# Wlp 800 Pilsen Lager Yeast... Slow?



## mfdes (31/7/07)

I've used WLP800 Pilsen Lager in my last pilsner. As the yeast was nearing its use-by date I used, as usual, a 2L starter, stepped up from a 500mL starter. I pitched at 8 degrees C. Fermented 8-10 degrees. OG was 1.052.

I noticed the starter was a bit slow, but on pitching the lag phase was over 36h and almost three weeks on fermentation hasn't slowed down. I'd only used Wyeast 2007 Pilsen Lager before. I would have thought the yeasts from the two manufacturers to be roughly equivalent, if not necessarily similar in character. With the Wyeast I'd never had fermentations last more than a week and a half at this temperature.

Is it anybody else's experience that this yeast is really sluggish?

MFS


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## randyrob (31/7/07)

Heya mfdes,

currently having the exactly same thing happening with me,

2L starter of first gen wlp800 into 25L of 1053 OG Wort @ 10*c

4 weeks later and it's down to 1020 ready for a diacetyl rest

first time i have used this yeast, i'm sure others are fine with it

but i'm more used to my ales, one week in primary and drink!

Rob.


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## 3GumsBrewing (31/7/07)

Mmmmm. 
I pitched a WLP800 2L starter into 1056 wort at 10C and it fermented out in 2 weeks. It did start out slow, but i think that was due to me nearly freezing the beer with a wrongly configured temp control unit!
I then dumped another batch on top of the yeast cake and it has been bubbling like crazy for 4 days now.

DK


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## kabooby (31/7/07)

I also had a slow start. Gave the fermentor a twist to suspend the yeast after 48hrs and it was off and running the next day.

Kabooby


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## facter (31/7/07)

Well, mine took around about 5-6 weeks to actually ferment at around 10c


It was my first lager, I pitched 3 liters ... I thought I'd sone something really wrong.

At the end of the day, it was an awesome beer. Just yeah. ... it took bloody ages.


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## Josh (31/7/07)

I've found it pretty slow acting too. But I have come up with some really good beers with this yeast. My NSW Xmas in July case beer was a German Pils fermented with WLP800 pitched onto a yeast cake from the secondary fermenter. Still took a while to ferment at 10-12C.


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## matti (31/7/07)

yep, Slow it is.
Just aerate it to buggery and keep it at around 11 you can get it down to two weeks priot to racking.

A couple of degrees makes the dif.


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## Hargie (31/7/07)

...i pitched into 2 ferms...one at 8c , one at 11c...the one at 8c finished a week before the one at 11c....dunno why... fantastic Bo Pils yeast....tho' it throws a krausen like an ale yeast....


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## mfdes (2/8/07)

Hargie said:


> fantastic Bo Pils yeast....tho' it throws a krausen like an ale yeast....



Amazing how it does that... Mine looks like it's got brains floating on top. Even most ale yeasts I've used don't do that... Anyway, 3 weeks and down to 1.020... I'd say another week or two to go. The green beer tastes good, although it has lots of acetaldehyde still. I'll do a rest at ~15 degrees for a day or two once it's done fermenting and then lager it for a while.

MFS


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## DJR (10/9/19)

Massive gravedig here but worth mentioning. WLP800 has turned out to be sequenced and found to actually be a cerevisiae yeast, so it's an ale not a pastorianus/lager yeast. Probably explains why it's slow at lager temperatures compared with other lager yeast, and has that big top-fermenting style krausen...

source http://beer.suregork.com/?p=3919 and some other places.
From that page above plus some gene sequencing it's been shown to be an ale yeast. probably some kind of mixed strain originally used at PU, that cold adapted over time well enough to still be in use in the 90's when white labs grabbed that yeast.


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