Whippy

Recipes 

Hi all,

My mistake was not searching HBT before trying the Danstar Windsor yeast, as I see there are many people who say the yeast attenuates low as a rule.

I am brewing a dunkelweizen with OG 1.054. After 7 days I was at 1.020 and I racked to secondary. At 10 days I am at 1.020 still and it appears everything is "complete."

Because the beer is sweeter than I would like, and obviously the attenuation was not great, I am considering my options with this beer.

I understand that I may perhaps rack the beer onto another yeast cake, but I'm not very keen on that idea.

Do you think letting the beer warm up a bit in the garage might help get the yeast to do any more than they already have without making things taste bad? I pitched at 68F and it has been at that temperature steady ever since...

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Two weeks to ferment, two more in the kegs
but in just one night it was drained to the dregs

duckmanco

Recipes 

I think your attenuation doesn't sound too bad for Windsor IMO. If you are getting consistent readings 2 or 3 days apart, then I'm betting its just done. You could certainly try swirling the fermentor once or twice a day or so to see if you can get some back in suspension, but that never worked for me.

pericles

Recipes 

If I don't like my final attentuation, I sometimes toss in a packet of US-05. It's cheap and dry, so it's easy to keep on-hand. And it doesn't really add anything to the flavor, especially if it's just "finishing" the beer. (I use it for bottling too, if I think the yeast in solution isn't sufficient for carbonating the beer).

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Primary 1:
Primary 2: Kitchen Sink IPA
Secondary: Soured Golden, Belgian Golden Strong
Kegged: American Wheat, American Amber, Pliny the Elder
Planning: Union Jack IPA

Whippy

Recipes 

Yah good advice from both of you, I appreciate it. I think I will just be happy with what I have and use another yeast for this recipe next time, probably a good liquid strain.

It will be terrible to HAVE to brew another batch of wiezen, I know, but I'll suck it up and do what I must

The beer doesn't actually taste BAD, just not quite what I was shooting for. This will be a DRINKABLE lesson learned...that I can live with

EDIT: OOPS!! I meant to say that I used the Danstar MUNICH! My apologies!

__________________
Two weeks to ferment, two more in the kegs
but in just one night it was drained to the dregs

duckmanco

Recipes 

I tried Windsor as part of the Bourbon Barrel Porter kit from NB before I knew about the attenuation issues, and knowing what I know now, I would have went with Safale US-05, which is still a dry yeast and has proven itself as a real go getter for me. So, no real need to go liquid yeast yet, unless you want to stick an english style yeast. I believe safale has a dry yeast for that too safale 04 (anyone know for sure)?

PT Ray

Recipes 

There is an excellent thread on here comparing Danstar's Munich and Safale's WB-06. The Danstar Munich took the prize. I don't recall anything about an attenuation issue. You need to look at your extract. An extract beer will almost always finish higher than the same beer made with all grain. I will cut extract with 10% sugar right from the start. Once the beer is finished I'll keep record how that extract performed for future batches. I recently had to add 20% sugar to drop an extract beer from 1.044 to 1.010. I knew before hand what to expect so was able to adjust and finish exactly where I wanted.

strat_thru_marshall

Recipes 

Next time don't secondary. if you want the yeast to continue working and keep attenuating, don't pull the beer off the yeast. The yeast makes the beer, theres no reason to rack into secondary until you have reached final gravity. even then the advantages are debatable.

Calder

Recipes 

You are done. Windsor finishes high. Add S-05 or Notty if you want it to go lower. Don't screw with temperatures or anything else; more likely to ruin the beer than anything else.