permo

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I need your thoughts.

I have a 1.045 gravity beer right now that i pitched from a starter cultured from a bottle of rogue stout. I wasn't able to step up the starter, I ran out of time so I think I underpitched. The pacman pretty much dropped out at 1.023 at 60 degrees. I roused the yeast and increased the temp to 68 and 5 days later I am at 1.019, so I am unsure what to think. I planned on using this yeast cake for a IIPA (OG = 1.090 or so) but now I am wondering if this yeast cake will attenuate properly.

So here is my question:

Should I use this yeast cake that underattenuated a low gravity beer for a big beer or should I hydrate two 11 g satchels of nottingham and pitch that?

I am leaning towards the nottingham since that has never failed me, but the other part of me knows there will be a ton of pacman in the fermenter.

jmick

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I don't think that I would take a chance pitching on top of that cake.

2 packets of notty will do the trick nicely...

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permo

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I will likely also pitch a nice nottingham slurry that I washed from a very succesfull fermentation.

I wonder why the pacman just won't finish this beer up...I am a little dissapointed.

permo

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I just checked the gravity on my pacman 1.045 beer. 1.011! It took 9 days but it made it down there. Now I am more confused, maybe it just took that long for the yeast to multiply and do it's thing.

Maybe I use the cake, and also pitch a packet of notty....that could create a nice beer. The last thing I want is underattenuated IIPA.

schristian619

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If it were me, I'd pitch the cake, as it seems to be ok. Or I'd use US-05, but thats just because I don't like notty. Also, why use 2 packs? One pack should be plenty, unless you're talking a 10 gallon batch of a big IIPA.

2bluewagons

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I see you reposted this issue, but in the mean time your first beer has finished up. Nice!

It sounds like you under pitched the smaller beer, and it maybe took a while to finish out. How thick is the yeast cake? If it looks a little thin, or if it's more of a dark tan color than creamy white, it might not be the healthiest yeast and you might want to avoid re-using it.

But since the 1.045 beer finished ok, and if there is a normal-ish size yeast cake, you're probably good to go ahead and use it for the IIPA. I wouldn't use Notty in addition to the cake as that would be way overkill.

I mentioned it before, but didn't give you the link, so here ( http://www.mrmalty.com/calc/calc.html ). The calculator is based on widely accepted pitching rates and was developed in coorperation with Wyeast Labs, the company that handles Pacman for Rogue. It says that for 5 gal of 1.090 beer, you need 17.5 grams of dry yeast or 150 mL of yeast slurry (washed cake).

Have fun and congrats on successfully ranching some yeast!

Brew-boy

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My Pliny clone with Pacman went from 1.08 to 1.012 it did a great job.

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permo

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I thank you all for your help. I am not sure how thick the yeast cake is, when I checked the gravity yesterday the yeast was still pretty much in suspension. I think it will all work out great.

permo

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The first beer with the pacman yeast finished at 1.009 and turned out excellent!

I used the yeast cake, I pitched five gallons 1.075 wort and had active fermentation started in under four hours. After three days (yesterday) I added my first 1 pound addition of dextrose, effectively raising the OG to 1.083....the yeast found that sugar quickly, within an hour I had a 2 degree temp increase in the fermenter and more CO2.

Today I will add my second 1 pound addition and end with a forecasted OG of 1.092 or so. I am hoping that my low mash temp 149 and my incremental additions of fructose, will really help get this beer attenuated. A nice dry 1.015 double IPA with 9.4% ABV and 100 IBU.

BBKing

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That pretty much sounds friggin awesome

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