What has been your experience with this yeast? I did a Brown Ale using it. It took off within just a few hours in a 1.056 wort at 68*F. It stopped as quickly as it started after 3 days and left me hanging at 1.020. I know the spec sheet says it is a low attenuator but that’s higher FG than I expected. I’ve done this same recipe with US-05 - this yeast developed a really different result in a lot of ways including taste. Live and learn - fun experiment.
I just used Windsor for the first time last month to make Pete’s Wicked Ale (the real recipe). Gravity went from 1.054 to 1.021 in 48 hours – no exaggeration. This is a VERY fast fermenting yeast, and very flocculant. And while the gravity seems very high for an ale, it tastes medium bodied and not at all thick/full. Just a very easy drinking, relatively low ABV beer. I really like it. It’s great where you want to brew a session ale with lots of flavor. I’ll be using it again.
How did it taste, though? From what I understand, the high FG from Windsor is because it can’t ferment maltotriose. Since maltotriose isn’t very sweet, a fully attenuated beer using Windsor shouldn’t be particularly sweet compared to a beer brewed with a more attenuative yeast that just stalled out at the same gravity.
Tastes just like a normal well attenuated English brown ale.
I used to use wndsor a lot and recall that on a couple of occassions I was very disappointed with th FG until I tasted the bottled beer and it didn’t taste underattenuated at all. At the time I thought that I always wanted a beer to be " drier" but I now realize that a fully attenuated beer with a rich mouthfeel is a good thing. Maybe its the difference between “dry” and " digestible"
The taste is good but very different than the same recipe with US-05: 1) The finished beer was not sweet like I expected from the higher FG. 2) It didn’t seem to accentuate the hop character as much as US-05. Which were both unexpected.
Yeah, it definitely depends on the style. You wouldn’t want a super dry English ale. A highly attenuated tripel is great, but a very low finishing gravity RIS is close to undrinkable.
Yea, good examples.
I just kegged an American IPA that I split into 3 fermenters and tried 3 different yeasts (US-05, Nottingham and Windsor). The Windsor definitely doesn’t attenuate as much as the other two. It also mutes the hop character. I won’t use Windsor for a hoppy beer again. I really like using Windsor for milds and other low gravity malty beers. It leaves more body and has a nice character that works well with those types of beer.
Cheers,
Brandon
I do not know if Windsor mutes hops as much as it leaves a lot of body with which the hops have to compete. Hop muting is usually a side effect of high flocculation, and Windsor is a non-flocculant strain. Windsor and Nottingham make for a good combo culture.
Seriously you need to write a book or start a YouTube channel. I have been struggling with getting the hop character and bitterness I want out of my IPAs. I have been exclusivley using 1968 for them. I finally decided to go with 1056 for my brew day next Saturday to see if that was it. Sounds like it may be.
Thank you for sharing your experience here.
If you haven’t read it, there is a lot of solid information in this book:
Windsor is one if my favorite yeasts to use. Love how fast and powerful a ferment it has.
So a warning, do not take an entire fully active and hungry yeast cake from the previous beer and dump a 1.100 stout wort on it. In just under an hour it was up and over the 8 gallon bucket and starting to fill up the ferment chamber! A sight to behold.
This was my experience too. I made a low gravity beer that finished literally in 48 hours. If you need to turn over a beer pretty fast, this is the way to do it. Grain to glass in 9 days. Flavor wise, it was okay. Just okay. Vaguely English, kind of woodsy, maybe a little earthy. I fermented at 66F I think. Attenuation was pretty low, so if I used it again I’d add at least 5% maybe 10% simple sugar to hit 70% AA.
Windsor yeast will attenuate further if you give it chance. The first 2-3 days are very vigorous and many people think it’s done.
You really need to give this yeast 10-14 days to completely attenuate.
Disagree. I gave my Windsor beer an extra ~10 days and nothing further happened.
I can only offer my experiences as I find; and a lot of people I’ve spoken to over here find the same.
I’m only talking about another 2-4 gravity points here mind.
I understand. Sorry if I come off as a bit of a jerk sometimes. I’m not too bad IRL. Cheers.
No offence taken Sir 8)
I’ve used it twice and both time it took several weeks for the yeast to fall out.
I like it better then S04 and do plan on using it again but I will definetly fine with geletin in the future.