10 days fermenting and only at 1.040. OG of 1.065, pitched slurry from a 2 quart starter @ 65F. Fermentation was going well after 12 hours. Same wort with S-05 is at 1.012. What gives? Any insight? Denny? I roused the yeast tonight and will check in the morning.
not denny, but in my experience (12 or so batches using 1450) that yeast is a slow performer during 1st gen. When it was part of the Private Collection (2450) I had majorly slow fermentations (and just to clarify, yes, I pitched the right amount and aerated well).
Since its been part of the regular lineup, I’ve had some packs that were better in 1st gen than others, but its mostly the same result.
Hang tight - expect a full 3 week primary. But if you re-use the slurry, it will be awesome - all my subsequent pitches worked as fast as chico.
Cheers!
Thanks Paul. Never had an ale yeast take so long. First time for me, this is from a starter I made with slurry I got from Ron. I was surprised at how fast it took off, thought it would be done in a matter of days. I’ll sit on it. I’ve had an IPA that Ron made with it and liked it a lot.
I’ve gotta say, that’s pretty atypical even for the first gen. The last time I used it, first gen. got to about 80% attenuation in about 2 weeks. See what happens in a few more days.
Jim - one thing I forgot to ask you. Did you give the wort a healthy aeration? I have heard of this yeast slowing down in early generations but I think it will be fine. Check it in a couple of days.
Yes. I aerated it well as well. It was fermenting and had krausen within 12 hours and seemed to be going along fine for days, although not quite as active as the S-05 (which took 24 hours to get going). I’m at a loss, but will keep an eye on it. Maybe I will take some more slurry from you Ron and pitch some more in to get it to finish. I hate to give up on it, I liked the results you got with it.
Well, it has started up again. Nice layer of krausen, not real active. This is one of the stranger fermentations I’ve experienced. Let’s see what happens. 
RDWHAHB really works! 
Hello, everyone - I’ve been reading the AHA forum for a bit, but this is my first post.
I have a 1.060 hoppy red ale that is approaching 14 days in primary with a 1st gen pitch of 1450. (Actually, I propegated four mason jars from the smack pack, and made a starter from one of those jars for this batch. Is that still considered 1st gen?) I would normally bottle at about two weeks if gravity was stable and the beer was reasonably clear, but reading about 1450 on this board, it appears that a two-week primary would be out of the ordinary. Is that correct? My pitch of 1450 has flocculated pretty well, and the beer looks about what I want my red ale to look like. I thought I’d check in with you knowledgable folks to see if there was a compelling reason to give it another week.
For example, I read on another forum that it takes a month for the famous mouthfeel of 1450 to kick in. I’m unsure if that means a month in primary (WAY too long, I would think), or a month conditioning in bottles. I asked questions on that forum but got no replies. Can any of you with 1450 experience help me out?
Cheers -
Tony Perkins, Olympia WA
Have you checked the gravity?
I used 1450 for the first time two weeks ago on an APA. I made a 1L starter for my 5 gal batch. The OG was 1.052 and last night (after 14 days) it was down to 1.012, so I racked it to secondary and threw in my dry hops. (I used a secondary only because I am saving the yeast for another batch.) Fermentation temp was around 65F.
I hadn’t heard anything about possible long fermentations with this yeast until seeing this thread. This is good info to know, and I will be sure to keep a closer eye on this yeast in the future.
I rarely go less than 3 weeks in primary with any yeast, and 1450 is no exception.
I have not; sorry if that wasn’t clear.
I normally try not to mess with my beer until I think that bottling day is around the corner. At that point, I will check for stable gravity readings for 2-3 days, and if I get them, proceed as planned. If fermentation appears stuck at a high SG, or if gravity is slowly dropping, I would of course reassess my plan.
But once FG is reached with 1450 in X number of days, I wondered what other magic the yeast might work in the remaining 7 - 14 days. I will definitely give it a full 21 days if I need to.
Thanks for your replies.
Basically just dropping out and clearing. As to taking a month for the mouthfeel to develop…all I can say is that I know that yeast pretty well and I’ve never seen that.
Thanks, Denny!
Denny knows that yeast better than anyone as it’s his favorite.
My experience with this yeast has been good. I find that is not the most attenuative ale yeast (relatively speaking), therefore it renders some good mouthfeel to the finished beer. This also depends on your mash schedule and yeast health. I think Denny would agree with this but…I can’t speak for him.
As far as terminal gravity goes…I like to use the airlock activity, final gravity, and clarity of the beer as my indicators for determining the timing of the fermentation.