Experience With Wyeast 1968

[MattC]

Just split my first smack pack of Wyeast 1968 London ESB tonight. Noticed that the yeast in the smack pack was quite coagulated compared with the last 2 smack packs I split (1275 and 1056). See picture of the 1968 i split tonight and the 1275 I split 2 weeks ago, both have been shaken (1968 on the right and 1275 on the left).

Has anyone else noticed the same from this yeast?

Cheers

 

[Effect]

1968 floccs like a mofo. I bet it was like a thick yeast cake at the bottom of the smack pack - comes out all lumpy for me. It is EXTREMELY flocculent!!! Your beers will be bright without ANY filtration.

 

[Tony]

looks like bits of cooked egg white in the starter.

Awsome stuff and quite normal for the yeast.

 

[Wolfy]

Has anyone else noticed the same from this yeast?

As others have said it's normal behavior for Wy1968.
If I leave it on the stir-plate it will actually flocculate and look much like your picture while it's still being stirred around!

 

[Scruffy]

I love 1968.

I was only just.

...and the yeast is magic too. Although the cluggy stuff you've got in that bottle looks a bit dodgy...

Just send it to me, and i'll try and dispose of it humanely...

Nah, just kidding, it's normal.

 

[felten]

It ferments out in like 4 days but drops like a rock, you probably want to pitch low and start raising it up after 24-48 hours to make sure its finishing up. I've put down 2 brews with this in the past fortnight starting at 18c for >24h then raising to 1 degree a day to 21c.

Tastes bloody great, and no need to filter it!

 

[warra48]

I love this yeast. It really accentuates the malt character of the beers it ferments. The jars look normal to me.

I currently have a stout fermenting with it. One thing I recommend and do about once or twice a day is to gently swirl my fermenter for the first week or so, just to get some of the yeast resuspended, because it drops out so quickly. By doing this, I got 80% apparent attenuation with my last brew, an IPA. I agree with felten about the temperatures to make sure it finishes up.

 

[Fourstar]

a pretty versatile english yeast. ive made stouts, milds, bitters, barleywines, pale ales with it and have always had awesome results. never been hit by the diacetyl fairy with it either!

 

[berto]

Hey guys,
I know I've dug up an old topic here, but is this yeats good for a pale ale?

It looks like it definitely suits english bitters but I'm after something which will go well in a pale but not be too fruity or malty.

 

[MattC]

Hey guys,
I know I've dug up an old topic here, but is this yeats good for a pale ale?

It looks like it definitely suits english bitters but I'm after something which will go well in a pale but not be too fruity or malty.

this yeast will be fruity and will finish a little high for a pale ale IMHO. Try Wy1056 or US-05

Cheers

 

[zebba]

I've used it twice with pales - one english, one americanised english (golden promise + melanoidin + simcoe + amarillo) and both beers I was EXTREMELY happy with. Possibly my favourite yeast. I fermented cool (around 17), then started to ramp up the temp as the krausen receded to keep the buggers active.

 

[Sammus]

yeah depends on the pale ale mate, fine for an english, but I wouldn't use it for an APA.

edit: May as well add to the thread, here's a snap of my 1968 starter, while being stirred

 

[Mattese]

I just used it for a english ale, and I didn't realize just how quickly it would ferment. 4 days seemed to fly, with me running around like an expectant father. Amazing stuff for a english... I have found a new friend.

 

[mje1980]

Keen to try this in my bitters etc. Got the smack pack in the fridge, waiting for a donor beer!

 

[Back Yard Brewer]

Just split my first smack pack of Wyeast 1968 London ESB tonight. Noticed that the yeast in the smack pack was quite coagulated compared with the last 2 smack packs I split (1275 and 1056). See picture of the 1968 i split tonight and the 1275 I split 2 weeks ago, both have been shaken (1968 on the right and 1275 on the left).

Has anyone else noticed the same from this yeast?

Cheers

I feel a lot better looking at your examples. I have a starter right here right now in a Cconical, when I initially poured it out of the smack pack I went "argh" WTF. It smelt good so in the end that is what I went with.



BYB

 

[reviled]

I recently acquired some gen 2 1968 slurry off a mate and managed to get three really good brews out of it, first time using it as well and I agree with everything above that it is indeed a great yeast that really pushes forward the malt character!

 

[warra48]

I just used it for a english ale, and I didn't realize just how quickly it would ferment. 4 days seemed to fly, with me running around like an expectant father. Amazing stuff for a english... I have found a new friend.

This is one of my favourite yeasts. I love the way it pushes the malt character, although it doesn't hide the hops if you use enough of them. And it drops brilliantly clear, even without cold conditioning.

I've just retired my last batch of this yeast. I used it for a Mild first up, and just used a jar of slurry straight from primary into the next batches, an IPA, a Stout, a Best Bitter, and another ESB.

My experience with it, not necessarily what others will experience, is that it does tend to go quickly early on, but it will very slowly keep working for a long time to reach terminal gravity.
I find if I bottle inside of two weeks, it gives me high carbonation, even using priming sugar to only about 1.8 volumes.
My practice now is to leave it for about 3 weeks before bottling. In fact, I bottled an ESB last weekend, after 25 days in primary.

I guess if you keg, it's not an issue.

 

[felten]

Just put down a brew with this on the weekend, its definitely my favourite yeast atm. The smell of it is great, its almost tempting to drink it right out of the smackpack, and none of my gravity samples (or fast ferment) will be going down the sink.

It ferments fast, flocs clear, and tastes great. 60 hours after pitching @ 18c and its down from 1.052 to 1.015 (ff test ended at 1.010), awesome.

 

[frog-inasock]

Warra48,

Recently used this yeast and noticed much the same as you during fermentation. It slowly continued to work after visible signs of fermentation had finished at 4 days (top of wort clears, hydro sample bright), it was about 1016 and I wanted a few more points so let it sit for about 5 more days and low and behold it dropped to 1013! Was about 9 days total with a slight raise in temp in the last few days.

Another observation from using this yeast a couple of times is the flavour development is hindered by kegging straight after fermentation (9 days), other yeasts dont seem to mind (wyeasts 1187, 1056, 1272 - i.e different styles/attenuations). After carbing the keg it had a heavy malty flavour and what I can only describe as a nasty tannin bite from presumably late hops (as opposed to dry astringency from overcrushing grains). But interestingly I bottled a few stubbies too and a month later I took one from my fermentation fridge that had been at about 20C the whole time, chilled that day and the heavy malt and bite had completely disappeared, leaving a nice fruitiness, well worth it, yum.

To clarify, it was an all grain batch, with 2 late fuggle + EKG additions near flameout at about 1/2g per litre.

So next time I think I'll condition in the keg at 20C until the stubbies taste right and see how it goes.

 

[mje1980]

First time user, very happy so far. I have a mild in the keg which i used the 1968 for. Its a great mild anyway ( tried it on an engine at a recent Real ale do ), but yeah, this yeast is a yummy one. I pitched a 1.073 UK strong ale onto the cake, which has been purring along at 16-18c for 4 days, and is down to 1.020. Yesterday it was 1.025, so although its been around 18c, its still dropping 5 points a day, woo hoo!!.

Interesting about the bottling bit. Might leave mine for a good week before bottling. Will be hard though, i have a few UK blondes, and a brown porter waiting for this yeast. I might try top cropping with this one too. First time, so hope it goes ok.

Cheers

EDIT, i have been swirling this almost daily, thought i'd add. I seem to do this with all ales, just a habit i guess!!