Yeast Question

[cdbrown]

I've got 2 cubes of a london pride clone and trying to work out which yeast to use and also a few questions about the yeast. I've got nottingham and s04 dry yeast, a smack pack of london ale 3 and a stubby of wyeast London esb which was taken from a starter. Both wyeasts are probably about a year old. Which yeast do u recommend?

If i go the smack, its been in the fridge since i got it, it seems a bit swollen but the pouch is still inside so its not activated. This should be fine to get a starter going, could i go straight to a 2l starter or shiuld i do 1l then 2l?

If the stubby from a previous starter, the yeast is settled nicely at the bottom, should i pour off some of the top and take a taste to see if ok? Was fermented in 1.040 wort with dried malt. What would you expect the taste to be? I've had trouble with liquid yeasts before and dont wont to ruin a batch.

Any advice much appreciated. Cheers, cdbrown

 

[razz]

What attenuation are you shooting for cdbrown? perhaps let that be your guide and then choose the appropriate yeast out of your stocks. As far as yeast health goes the ones in stubbies will need to be stepped up for the sake of viability as they've been in the fridge for twelve months. You may not like the taste of the liquid in the stubbie as there is sure to be some yeast cells there that are dead/decaying. If you are not that confident with liquids then use the dry yeast.
Sorry missed the second paragraph. Straight to a 2lt starter will be okay.

 

[manticle]

I've got 2 cubes of a london pride clone and trying to work out which yeast to use and also a few questions about the yeast. I've got nottingham and s04 dry yeast, a smack pack of london ale 3 and a stubby of wyeast London esb which was taken from a starter. Both wyeasts are probably about a year old. Which yeast do u recommend?

If i go the smack, its been in the fridge since i got it, it seems a bit swollen but the pouch is still inside so its not activated. This should be fine to get a starter going, could i go straight to a 2l starter or shiuld i do 1l then 2l?

If the stubby from a previous starter, the yeast is settled nicely at the bottom, should i pour off some of the top and take a taste to see if ok? Was fermented in 1.040 wort with dried malt. What would you expect the taste to be? I've had trouble with liquid yeasts before and dont wont to ruin a batch.

Any advice much appreciated. Cheers, cdbrown

If you have the luxury of a bit of time, I would try and start up the ESB (1968? Which is fullers yes?). If it fails to start or pongs or whatever, I'd go the London III (nice yeast).


As for starter with the smack pack - considering the smack pack when fresh is supposedly good for a basic 20 L 1040ish wort straight from the pack, I reckon 1 year old could cope with 2 L. You just want to get an indication of its viability.

Dry yeast is always there as a back up.

This is what I would do in your situation rather than from the biological bible. Chris White might tell you differently. I'd listen to him.

 

[cdbrown]

Decided to use a stubby of ESB, made a 2l starter this morning and pitched it this afternoon once they'd hit 21c.

Tasted a bit of it, no hint of infection so happy with that. Sitting happy on the stir plate.

Cheers for the responses

 

[warra48]

Yup, Manticle is on the money.

WY1968 is the Fullers yeast strain, my favourite UK yeast strain.

 

[cdbrown]

So it's been on the stir plate for nearly 2 days, I've read that the stirring can mask the signs of fermentation as there's no krausen at all. I did take a smell of it and it doesn't have a strong malt small, there is a hint but it's behind a fruity aroma. Reading the strain info it does say this strain is quite fruity especially at the warmer temps (which it was at). Without tipping it out and taking a sample, would stopping the stir plate bring around signs of ferment? I might tip a small sample out for tasting, maybe I could use the refrac to see if it's dropped at all from 1.040.

 

[argon]

IMO opinion... do both. Just turn it off and see how much yeast you've got. I rarely see much going on when it's on the stir plate. But i'm always surprised at how much yeast is in there when i let it settle. Also take a small reading with the refrac... if it's moved, it's working.

 

[felten]

You should see it clump together like egg drop soup when it's starting to drop out, even on the stirplate. It should definitely be done fermenting after 2 days though, 18-24hr is usually enough.

 

[cdbrown]

I tested it last night and it definitely tastes very fruity, sweet but there's a hint of sourness. No longer tastes like sweet malt. Put a drop on the refrac and it showed 1.033.

Took it along to west coast brewers meet last night and the almighty brendanos had a taste and said it was too early to tell if it would be ok, suggesting I wait till it's fermented out and then tast as he thinks it may have the beginnings of an infection (acebactor). I'll give it a few more days on the stir plate, taste it and test the grav. If it's no good then I'll tip it along with the other ESB yeast stubbies as they were all from the same batch.

Well - I just looked back at previous orders and it looks like I purchased the London ESB and London Ale III back in May 09. The ESB I used in a starter in June 09 and so the stubbies of yeast have been sitting in the fridge since then. I knew they were getting on a bit, but not that much. The London Ale III smack pack has swollen a bit, could the yeast still be viable after all this time? What sort of time frame should I look at for smack packs? What about storing trub from previous brews?

 

[dent]

"Disappointing" is how I would describe any Wyeast pack after a few months. You will definitely have to start it up first.

For trub storage, I find if you remove that stupid 'sediment reducer' from the back of your fermenter tap you can easily draw off a few king browns worth of trub (after sloshing it around with the last of the beer) for storage in the fridge - obviously sanitation is paramount for this. I figure these are good pitchable quantities for a few months at least, even for lagers.

 

[Bribie G]

Getting off the topic slightly, I've had a 500ml Schott bottle of slurry from Wyeast American Ale 1056 in the fridge since about the second week in February - It's in my 5L starter bucket at the moment with about a litre of saved wort from last night and it's already trying to crawl out after only a couple of hours.

 

[cdbrown]

I think maybe the few months is the issue here rather than a few years. On the upside I'll be clearing out the keezer of stubbies making room for more kegs. Maybe I should stick with just keeping the slurry from now on.

No sediment reducers on any of my taps!

 

[Nick JD]

A little trick I have for getting 6 month old saved yeast (in PET bottles) back on track is to pour off the (vegemite) beer and swirl up the sediment into a slurry.

In a 500ml container I have 2 tablespoons of sucrose (yeah, I know, but there's a reason) and 300ml of sterile water.

I give it a stir, cover in gladwrap and leave it for about an hour or three.

In another 1000ml container is 500ml of saved aerated wort. The old yeast kicks off and produces a big krausen (the sucrose seems to make this work better than LDME - dunno why). Using a sanitised ladle I scoop off the thick krausen and dump it in the 500ml of wort.

The next day I pitch the 500ml.

 

[cdbrown]

Checked it last night and there's a small amount of foam. Taste was still very fruity, but no sourness, puckering or vinegar flavour. So maybe it's going to pull through. Will leave it for tonight and taste tomorrow.