# WY1469 (West Yorkshire Ale): Massive krausen?



## AJ80 (4/2/13)

G'day all,

Am about to take the plunge for the first time with liquid yeast and have bought a pack of WY1469 - West Yorkshire Ale. Having had a quick search on the forum and google, this yeast seems to produce a pretty hefty krausen.

I'm looking at a 23L batch in a 30L fermentor. My question is whether this is enough head space to contain the krausen or should I hook up a blow off tube (something I've not done before)?

Here's the recipe if it helps:

2.8kg Light DME
113g chocololate malt (steeped 30mins at 68C)
41g Willamette @ 60 mins
35g Fuggles @ 60 mins
20g goldings @ 15 mins
WY1469

I'll be doing a 10L boil and topping up to 23L with cool water.

Cheers,

AJ


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## Bribie G (4/2/13)

You will get a healthy cauliflower head with this yeast but nothing dramatic - I've never had a gusher with it. Being an old Yorkshire "Stone Square" yeast it does best at lower temperatures, they would always ferment a couple of degrees cooler than the Southern breweries which give Yorkshire bitters a lot of their character. I'd normally ferment it at around 17 degrees for a few days then let it rise to around 20 to finish off. Recipe looks nice for a good nutty ale.


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## Byran (4/2/13)

Funny mate,
I posted up on the forum last year about a brew I had goin with this stuff it went berko and was hemeraging yeast from 19 litres in a 30 litre fermenter.
So i guess 1/3rd head space was not enough..........strong is the word.


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## goomboogo (4/2/13)

AJ, what is your planned fermentation temperature? My experiences with 1469 are similar to what Bribie G has experienced. I usually ferment at 18c allowing it to rise to 20/21 after a few days. Keeping the temperature on the lower end of it's range early in the ferment should help avoid a krausen explosion.


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## AJ80 (4/2/13)

Thanks for the responses and advice - appreciate it.

Goomboogo - I'll be looking at 18-20 degrees for the ferment. Stuck with a water bath/wet towel/ice set up, but achieve this temp range pretty consistently. I'll keep an eye on the weather forecast which should help further.

Really looking forward to getting this brew on the go!

AJ


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## rotten (4/2/13)

She's a beast alright. You will find it won't want to drop out at normal temps. Keep an eye on the FG after 4-5 days maybe and cold chill for a while.if you can.


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## AJ80 (4/2/13)

Another quick question - do I need to do a starter with this yeast (again, another thing I've not done yet) or just give it a smack and pitch once it has swelled up?

Cheers,

AJ


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## Adam Howard (4/2/13)

Depends on your starting gravity and how old the pack is. If it's pretty fresh and you're gravity is 1.050 or under you can get away with just pitching a fully swelled pack.


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## AJ80 (4/2/13)

Adamski29 said:


> Depends on your starting gravity and how old the pack is. If it's pretty fresh and you're gravity is 1.050 or under you can get away with just pitching a fully swelled pack.


Thanks for the response. Looking at a gravity at around 1.050 and yeast was manufactured on 3 December 2012 - I assume this is still fresh?


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## Muscovy_333 (4/2/13)

23 litres in a 30 litre fermenter at 18 degrees. Mine climbed out of the fermenter.
Once it settled I cleaned up pulled the airlock, flushed with hot water and plonked it back in.
Produced my best beer to date.


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## stux (5/2/13)

2 months old is not fresh 

Very hard to get fresh wyeast in Australia, so you should always plan on a starter

Mr malty places the viability at 50%, so make s 2L starter and aerate as best you can as often as you can

http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html


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## Bribie G (5/2/13)

I just smacked a pack of Wyeast Danish Lager Mfg November, swelled in 2 days. I'd recommend a starter in about 1040 wort, just 36 hours will make a big diff.


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## Byran (5/2/13)

I think generally you should make a 2 litre starter for any ale yeast you are going to pitch , unless its fresh yeast from a current batch. You cant really have too much yeast in a brew , within reason.This will ensure healthy yeast and maximum yeast viability so you wont have to worry about yeast issues when fermenting a batch.
Lager is another story all together.


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## AJ80 (5/2/13)

Cheers guys, appreciate the advice. I shall get searching on how to create a starter...

AJ


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## mckenry (21/2/13)

Here is a pic of my 1469 yeast starter. According to yeastcalc.com this yeast had a viablility of just 1% - not a typo - 1%
It has been in my fridge for just on a year. My method of starters these days is to split a new wyeast and make a starter from 'new / fresh' each time.
Decided to knock out an English Bitter as the weather is cooling down.
So, with 1% viability, I started with 1.25L, then a 2.5L, and now a 3.25L to get me enough cells to ferment 50L @ 1.048
Its a beautiful yeast and a sound method for keeping all yeast. I never hesitate buying the yeast I want, even if the BBD has past. Sometimes you get lucky and get a discount


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## Byran (27/2/13)

mckenry said:


> Here is a pic of my 1469 yeast starter. According to yeastcalc.com this yeast had a viablility of just 1% - not a typo - 1%
> It has been in my fridge for just on a year. My method of starters these days is to split a new wyeast and make a starter from 'new / fresh' each time.
> Decided to knock out an English Bitter as the weather is cooling down.
> So, with 1% viability, I started with 1.25L, then a 2.5L, and now a 3.25L to get me enough cells to ferment 50L @ 1.048
> ...


Not much Krauzen there mate....Only 50% :lol:


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## Maxt (4/12/13)

OH my gawd.... Just brewing a TTL clone using the west Yorky. The beer had a sedate head 2 days ago. Today I am cleaning yeast off the side of the fermentor that is unlike anything I have ever seen ( and as a hefe brewer I have had my share of blow offs). I collected a solid chunk of yeast somewhere between golf and tennis ball size. Same consistency as putty.


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## black_labb (4/12/13)

I'd be doing a starter using some of your DME. Most people do starters in separate vessels but there is nothing wrong with doing 1L of wort with 100g of DME and the yeast, adding another 4L with 400g of DME and then adding the rest of the ingredients and water leaving the yeast to kick off between each step. Doing it all in the fermenter saves cleaning multiple times or mucking about with trying to seperate the yeast from the wort.

The concept of yeast starters is overcomplicated in many people eyes and with the ingredients you are using it is simple to do bits at a time.


ps. What were you aiming for in the recipe? I'd probably drop a bit of choc out and use some crystal malt of some type instead if you were looking for a bitter of some sort


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## O-beer-wan-kenobi (26/1/14)

This is the first time I have used the wyeast 1469 and have just brewed an English mild. Starting gravity was 1.037 and fermented at 18 degrees. 10 days later this looks well and truly done, finishing at 1.010, nice and clear, but still has a big krausen. 

Anyone had this issue before? Should I leave it to drop, help it drop by dropping the temp or just keg and leave it behind?


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## Camo6 (26/1/14)

If you can, CC it and the krausen should drop. I sometimes give the fermentor a gentle twirl to help it along.


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## O-beer-wan-kenobi (26/1/14)

As it's a mild I didn't want it to attenuate as much as it has. I did think about giving it a swirl but thought it could attenuate further.

I will probably cc it tomorrow and see how it goes. Thanks


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## Bribie G (26/1/14)

It's almost definitely not krausen, i.e. the foam from actively fermenting beer, it's the yeast rising to the top to form a mat following attenuation and just float there. A few true top fermenting yeasts still do that, including Wy 1469. You can skim and save, using sanitized equipment of course.

Also with UK milds a good way of ensuring a high FG is to mash really high, around 70 degrees.


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## O-beer-wan-kenobi (26/1/14)

Mashed at 68 for this one. Turned out ok at this temp with an ESB yeast but will definitely go higher next time.

I'm going to re use the yeast by rinsing it. I have never took yeast from the top, how much do I need, do I need to do a starter and will it keep for a few weeks? These are the questions I have but couldn't find answers so thought it may be easier to stick with what I know.


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