Experience With Wyeast 1968

[mje1980]

My strong ale is down to 1.016. From 1.073 that's 78% apparent attenaution. Bloody hell, im keen to bottle it and brew some more beers but don't wanna risk bottle bombs or overcarbing them. Sample is tasting delicious.

 

[mje1980]

Just finished off a keg of UK blonde with this yeast. I ran out of whirlfloc for a while, and i also no chill so it wasn't very clear, except the last few pints!!. Was about a month before it cleared up, is this normal??

Might be my imagination, but there seemed to be more yeast character and malt flavour when the yeast finally decided to drop out. I liked the whole batch, but when it started to clear up, i think i noticed more flavour.

Anyway, love this yeast.

Got a batch of bitter naturally carbing up, ready for an engine.

Strong ale nice, but i think 8% cara aroma is a little much!!. Will give it another month and see if it smooths out.

 

[Pennywise]

I don't think I've ever had a hazy/cloudy beer using 1968, and I don't use whirlfloc or any other clearing/fininf agent, deffinatly not normal in my brewery.

As for it tasting better, could just be that after a month it hit the sweet spot. Make another and leave it for a month to mature befor tapping?

 

[mje1980]

I don't think I've ever had a hazy/cloudy beer using 1968, and I don't use whirlfloc or any other clearing/fininf agent, deffinatly not normal in my brewery.

Since i ran out of whirlfloc, my no chilled beers have been cloudy. They never used to be. Not sure if its the warmer weather causing the cube to take a lot longer to cool down or what. Not really a big issue for me though.

 

[Andrew]

An excellent yeast very suitable for any type of open ferment or pseudo Yorkshire square setup.
It flocks so hard that in a 22Hl fermenter you climb in, carve it up like cold-set jelly or custard, and shovel it out!
30 kilos of this yeast in an old barley bag in a wheelie bin in hot weather can blow a bin up though....ooops!
Gareth

 

[O-beer-wan-kenobi]

Sorry to dig up an old post but I think it is relevant.

I have some Wyeast 1968 and after doing some great ESB's and English mild I was hoping to use it for an English IPA.

I know the yeast doesn't attenuate well but have read that with swirling the fermenter and and leaving it to ferment long enough to clean, it up can get down to 75%.

My question is, what do people think about using this yeast for an IPA and should I ditch this for another strain?

The recipe I was thinking to do is below. What are your thoughts?

Estimated OG: 1.056 SG
Estimated Color: 21.1 EBC
Estimated IBU: 50.9 IBUs
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 73.0 %
Single Infusion 65.0 C
Boil Time: 60 Minutes

Ingredients:
------------
         
5.35 kg               Maris Otter (Crisp) (7.9 EBC)     
0.22 kg               Biscuit (Dingemans) (44.3 EBC)        
0.22 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (78.8 EBC)        
0.13 kg               Caramel/Crystal Malt -120L (236.4 EBC         
35.00 g               Target [10.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min       
25.00 g               Fuggles [4.50 %] - Boil 10.0 min               
40.00 g               Goldings, East Kent [5.00 %] - Boil 0.0        
1.0 pkg               London ESB Ale (Wyeast Labs #1968) [124.

 

[NewtownClown]

Have made English IPA using this and the WL equivalent. I think it is very suitable for both ESB and IPA.
It's a bitch and needs to be roused every now and then

 

[O-beer-wan-kenobi]

The ESB and mild I made I didn't swirl them and they came out fine, although I wasn't looking for a dry attenuated finish.
I think I will give it a go and see how it turns out. The OG is not going to be too high for an IPA so hopefully it wont turn out too sweet

 

[O-beer-wan-kenobi]

I have made the IPA with the Wyeast 1968, started fermentation at 18 for a few days and slowly ramped it up to 21.
As recommended I gave it a swirl every day and and it has now finished. Starting gravity was 1.052 and it has finished up at 1.010. This seems to be 80% attenuation. Is that possible with this yeast? All of the documentation states 67-71%

I'm pretty sure there is no infection. The sample I took tastes pretty good

 

[BeerNess]

mash temp and agitation of the FV with the temp rise could do it I reckon... Kinda like the fat people on Biggest Loser getting driven by those personal trainers.

 

[Weizguy]

I'm fairly certain that I have achieved 80%+ attenuation from W1968 and the Ringwood yeast.
Maybe it's my brewhouse, but I often get better apparent attenuation than the manufacturer states.
Recently brewed a weizenbock with W3638, and got 96% apparent attenuation (IIRC, s.g. 1.071 down to 1.002).

 

[O-beer-wan-kenobi]

Yeah, I mashed this IPA at 65 and swirled every day so that could be the reason.
I was concerned about using this yeast for under attenuation for the style so I guess I am where I want to be.

:icon_offtopic:
This is the first beer I have dry hopped. I have just thrown in 45g of EKG pellets in 22l, but I have read mixed advice on quantity and time for dry hopping. Was planning on giving it 3 days or so, then cold conditioning to hopefully drop out the hops and then keg. Anyone see any issues with my approach to the dry hopping for this beer?

 

[BeerNess]

Your dry hop sounds good, 3-7 days before CC and you should be rocking

Quantities and time are all about personal preferences and views, experimentation is the answer!

 

[Camo6]

I used this yeast for the first time last week. What a flocculator! This yeast reminds me of the fat kid in school who would try real hard at sports but once he'd had enough he'd lay down and couldn't be moved.
I made a starter and the next morning it was clumping together on the bottom of the flask and laughing at the stirbar.
Is this normal for this yeast?

 

[O-beer-wan-kenobi]

I have made a few brews reusing the yeast from previous batches and making starters. Even after the stir bar whizzing around for hours there were still big clumps, like set custard!

From experience I would say its normal for this yeast.

 

[Moad]

Digging up a really old thread here but I needed to tell someone that wont think I'm crazy...

This yeast is incredible...

I used it in a rye/MO/Munich dsga with all galaxy hops. The maltiness is incredible!

Us05 will never touch another golden or English ale in my brewery

 

[sponge]

Us05 will never touch another golden or English ale in my brewery

US05 should never touch an English ale in any brewery h34r:

 

[Coodgee]

TIme to dig this thread up for a third time I've got a 2L starter going on the stir plate right now. Looks just like some earlier pictures in this thread. hoping to do a Northern brown ale tomorrow.

is it a good idea to mash cool (say, 64*) with this yeast to try to get it down close to 1012? Also I noticed a lot of people like to ferment this at 18*, perhaps that is why it drops out quick? I was thinking of letting it do it's thing at 20* since the yeast flavours are apparently so good?

 

[Coodgee]

So I brewed on Friday night and pitched my start at about midnight. Unfortunately this was a "drink and brew" occasion and I think the sanitation may have been a bit substandard towards the end there with a couple of bungs finding their way to the bottom of the fermenter. But last night the Krausen was completely gone, so not wanting to risk infection I racked to secondary. It went from 1050 to 1015 in less than 3 days, which was my target FG because I want a nice malty profile to go with the biscuit and chocolate malt flavours. So now I've racked to secondary (sealed cube). tasted really good already, no off flavours detected, but I want to let the flavour develop a bit and let the burnt flavours meld and mellow with the malt and yeast flavours. Do you think I would achieve this quicker with cold conditioning or room temp conditioning? What a great yeast!

 

[warra48]

I wouldn't be in a hurry to cold condition with this yeast. It keeps slowly working for weeks and weeks even when you think you're at FG.

I bottle, and need to make sure I drink them all within 3 to 4 weeks of bottling, otherwise the carbonation just goes nuts, even with a low level of priming.

There's a theory that this is really a cask yeast, and designed to naturally carbonate ales in the cask for serving on a handpump.