightly hopped.
Mild Ale
A mild ale is best described as a brown ale that is lower in alcohol. This lower ABV is often because the grain is even darker, which removes even more sugar from the grain, due to a reduced enzymatic activity.
Pale Ale
Pale ale came along only recently, in the 1700s, when brewers in England toasted the grains with a high carbon fuel and a low smoke yield, making a lighter colored grain and therefore a lighter colored ale.
Stout
A stout beer, sometimes brewed with oats (in which case it will be called an oatmeal stout), is exceptionally dark with a roasted flavor and a creamy texture.
Wheat Beer
Finally, wheat beer is just what it sounds like. Typically, the wheat content makes up at least 60% of the grain, which can also be mixed with barley. The end result is a citrusy, light crisp ale with hints of clove.
Each of these ales is pretty distinct from the other, and within each category there is plenty of room to create subcategories with different blends of grain, hops, and even adjuncts like coffee, spices, or fruit.
In the end, working with top-fermenting yeast to determine which beers you want to craft can truly take a lifetime. But it will certainly be an enjoyable lifetime at that.
Cheers!
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