2026 Release Preview
The wait is over! Preview the 2026 Private Collection release calendar by Wyeast Laboratories. Each quarter is curated to align with seasonality, iconic favorites, and trends developing across the industry.
This calendar highlights the significance of lagers in craft and homebrewing today, with freshly curated strains for the new year. You will see 2782-PC Staro Prague Lager, 2000-PC Budvar Lager, 2352-PC Munich Lager II, 2035-PC American Lager, and 2575-PC Kölsch II throughout the release. Get ready to brew with these specialty strains suited for nearly every style: Czech Premium Pale Lager, American Lager and Light Lager, International Pale, Amber, and Dark Lagers, German Helles Exportbier, Pre-Prohibition Lager, Munich Helles, Festbier, Helles Bock, Märzen, Dunkles Bock, Vienna Lager, Munich Dunkel, Schwarzbier, Doppelbock, Eisbock, Altbier, and Kölsch.
For American IPAs and high gravity ale brewing in the first quarter, brewers can look forward to 1087-PC Bohemian Ale Blend. Wyeast’s proprietary blend of our two best ale strain provides quick starts, good flavor, and good flocculation. Brew your next pale ale or big IPA, or Foreign Extra Stout, or Barleywine…This blend has been chosen for three decades for these heavyweight starting gravities.
Belgian Wheat and Witbier fans will see two favorites return in the spring and summer quarters: 3942-PC Belgian Wheat and 3463-PC Forbidden Fruit. Styles to brew include Belgian and White IPAs, Witbier, Belgian Pale Ale, and Tripel.
2026
1st Quarter: January–March
Species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae blend
Profile: This is a blend of the best ale strains to provide quick starts, good flavor, and good flocculation. The profile of these strains provides a balanced finish for British and American style ales.
History: An early blend developed by Wyeast, and first released in 1995.
Species: Saccharomyces pastorianus
Profile: This yeast will help create medium to full body lagers with moderate fruit and bready malt flavors. The balance is slightly toward malt sweetness and will benefit from additional hop bittering. A fantastic strain for producing classic Bohemian lagers.
History: With a geographic origin in Prague, Czech Republic, this strain was contributed to Wyeast by a pioneering Canadian brewery and released to the Wyeast Culture Collection in 2005.
2nd Quarter: April–June
Species: Saccharomyces pastorianus
Profile: The Budvar style strain has a nice malty nose with subtle fruit tones and a rich malt profile on the palate. It finishes malty but dry, well balanced, and crisp. Hop character comes through in the finish.
History: With a geographic origin of České Budějovice, Czechia, Wyeast released this strain in the 1990’s, though its complete story has yet to be revealed from our archive.
Species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Profile: This strain produces beers with moderate esters and minimal phenolics. Apple, bubblegum and plum-like aromas blend nicely with malt and hops. This strain will finish dry with a hint of tartness.
History: Isolated by Wyeast in 1994 from a colorfully-named beer from Esen, West Flanders, Belgium. This strain was added to the Wyeast Culture Collections the following year.
3rd Quarter: July–September
Species: Saccharomyces pastorianus
Profile: This strain is a low diacetyl and low sulfur aroma producer. An excellent choice for malt-driven lagers.
History: This lager strain was isolated by Wyeast from a brewery in Munich, Germany and added to the Private Culture Collection in the 2010s.
Species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Profile: A widely-used strain in the production of Witbier and Grand Cru. This yeast will produce spicy phenolics which are balanced nicely by a complex ester profile. The subtle fruit character and dry tart finish will complement wheat malt, orange peel and spice additions typical of Wits.
History: With a geographic origin of Hoegaarden, Belgium, this yeast was brought to Wyeast around 1995. Early archives mention “Celis Hoegaarden” and “sending yeast from [Pierre] Celis,” though the exact details of this strain’s story are still being uncovered.
4th Quarter: October–December
Species: Saccharomyces pastorianus
Profile: A complex and aromatic strain that can be used for a variety of lager beers. This strain is an excellent choice for Pre-Prohibition Lagers.
History: This historic August Schell lager yeast was submitted to Wyeast to isolate and maintain in 1987 by a pioneering microbrewery in Montana. By the following year the strain was renamed to 2035 American Lager and contributed to the Wyeast Culture Collection.
Species: Saccharomyces cerevisiae
Profile: This authentic Kölsch strain has a rich flavor profile which accentuates a soft malt finish. It has low or no detectable diacetyl production and will also ferment well at colder temperatures for fast lager type beers.
History: The strain known today as 2575 Kölsch II historically originates from the Versuchs- und Lehranstalt für Brauerei in Berlin, Germany. Wyeast’s earliest Kölsch strain to go by the number 2575 was submitted by Columbia River Brewing of Portland, Oregon in 1987 (later named BridgePort Brewing). While this yeast became commercially available to brewers for some time, it was succeeded by another authentic Kölsch yeast in the early 2000s. This strain was also contributed by an Oregon brewer, who isolated and identified its lineage to VLB when it became a part of our Culture Collection.
Retailers: If you miss out on a quarterly release, we recommend contacting our customer service team and we will see if we still have some of the previous quarter in inventory.