Wyeast 1338

[Aussie Claret]

Hi,
Having used my first liquid yeast Wyeast 1338 (european ale) I was wondering what others thought of this yeast.

I have made my second partial a Kolsch style ale using the above and it's now been ccing for about three weeks. It needs a bit longer conditioning but first impressions very fruity.
Fermentation temperature was strictly controlled 18c, in the fridge with aldo thermostat. Beer was racked after about 5 days from memory into secondary which finished at 18c then CC'ed for about 2 weeks, its now kegged and has been conditioning for a further 2+weeks.

I'm not at home to check the brew notes but the recipe was something like.
1.5kgs Light malt extract
1.5kgs Pale malt
500g Vienna Malt
250g wheat malt
100g carapils
may have had some LDME (+/-500g)
Irish Moss
Perle hops for bittering 26 IBU's
Hersbrucker hops for aroma
Actual OG 1.051 Actual FG 1.010

Thanks
AC

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Sorry AC, meant to reply to this earlier.

I have used 1338 pretty much exclusively for my Alt beers. What I like about this yeast is it leaves a lovely malty finish in my Alts and does not attenuate as much as Wyeast 1007. I haven't tried an authentic Alt but I have been happy with every Alt I have brewed with it no matter what the malt bill is.

I have also used this yeast in partial mash's with Ale malt and LME on a few occassions. Again the finished beer has a malty flavour as long as the IBU's are kept to around 30 and the gravity is above 1048.

I can't say I have ever found this yeast to contribute any fruity flavours in my experience.

I have just bought a new pack of this yeast and plan to use it in a brown and robust porter. Along with some more Alts

C&B
TDA

 

[Aussie Claret]

Thanks drunk Arab,
What temperature do you usually ferment this strain at? Also do you know if 1kg of Light Munich or Vienna would lend a hand to a fruity finish?

Thanks again
AC

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

When I first started using 1338 I did not have any form of tremperature control.
Now I ferment it at 20C.

Vienna would lend a light toastiness and malt flavour and Munich would lend more sweet maltiness in my experiences with those grains. I use imported Munich a lot!

An old favourite partial mash of mine was:

1.5kgs liquid malt extract
2kgs Weyermann Munich 1
30 IBU with EKG's or Northern Brewer.
1338 yeast.

I can spare you some Northern Brewer hops if you need some.

C&B
TDA

PS Are you a Hammers supporter by any chance AC?

 

[Aussie Claret]

Thanks again DA,
I might have a go at your recipe, just need to get some more munich on next HBS visit, I'm fine for hops thank you for the offer; and I'm a clarets supporter (Burnley, Championship league).
Hopefully they'll do better next season, eternal optimist.

C&B
AC

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Just dragging this thread up again.

I used a new Wyeast pack of this yeast in my latest Altbier and managed to get 76% attenuation of the wort.
You certainly require patience with this yeast for it to chew through the sugars. I pitched the yeast on the 31st of January and took a gravity reading last night and it has gone from 1056 to 1012. Fermented at 20C.

So for those of you who are using this yeast, patience is a virtue

C&B
TDA

 

[Smashin]

Though i'd give 1338 a run, for the first time i've hit what seams to be a stuck ferment. I know this isn't the most attenuative yeast but I fear this is far from ideal.

My culturing process is to use a smack pack in a 1L starter, this is divided into 4 bottles (~250ml) for storage. One bottle was put straight back into a 2L starter for the brew (40L batch). Should be a good inoculation dose. The smack pack puffed up fine and the remaining 3 bottles have a generous layer of yeast on the bottom.

Aeration of wort was as per normal, if anything slightly higher as i gave it a god whisk up in the fermenter on top of just relying on my inline aeration.

OG - 1.050 after 9 days ramping up from 18.5 to 22.5 deg it seams all but finished at 1.024 (51% app attenuation). I have given the fermenter a good few shake ups (never had to do this before) to no avail. I had a fairly low mash temp of 64-65 deg using all base malt (pils and a touch of munich and biscuit) so fermentability should hit the upper end of the yeasts potential (~1.014 - 71%).

The wort tastes fine (no off flavors) so i don't suspect an infection.

At a bit of a loss atm,

is this to be expected of this yeast??, any thoughs from those who have used this strain would be appreciated.

 

[jayse]

I can't add much as what your have posted sounds fine but this is certainly not something I expect with this yeast as its always been very reliable for me.
Maybe the starter amount was not enough is all I can think of.

This is one of my fave yeasts for how clean it is and how reliable it is, I have always found it to be very easy to use.

So basically this is not what you should expect with this yeast and I'd be looking into some measures to get it down another 10 points.

 

[Smashin]

I can't add much as what your have posted sounds fine but this is certainly not something I expect with this yeast as its always been very reliable for me.
Maybe the starter amount was not enough is all I can think of.

This is one of my fave yeasts for how clean it is and how reliable it is, I have always found it to be very easy to use.

So basically this is not what you should expect with this yeast and I'd be looking into some measures to get it down another 10 points.

Thanks jayse,

Gives me some hope on the yeast strain yet as the description suits my pure base malt brewing style and what i'm trying to achieve with this one, yep i'm scratching my head on this one, may have to throw in some more attenuative yeast to get through this one (last resort).

 

[neonmeate]

ive used it a bit before for alts and other things, and it's always been clean and malty for me, with not much fruitiness, or at least i don't know what fruit.

at the moment i've got a maibock/biere de garde going with it. in the past i've found this one to attenuate really low so i mashed 1hr at 63C - decoction - 30mins at 70C - 100% weyermann pils - and i've now got it down from 1070 to 1013! i was expecting it to conk out at 1020. doesn't taste fruity out of the hydrometer at all, but obviously atm there's a few higher alcohols so hard to say.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Though i'd give 1338 a run, for the first time i've hit what seams to be a stuck ferment. I know this isn't the most attenuative yeast but I fear this is far from ideal.

My culturing process is to use a smack pack in a 1L starter, this is divided into 4 bottles (~250ml) for storage. One bottle was put straight back into a 2L starter for the brew (40L batch). Should be a good inoculation dose. The smack pack puffed up fine and the remaining 3 bottles have a generous layer of yeast on the bottom.

Aeration of wort was as per normal, if anything slightly higher as i gave it a god whisk up in the fermenter on top of just relying on my inline aeration.

OG - 1.050 after 9 days ramping up from 18.5 to 22.5 deg it seams all but finished at 1.024 (51% app attenuation). I have given the fermenter a good few shake ups (never had to do this before) to no avail. I had a fairly low mash temp of 64-65 deg using all base malt (pils and a touch of munich and biscuit) so fermentability should hit the upper end of the yeasts potential (~1.014 - 71%).

The wort tastes fine (no off flavors) so i don't suspect an infection.

At a bit of a loss atm,

is this to be expected of this yeast??, any thoughs from those who have used this strain would be appreciated.

Sometimes this yeast can be a little slow and I have found that it needs a little extra time.
Don't panic too much and just allow it to keep going. Up to 3 weeks in primary and hopefully you should get full attenuation

C&B
TDA