I used a starter of 2 vials of wlp 060 San Diego Super Yeast, o2 injected, half gallon size starter, on a stir plate for 4 days. It is an 11 gal batch size at a controlled temperature of 66 degrees.
My OG was 1.074 and after 20 days it’s now only 1.026.
I thought this yeast was fast. Do you think I need to raise the temperature? Is it unreal to expect the FG to be around 1.016 ? Any thoughts>?
What does your grain bill look like? What was your mash temp? Both of these can affect final gravity.
used it a few times and it was both fast and attenuative. as ethalacker said, need to see the grainbill and mash temp - if it was a stout or something like that which includes a lot of specialty malts and or oatmeal, I could see that being the FG (1.026).
Here is my grain bill:
17.00 lb Golden Promise (2.0 SRM) Grain 55.28 %
5.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 16.26 %
4.75 lb Vienna Malt (3.5 SRM) Grain 15.45 %
2.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 6.50 %
1.00 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 3.25 %
1.00 lb White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 3.25 %
Mashed at 153 and got 78% brew house efficiency. Fly Sparge.
Are you using a refractometer or hydrometer to take your readings?
Also that is a fairly large amount of crystal malts, close to 10%. gonna leave a fair amount of unfermentables.
+1. A ton of unfermentables. I think it’s fermented all it can.
i disagree. 10% crystal malts isn’t what I’d consider a ton. I’d still expect him to get in the mid to high teens with that grain bill, OG and yeast combo. my porter uses 14% crystal malt and I still get 75-76% attenuation with chico. I think he may have gotten a FUBAR batch of yeast - happens sometimes - when Denny’s 50 first came out (when it was 2450 not 1450) it was a PITA to use.
I use a hydrometer. I don’t think 3# of crystal (9.75%) on a 30.75# grain bill is an excessive amount of unfermentables. There’s plenty of recipes that call for between 5-10# crystal malts. I wouldn’t go higher than 10%.
I was expecting 75-80% attenuation from this yeast which would give me 1.018 even with the crystal. This yeast has a high tolerance to alcohol, I’m at 6% ABV now. I just have my doubts after 20 days.
Do you have any tricks to get another 10 points out of it?
The grain bill is fine, 1.016 is not at all unattainable. The yeast starter of 2qts for 2 vials is inadequate- even if you got the yeast from white labs this morning. And 4 days on the stir plate, why? The temperature is fine also. How old was the yeast, one fermentor or two?
<The yeast starter of 2qts for 2 vials is inadequate- even if you got the yeast from white labs this morning. And 4 days on the stir plate, why? The temperature is fine also. How old was the yeast, one fermentor or two?>
I was going to decant and step it up but that didn’t happen. I thought 2 vials for 11 gal batch would be enough. No? I usually use one per 5 gal of Ale. Now lagers might use more.
The yeast was just purchased and I don’t think it was old. I use one large 15 gal stainless fermentor.
Get the yeast back in suspension by rocking the carboy gently. You might want to do this every day until it finishes.
Raise the temp of the fermenter.
I have also pitched an active starter into stalled fermentations, but I don’t know how effective this has been as it has been in conjunction with the above two steps.
Don’t expect to see a whole new kraesun form. Check the gravity after a couple days. If it is dropping, be patient and keep rousing the yeast.
A number of factors contribute to the amount of yeast needed. Production date, wort size and gravity are at the top of the list. You do need more lager yeast for a comparable ale. For your current batch 6 vials produced today would be adequate. You did make a starter which helped a bit but was still too small.
Mrmalty.com and yeastcalc.com are 2 great tools that I use.
Beano is something I have heard of people using to drop some points on a stopped fermentation, I have never tried it though.
Please do not use beano.
It will for sure drop a few extra points… then a few more… and a few more. Unless you heat it to denature the enzyme it’ll keep chewing through dextrins and long chain sugars until the are gone.
I didn’t mean to imply that 10% crystal was out of bounds. just a bit high. I agree it shouldn’t result in a 1.026.
I have heard mixed reviews of this yeast’s performance in general and one of the things was that it was slow and finicky.
kind of hard to rouse a 15 gallon fermenter though. can you push co2 through the bottom to kick the yeast back into suspension? either through the dump port if a conical or thorugh the ‘out’ tube if a corny?
I agree. Don’t use Beano. But If all else fails you could try Amylase Enzyme (the active ingredient in Beano). It could help break down some of the unfermantables so the yeast can consume them.
I too had trouble the San Diego yeast. I brewed 3 beers with it and couldn’t get any of them to finish below 1.020 - even though they should have.
I’ve raised the temp to 68-70 for the last 3 days and rousted the yeast 2X per day. I’m still getting bubbles from the blow off tube occasionally but the gravity is still 1.024. that’s pretty sugary.
Do you think it is worth trying to pitch a different yeast? or pitch a champagne yeast?
Perhaps. If you do so, though, I would pitch a large active starter.
I would recommend against this. I’ve never liked the flavor impact.
I’d pitch an active oxygenated starter, approx. 1L of WLP007. That should do the trick.
This method worked for me on 2 seperate occasions with WLP090 when I had a stuck ferment. This is part of the reason I don’t use this yeast anymore. Too finicky, inconsistent, and doesn’t always do what White Labs says it does. Plus, it will occasionally throw off some diacetyl. I believe I have seen Neva Parker for White Labs pretty much say the same thing, and that it generally requires twice as much oxygenation as most of their other strains.
I would not use beano or a champagne yeast.
I did take your suggestion and started a vial of wlp007 Dry English Ale yeast in one quart of starter on the stir plate for 24 hours. Then pitched and after 2 more days not one gravity point.
Does this yeast need more time or am I at terminal gravity now?
1.024 seems sweet for an APA. I’m not sure what to do at this point.
Beersmith says that my Apparent Attenuation is 66.0% and Real Attenuation is 53.2%