WLP004

I posted previously in beer recipes. I brewed a bigger than expected ale. Then worried about not having enough yeast power for it because of a small starter. Now the airlock is bubbling vigorously. I had my ferment chamber set to 64f. This morning the fermenter temp read 68f. Now in the evening it’s at 75f. Tried to lower but still not going down yet. Remind me, how terrible is it that I went out of range on the temps in the first day? Or just tell me a good story about how all is not lost here. Got the temp set to 40 now to try to pull it down and then I will have to find the right temp to set it at. I have had to lower temps before but never seen anything quite like this.

Wow, that’s a lot of heatup indeed.  Until I recently got my Tilt hydrometer, I never had the capability to measure heatup effectively, so I can’t say whether your experience is, or is not, normal.  My guess is that it is very normal, but I can’t say that for sure.  I believe it will turn out just fine.  I wouldn’t worry.  You started it out cool, that’s the important thing as far as I can tell.

Best of luck to you.

I’ve seen that kind of heat buildup in a vigorous fermentation many times.  Don’t worry.

Got it down to 71. Still trying to bring it down, brought it up from 40-60 overnight so it doesn’t accidentally freeze (though this doesn’t seem to be happening). Makes me think there’s potential for heating our homes with this stuff. A radiant heater with underfloor pipes filled with fermenting yeasts. Then the bi product brought up through a tap next to the bathroom sink. Okay, F it, going to bed now.

I’ve has issues such as this in the past.  In fact, I’ve resorted to wrapping the carboy with a wet towel to absorbe some heat.  The after effect was an excess of ester production, but the beer still okay.  I have since converted my Kegerator into a temperature controlled fermentation chamber.  I know, now I don’t have a useable kegerator.  But I do have a good reason to buy one!  :wink:

About 72 hrs. into ferm. Temps balanced out after the first 24 hrs. OG 1.086 and we are now down to 1.030 (my fastest beer ever! I’ve done a 5 day IPA before, but I’m even wondering if this thing was done yesterday at day 2).

Question: the only other beers that I’ve brewed as big as this one were all porters. I checked and they were all at or above a 1.030 FG and sweetness didn’t bother me in that style. This is a lighter in color, mildly hopped, red ale; if ferm. is done and I’m left with the 1.030 will that be very very sweet? Is attenuation the issue? Is it fermentables? Is it that the yeast can only do so much work? I’m wondering why my yeast won’t take the gravity down to a 1.012 for example.  Seems to never go so low with the bigger beers even though I do a starter. Is there some trick to this?

I didn’t plan for this beer to be so big (see above), but I would like a better understanding for future knowledge. Unless there is something to do at this point like make another starter and pitch, I will drink this one and be happy with it I’m sure.

Yeast only doing so much may be part of it sometimes.  But a more significant thing is this.  Your mash temperature, recipe, etc. will produce a wort with a certain ratio of fermentable and unfermentable sugars.  The bigger the beer, the more of both in sheer quantity.  So with a bigger beer, once all the fermentables are consumed, there’s still a larger amount of unfermentables left behind compared to a smaller beer.  So at the same degree of attenuation, you have a higher specific gravity. 1.086 down to 1.030 is 65% AA.  In a beer with an OG of 1.056 you’d be down to 1.019.  So you’re doing okay, and I bet it isn’t done yet.  Give it more time and see.

Still at 1.030. I’ve tried to rouse the yeast and bring up the temps. I am making a starter of US-05 and repitching. I can’t imagine that it’s unfermentable sugar in there (I’m mashing at 152) and I did begin with a starter. This happens too often for me. Another mystery.

That yeast, any crystal malt at all in the recipe, and mashing at 152°F, and 65% AA is dead on where I’d expect to finish.  Typical fermentation for a British yeast.  Remember, sugars (like maltotriose) that are fermentable for some yeasts are not fermentable for most  British and ale yeasts and their American descendants.

Here’s the recipe. Yes, there is some crystal in it. I should be at 1.022, says guy at the homebrew shop. I like Robert’s answer better and would much rather use this starter for my next project.

BIAB (beginning with 8.75 gal. filtered tap adding 4.1g gypsum, .9g chalk, 2.7ml lactic)

Water: cal. 62ppm, mag. 11ppm, sodium 48ppm, sulfate 114ppm, chloride 56ppm, bicarb 23ppm

Grain: 12lbs Marris, 5lbs German Munich, .75 CaraVien (Belgian 22), .5 Crystal 40, .5 French Kiln Coffee
(60 min mash @ 152f)

Hop Schedule: Jarrylo (single hop) – .5oz @60, .5oz@ 15, 2.5oz @whilrpool. (approximatly 38 IBU)

Yeast: WL Irish Ale w/ starter)

Looks like your guys are looking at the manufacturer’s info that says it can go to 74%.  But that’s the max they got in the lab with a wort made to be as fermentable as possible.  In the real world… different story.  I’d happily drink a pint of your beer.

If you were in the LA area and not Ohio I’d happily pour you one.  Thanks for the vote of confidence Robert.  I’ll let it go then a few more days and keg it.

After most of the ferment is done, gravity is pretty unchanged,  I put the keg in a warm room to see if there’s anything left. I got a 78f temp reading. Since the beer is pretty much done is there any harm in it for this project or any future projects?

I figured I’d try to heat things up a bit to try and shave off a point or two.

Kegged and poured this today. It needs some time to clear up in the keg but it turned out good. FG stayed at 1.030, but doesn’t taste too sweet. It’s sort of a brown color right now, hoping for more of a ruby color as it clears up. Question: can you get to red without using roasted barley? I used some crystal 40, CaraVien, and French Kiln Coffee, and thought that this would give me the right amount of color. SRM calculations from brewersfriend shows a red color.

As we discussed on your SRM thread, hue and SRM are two different things.  There was some very good stuff in the paper from Briess linked there.  But sometimes getting the exact appearance you want is just trial and error.

I brewed a batch using this yeast a few weeks ago. I mashed at 154F, with 2 lbs of caramel malts (C120, Caramunich, Special B) in a 13 lb grain bill. I got 78% attenuation (1.057 to 1.012). It did that in 3 days. I have had some extremely vigorous and fast fermentations with WLP004.

The thermal contact between beer in a carboy (or keg) and air is pretty poor, and can allow for a significant temperature rise in the middle of the beer. Immersing the carboy in water does a much better job of transferring heat out of the beer. I have done this and measured a temperature difference from center of beer to water bath of less than 1 degree F, and that was with one of those crazy WLP004 fermentations. More typical is 0.5 F at the peak of fermentation-generating heat. Another way is to use a cooling coil inside the liquid. Anvil now makes one for carboys for $99.99:
https://www.anvilbrewing.com/product-p/anv-cs-carb.htm

I haven’t used this, but am considering purchasing their coil alone ($20) and using it with my home-built cooling system.

UPDATE

So It’s April. This beer was rowdy all February and March. Hot, alcoholic, too sweet, then acrid tasting. It was also brown trub color with a dirty yellow snow colored head.

*A MONTH LATER it tastes fantastic. The Northern Brewer hops sparkle and shine. It tastes balanced and makes you want to drink more and more. It has also turned a bright ruby red color, crystal clear in the glass with a nice white head.

I said for a month that I was going to dump it. That I would never brew with french kiln coffee again, that I would never again use this WLP004. I was wrong.

That’s good to hear.  I’m brewing a stout this coming weekend with WLP004.  I’ll be watching to see if I get a fast fermentation as well.  I think I’ve used this yeast before, but it’s been years.

I used WLP004 recently on an Irish pale stout (just added much less roasted barley and dark roast) and I found that it became much more drinkable after a month, too.