Wyeast 1968 High Fg

[smollocks]

I know there's been a few stalled ferment threads lately due to the weather, but I'm looking for some advice from experienced Wyeast 1968 users. I've read the past threads & followed the advice but my FG is still a bit high.

I brewed Andrew's ESB, mashed at 67C, got 25L with OG 1.049 and pitched an active 1.2L starter. It maintained itself at 20C for the first few days, but then dropped to about 18C. This is what I've done since then:

Day 5: 1.021. Stirred with sanitised spoon, bumped to 20-22C.
Day 7: 1.020. Stirred with sanitised spoon, maintained at 20-22C.
Day 9: 1.020. Stirred with sanitised spoon, maintained at 20-22C.
Day 12: 1.019.
Day 13: 1.018. Racked to secondary to try and drop a few more points.
Day 14: 1.018.

Wyeast says I should get 67-71% attenuation. As I understand it, attenuation is a simple calculation of (OG-FG)/OG x 100%, giving me 31/49 x 100% = 63%.

Can someone advise me whether this is safe to bottle at this relatively high FG, or whether there's anything else worth doing to drop a few extra points. Cheers

 

[lastdrinks]

Bugger of a yeast, very tasty but a pain in the arse. Drops out and hard to rouse. You have done most the standard tricks. dont like your chances of getting it down much lower maybe raise it to 25.

I'm a kegger so maybe a bottler can give you advise on bottle booms

 

[Gulpa]

I had one stop at 1020 last year. Bottled no problems or bombs. Delicious. Making the exact same beer tonight. Cant wait.

cheers
Andrew.

 

[Sammus]

Hmm. I tend to mash my bitters at about 68C and follow a pretty standard kind of recipe. I seem to consistently get 70-72% attenuation.. I just pick the fermenter up and give it a good swirl to rouse the yeast. I splashed it around a fair bit, gave it a really good swirl. The headspace was all CO2 by that point, and any splash just pushed more out so I wasn't worried about oxidation. I wouldn't do it after I racked it though. Bring it up to the low 20s (say 21 or 22), give it a gentle swirl every now and then. It probably would've been better to leave it in primary with all the yeast to get it down further. At 63% attenuation I'd still be wanting to get it down further. But hey, if it goes on another 3 or 4 days without dropping at all, its not likely to suddenly want to drop further in the bottle.

 

[Online Brewing Supplies]

Typically with these high floc yeasts you need to over pitch and ferment at the upper range of temps .Drop your cold break before pitching. Pitch low and you are going to have a hard time but some times this is what your chasing (low attenuation ).This yeast is quite influenced by pH as well so make sure you have got your mash/ kettle pH right. If its not right (=low) its going to drop early.Going on it characteristics I would be using it on darker style ales.Just my views.
GB

 

[Sammus]

Yep, I've only brew quite dark english ales - so far.

 

[Gavo]

I have used this yeast and it is a great yeast but takes some encouragement to finish. If it were 1016 I'd say it's done, but at 1018 I'd give it a bit more time. Wyeast also suggest a good diacetyl rest, so try lifting the temp (I brought mine up to 22 degrees C) and swirl the fermenter a couple of times a day. You should get another couple of points out of it, but if you don't then at least you know it was finished before bottling it.

Gavo.

 

[Pennywise]

Love this yeast, it's now my standard for dark beers. I must be doing something right though, I've been getting around the 75% attentuation (although I have only used this yeast 6 or 7 times so far) without any help at all. Glad I cought this thread, I'll keep an eye on this yeast now.

 

[Bribie G]

I'm also finding Ringwood - another flocculator - to be a very slow finisher, I've got one still blooping once a minute after 12 days in primary (and yes it is still producing gas - I'll be racking later today and I'll post its FG if anyone is interested). Also 1469 hangs around for a long time as well, I was thinking of trying 1968 next as I love these high floccing yeasts. So thanks for the warnings. Graham Wheeler in his UK real ales book states categorically that these high flocculators hate to make alcohol <_<

Have you racked to secondary or cold conditioning yet? I've found with Ringwood and West Yorks brews that this often gets them going for a last gasp. If it's any help, for your next brew you might consider beating the krausen and some extra oxygen into the brew twice a day for the first few days with one of these from GoLo. Does a better job than just a spoon and you can get the wort hissing through all those little holes. However at this late stage you wouldn't want to be introducing oxygen.



:icon_cheers:

 

[winkle]

To echo the others.
My experience with it is that it starts quick and is then a (very) slow finisher - give it a few more days & it might drop a couple of points, although at 1018 it might be satisfied with its effort. Your temps look fine and a FG of 1018 in an ESB is OK by me.

 

[hazard]

I've used 1968 once, for a Fullers ESB. Got from 1060 OG to 1014 FG. Did nothing special, but checking my brew log I note:
Pitched 23 Dec 08
Racked to secondary 28 Dec 08
Bottled 17 Jan

So there are 2 key points here that enabled me to reach low FG:
1. This was left fermenting for 4 weeks. I didn't take intermediate readings, so cant say when it reached FG unfortunately
2. Fermentor was kept in the spare bathroom, NOT in the fridge, so was pretty warm during this period.

So to get FG down, warm it up (say 22 at least) and leave it for another few weeks.

 

[warra48]

I really like the malt profile this yeast produces, and I've used it in 3 batches to date.

My experience is similar to that noted in earlier posts, in that it is a quick starter, but then slows down and takes a decent amount of time to drop off the last few points. I stirred mine up a couple of times to resuspend the yeast, as it floculates really tightly and early. Average time in the fermenter was about 3 weeks.
l
Carbonation in the bottle is also rather prolonged. The last batch took at least 6 weeks to get the bubbles, and I had to rouse the bottles a couple of times to get it to take off. In the end it was all good.



Edit: Sslpllign

 

[Bribie G]

Just racked my Ringwood - English Special Bitter started off around 1050 and it's down to 1015. Ill give it a couple of days at ambient in secondary then cold condition. With a fairly similar characteristics I guess that is what I'll be looking at with 1968 when I get to use it.

 

[smollocks]

Thought I'd update this to make it useful for someone else. On the above advice I left it for another week for a total of 22 days. The SG still hadn't changed from 1.018 so I bottled today. At least the low carbonation for this style will be in my favour if there is actually more fermentation to go.

I've kept about 300mL of the primary slurry, but the Wyeast website says "autolysis during storage is accelerated". From that I'd conclude that it's better to use slurry immediately rather than keeping it for a few weeks. Does anyone have experience with this?

 

[Sammus]

I've reused it a few times. I think the risk is more leaving in primary for ages without swirling. the yeast compacts down pretty hard and will probably end up eating itself down there