WLP085 English Ale Blend

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TheWiggman

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I recently picked up a vial to use in a swap brew, a strong stout. I can't find any details on it on the forum and minimal on the web. Here's the White Labs blurb:

"A blend of British ale yeast strains designed to add complexity and attenuation to your ale. Moderate fruitiness and mineral-like character, with little to no sulfur. Drier than WLP002 and WLP005, but with similar flocculation properties. This yeast is suitable for English pale ales, bitters, porters, stouts and IPAs."

The vial on hand was on its use-by, which I think is 6 months. It was stored well by the supplier (Clever Brewing) during that time. Considering I was using it in 23l of a strong beer - OG yet to be confirmed but probably around 1.075 - I made a 2.5 litre starter with O2 and yeast nutrient. It took less than 24h to fire up and when it did a healthy but subdued krausen formed. After about 3 days it looked to have finished but was 'tapering out' and needed another day for visible activity to stop. On the stir plate it was a typically floccy English yeast, and after it was finished it dropped well -

IMG_20170719_060847.jpg

I pitched into the wort at ~13°C, set the temp at 17.5°C and after 24h there was obvious signs of activity. Over the next few days it took up most of the headspace but didn't blow off. Temp was bumped to 18.5°C. At around day 7 it looked to have started dropping so I took a sample at day 10 which was 1.025. I bumped the temp up to 20°C and left it to its own devices, and since then it's hit 1.024 and looks like it's finished.
I've never had a stalled ferment before but 1.024 seems high especially when the description is "... add... attenuation to your ale". I'm going to keg and go very easy on the priming because I know some of these English strains like to chew down over a few months. Anyone had experience with it?
 

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