yeast question?

newguy · 02-06-2007, 12:00 AM

ok here are the details.

I'm doing a heffeweizen I went out and got some white labs WLP320 American Heffe yeast. Now I've never done a yeast activator or anything like that. Until this batch I have always used dry yeast with great success.

So I just followed the directions on the vile and pitched as normal. (dumped vile into wart at around 70 degrees. I watched it closely over the next 15-20 hours and nothing.

I think I know what I did that screwed it up but I just wanted to confirm.

After pitching the yeast I realized I had not aerated the wart. So I gave it a good stir about 10 minutes after pitching. Could this in some way have disturbed the yeast?

Also I have read that some say liquid yeast need to have starters(?) Should I have done something differently with the liquid yeast to insure a good and fast ferm?

So anyway after about 20 hours of nothing at all not so much a bubble or krauzen. I re-pitched with some Nottingham's and everything seems to be going good now.

One last question. So I used the WLP320 to impart the classic banana, clove flavor. So is there still any chance of that yeast working? What I'm getting at is, by adding the other yeast(dry yeast) will that somehow bring to life/cancel out the other yeast (WLP30)? Will I still be able to get some of banana-clove tastes?

Thanks in advance,

**david_42** · 02-06-2007, 12:03 AM

Liquid yeasts take longer to start fermenting than dry, lower cell count. So your batch will be fine.

homebrewer_99 · 02-06-2007, 12:19 AM

Just remember to ferment at or above 70F if you want the banana flavor.

McKBrew · 02-06-2007, 01:05 AM

I had a problem with a stuck fermentation on this same yeast a while back. Didn't use a starter either. If you do some looking around on the net, you will see a few guys saying that you are better off using two vials of WL yeast if you are not making a starter. Looks like the dried yeast solved the problem for you.

WL American Hefe isn't going to do much in the banana area, American style heff's don't have much of that (Widmer, Pyramid). If you want German flavored Hefe WL 300 is the better choice.

newguy · 02-06-2007, 02:09 AM

ahhh thanks for the help guys.

MariaAZ · 02-07-2007, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by homebrewer_99

Just remember to ferment at or above 70F if you want the banana flavor.

For the first week my hefe fermented around 71, and dropped down to around 69 a couple times. During these temp drops the banana smell diminished greatly. Now that our weather is warming up, it goes as high as 75. I absolutely LOVE the banana smell, but am wondering if I'll get any clove. I used Wyeast's Weihenstephen (spelling?) yeast.

homebrewer_99 · 02-07-2007, 01:46 AM

Clove flavor is usually a product of fermenting at the lower temp range.

newguy · 02-07-2007, 12:25 PM

I find this very interesting. it was suggested to get the banna flavor ferm above 70 and to get clove ferm below 70.

Well hopefully I'll get a bit of both. Your correct about the temps in AZ right now. Down here in SV its around 70 in the day time. In my beer room it stays right around 65-70 degrees. So I guess I'll just have to see what I get with this batch.

Thanks again guys for the great info!

cheers,

homebrewer_99 · 02-07-2007, 03:54 PM

We visited friends around the 1800 block of Elmwood last Feb after a couple weeks at Ft Bliss on our way to LA.

BrewJr · 02-07-2007, 04:24 PM

Ya i had a problem with the WLP320 yeast as well, i did everything like i was supposed to and it did start to ferment, but it stoped after 3 days!! so i took a gravity reading and it was only at 1.026 from an OG of 1.046, i re-pitched some dry ALe yeast and still nothing! i finally gave up and racked over to secondary last night and guess i'll just wait!