Last night I moved the two batches of porter into kegs, giving me my first chance to taste the work of my two yeast strains -- Wyeast 1318 and 1882. Two fermenters filled with identical wort, each fermented with its own strain of yeast. How would they taste?

The 1882 Porter was very light in color, lighter than I expected. It didn't taste as sweet as its FG of 1.016, instead the roasty, nutty flavors of the brown and chocolate malt really came through. As the yeast description says, it produced a very crisp, dry beer.

The 1318 Porter was much darker. I'd heard that yeast could affect the beer's color, but this was my first time seeing that in action. Same FG as the 1882, but this beer tastes much sweeter. The roasty, nutty notes are still there but subdued and hidden behind the sweetness.

Now the beers begin a period of dry hopping followed by carbonation. Each keg will get the same hops and the same carbonation, so the only difference between the batches will be the yeast. I'll taste them again in about a month and see how they turned out.