Broadening the Scope of Lagerbier with Fermentis SafLager™ E‑30

Good day, Lager enthusiasts. We come to you with news of a new lager yeast from our friends at Fermentis by Lesaffre, the world leader in yeast solutions.  

Meet Fermentis SafLager™ E‑30, an easy-to-use active dry yeast finetuned for creating crisp, aromatic lagers that lean slightly toward the estery end of the spectrum. Released in early 2024, SafLager™ E‑30 joins a vast yeast portfolio featuring several high-quality lager strains. Let’s run ‘em down: 

• Fermentis SafLager™ W-34/70 – A strong and robust lager yeast from Weihenstephan in Germany. Known the world over for producing clean, neutral beers. 

• Fermentis SafLager™ S-23 – Common to European commercial breweries and known for a long palate, S-23 was born in Berlin and shines bright in fruit-forward, hoppy lagers. 

• Fermentis SafLager™ S-189 – Originating from the Hürlimann brewery in Switzerland, this lager strain produces highly drinkable, neutral-flavored beers with noticeable herbal and floral notes. 

For those of you keeping score at home, that’s four lager strains – or four different paths you can take toward your next cold-conditioned bottom-fermented brew. If you’re curious about incorporating SafLager™ E‑30 in an upcoming recipe, we’ve rounded up some useful intel from several fermentation specialists.  

First up is Stéphane Meulemans, General Manager at Fermentis.

“We’re aiming for flavor diversification within saccharomyces pastorianus, with the intent to broaden the scope and range for lagerbier. We are addressing market trends and customer demand through research and development. We now offer E-30, which has more esters and fruit character than our other SafLager™ strains. In addition to E-30, we offer W-34/70, which is neutral and very robust. We also offer S-23 and S-189, which can both express a bit more floral character.”  

Next is Eduardo Liza Diaz, Technical Project Manager at Fermentis.

“There isn’t much genetic variability among saccharomyces pastorianus. It’s only been around 500 years, and as brewers, we don’t have that much difference among our lager strains. It can be a challenge to identify lager strains that perform differently or offer a different characteristic from other lager strains, but that’s what we set out to do. It took time, but we identified a bit of a gap on the estery side of lager strains and developed SafLager™ E-30 to fill that gap.” 

We also touched base with a familiar face – Olaf Morgenroth, Head Brewer at the Fermentis Academy. Here’s what he has to say about brewing with E-30, the new strain on the block.

“This is a lager strain developed to produce esters. It won’t produce esters at a high level like an ale strain would. At the same time, it’s not as neutral as 34-70. I believe E-30 will be successful in any lager where you’re looking for a slight expression of fruitiness, specifically isoamyl acetate, and you still want a crisp and clean profile. It actually reminds me of a very popular 5.5% ABV lager back home in South Africa. E-30 gives you an aromatic lager with a bit of complexity – a slightly elevated yeast character and a slightly rounder profile – but it’s still clean.” 

Last but not least, we met up with Brewer Jake Thompson from the Rahr Technical Center for a side-by-side tasting in Rahr’s storied corporate Stube. In one mug there was a Helles fermented with SafLager™ W-34/70. In the other mug there was another Helles fermented with SafLager™ E-30. Jake tells us what’s what below. 

“Basically we just did a comparison of 34/70 vs. E-30 for research. For our recipe, we started with 82% Rahr North Star Pils, 15% Rahr Pale, and 3% Rahr Dextrin. HVG German Hallertau Mittelfrüh at 60, 30, BKO. Double decoction. We split the wort stream into two 1.5 hl tanks and pitched different yeasts. Other than flavor contributions, the main difference with the E-30 Helles was a slightly drier finish and a significant pH reduction.” 

If brewing a crisp, flavorful lager with Fermentis SafLager™ E-30 is something you’d like to experience, please give your RahrBSG rep a ring. We’ve got your yeast!