Dead Notto

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Lord Raja Goomba I

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Has anyone had issues with notto being dead?

I've never, ever had a problem with it at all - always been an agressive fermenter, and quick to take.

Pitched after a no chill night, and a day and a half later - dead, nothing.

Having to rehydrate some swiss lager yeast to get it up and running, hopefully it won't be infected.

Bummer :(
 
Has anyone had issues with notto being dead?

I've never, ever had a problem with it at all - always been an agressive fermenter, and quick to take.

Pitched after a no chill night, and a day and a half later - dead, nothing.

Having to rehydrate some swiss lager yeast to get it up and running, hopefully it won't be infected.

Bummer :(



Yeah early last year had three bad batches of Notto and lost nearly 70 ltrs . Then the company came out in Nov 2011 and admitted that the yeast was not viable .
 
Thread back here

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...p;hl=nottingham

I had quite a bit of strife with it back then and I use it often. There was a bit of "no it's not the yeast" for a while there. The yeasts I bought even with the code as stated were never reimbursed. One brew ditched.

batz
 
got one from that batch, it started but took nearly 3 days, really low cell count would be my bet..
 
Feeling for you guys. Losing a batch from bad yeast sucks.

But the last time I used Notto it went from 1069 - 1007 in about 4 days B)
 
I've never had a problem since and have two brews going with it ATM.

batz
 
I've never had a problem since and have two brews going with it ATM.

batz
Funny I had some of the suspect bunch but mine where bought from the US and although I removed them from sale and gave them to eager brewers none failed.
I suspect some local storage/shipping issues may have been in play.
Nev
 
Feeling for you guys. Losing a batch from bad yeast sucks.

But the last time I used Notto it went from 1069 - 1007 in about 4 days B)

This is the normal state of affairs.

I went downstairs, expecting it to be chugging away rapidly.

Nope.

Pitched a swiss lager, that I rehydrated.

Hoping I'll go out there tomorrow and see it's all good.

At least it didn't smell infected, which is okay - but hopefully indicative that there is something viable there.

I had it delivered and was out of the fridge for a few hours, just realised that. Normally I pick it up myself and get it home, to the fridge asap.

Goomba
 
Apart from a brew that I no chilled in the urn :( as an experiment, and another brew (a partial obviously) that I quick chilled with a bag of ice from Liquorland chucked into the fermenter - :( the only brew in my career that has gone down the sink was a Notto. Since then I haven't used it.

I even started a thread about two and a half years ago about "Should I be getting sulphur from Notto?".

A few commenters at the time mentioned a bad batch issue.
 
Is this nottingham? Just want to make sure..

Cheers,

Clint
 
Is this nottingham? Just want to make sure..

Cheers,

Clint

Yup.

My normal choice of yeast for a quick fermenting, low ester, highly flocculent yeast - basically when I need a keg filled (like now).

Really upset, as I had to get this on Thursday (with great difficulty) to brew over the long weekend.

Great brewday too - hit all numbers perfectly, quick day - just frustrating that a yeast I've had great results with suddenly fails me.

Goomba
 
No problems here goomba.

Notto is my main yeast of choice, and never had it fail to launch.
 
Have you got a backup yeast, Goomba?

Geez, reading this thread I see I'm lucky with my latest ale with a recultured Nottingham. I just bottled it tonight.
This yeast went absolutely mental, and popped the lid off the fermenter.

I have to admit I prefer Windsor.
 
Have you got a backup yeast, Goomba?

Geez, reading this thread I see I'm lucky with my latest ale with a recultured Nottingham. I just bottled it tonight.
This yeast went absolutely mental, and popped the lid off the fermenter.

I have to admit I prefer Windsor.

Yup - Swiss lager, rehydrated.

Tookie a lookie this morning and starting to form a nice krausen.

Sweet.

So long as there's no infection......

Goomba
 
Raja did you rehydrate the notto before use? When I rehydrate i notice after 1/2 hour on the stir plate a fair amount of krausen activity. Whether or not this is a good sign of yeast health or not I don't know. In my own mind I liken it to a fast swelling smack of liquid yeast and I reckon now if I didn't see that activity I would looking for a different pitch of yeast. My 2c...
 
Raja did you rehydrate the notto before use? When I rehydrate i notice after 1/2 hour on the stir plate a fair amount of krausen activity. Whether or not this is a good sign of yeast health or not I don't know. In my own mind I liken it to a fast swelling smack of liquid yeast and I reckon now if I didn't see that activity I would looking for a different pitch of yeast. My 2c...

Nope - just pitched it at 25 degrees, and brought the fermenter down in temp.

I've never had to rehydrate Notto.

It's one of those yeasts that fires up very quickly without it, and finishes and drops out in 4 or 5 days (depending on fermenting temp).

So this day & half of no activity before I pitched the rehydrated swiss is very very out of character, from my personal experience.

I remember (as Bribie said) that a few years ago (before I ever used it), there was a dud batch that others were complaining about.

Seems the new packaging fixed it up, but this is a massive issue, if the yeast's reliability can't be counted on.

If it's the yeast (and not the brewer :lol: ), it'll start happening to others. That being the case, it's the second issue in *recent* memory.

That being the case, Lallemand will be damaging their brand. Because dry yeast users will either go "if Notto doesn't work, I'm just going to steer clear of Lallemand's products". They'll go find a safale/rebranded product instead.

Given I didn't want my Irish to be too estery, I could *probably* have used US-05. The biggest reason for Notto was a quicker ferment and waaaaaay better flocculation. But! If I've got a choice between waiting and extra few days for ferment and CCing it a little longer vs yeast that's a little unreliable - guess which way I would go.

As it stands, it now has a lager yeast in there as a replacement, brewed at 14 degrees.

Goomba
 
Was it an original sachet or a repack?

edit: Bacchus run S-189 at 19 no problems, I'd crank that temp up a bit for a quicker brew if that were moi. ^_^
 
Was it an original sachet or a repack?

edit: Bacchus run S-189 at 19 no problems, I'd crank that temp up a bit for a quicker brew if that were moi. ^_^

Original Lallemand pack, no obvious signs of issues (puffing, rips).

Ended up with CB Swiss Lager (great yeast) that I had in reserve (Thank goodness).

Goomba
 
For future reference if you want to do an really fast ale I'd recommend Wyeast Irish Ale. It rips through at 22 - 25 degrees, finishes nice and dry and drops like a brick.

My current Irish Red:

Pitched Monday
Krausen finished Wednesday and already clearing from the top
Left till Sunday then ccd in fridge in a jerry with gelatine
Kegged Wednesday:

This is what it looks like into the keg which should be quite drinkable by the weekend.
I'd hesitate to use it in a lager but it's ok as a neutral ale yeast.

I always have a bottle of slurry in the fridge, keeps for months.

irish_red_into_keg__Medium_.jpg

Wanna couple of Ibis anybody?
 

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