So I brewed an IPA a few weeks ago using Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale. I’ve used this yeast before with no problems, it’s actually become one of my favorite IPA yeasts. This time, however, it is exhibiting some strange properties that I’ve not yet run into and could use some input. Normally this yeast has always flocculated very well, giving me a nice compact yeast cake to rack off of and dry hop. This time the whole bottom 1/4 of the carboy is a yeast smoothy and there are little islands of yeast floating on the surface, the beer is also cloudier than I would have expected. It hit my target FG on the nose, it doesn’t smell weird and it tastes great, I just need to convince the yeast to drop out! My fining options are limited as I will be serving this beer to some vegans, so no gelatin, isinglass, super kleer or polyclar. I could probably cold crash it, but that would require jockying some kegs around, my dispensing fridge is full at the moment.
Has anyone run into this behavior in the past? Any suggestions on how to handle it?
I think your best bet is cold crashing. A friend who used to brew with that yeast as a pro said they crashed cooled the beer as soon as it reached the desired final gravity, otherwise it would keep on attenuating until there was no body left.
Polyclar or one of the other PVCC finings would work (they’re plastic), but you’d need to filter afterwards. It’s possible you could also use bentonite (it’s powdered clay), but I’ve never used it for beer. It’s also my experience that it takes a long time to clear.
I’d go with jeffy’s advice and just cold crash it.
She didn’t give me a specific reason regarding polyclar, I described it to her and she said she’d like to avoid it if possible. She’s kind of a militant vegan, thankfully I am not! I’ll have to see if there’s a spare fridge anywhere that I can crash it in, mine is full of kegs right now. I’ve used bentonite for mead and wine before and you’re right, it takes a while. Thanks for the input folks!