Wyeast 1469 - West Yorkshire

Anyone use it? anyone have any recommendations for ferm temps?

motobrewer said:

Anyone use it?

Click to expand...

Not yet, but I ordered some on a whim during the Brewmasters Warehouse Cyber Monday sale. My wife’s a fan of English Bitter, so I thought I’d give it a try, but have no recipe. I'd also be interested in reading anyone else’s plans.

Wyeast 1469 PC West Yorkshire Ale

This strain produces ales with a full chewy malt flavor and character, but finishes dry, producing famously balanced beers. Expect moderate nutty and stone-fruit esters. Best used for the production of cask-conditioned bitters, ESB and mild ales. Reliably flocculent, producing bright beer without filtration.

Attenuation 67-71%
Alc. Tolerance 9%
Flocculation high
Temperature Range 64-72°F (18-22°C)

Click to expand...

yeah, i'm brewing an ESB this weekend, would like to use this. I'll probably ferment around 66F

Expect moderate nutty and stone-fruit esters.

Click to expand...

This sounds interesting, but there's no mention of optimum temperature ranges to promote it.

yeah, I generally don't pay too much attention to the listed temp ranges.

The last ESB i made i used Thames Valley II. I fermented that at 64F and it was incredible.

I brewed a nut brown with it last month and it is absolutely delish!

I brewed a clone of Black Sheep Riggwelter using this yeast. The ester profile was absolutely amazing. I fermented it at 66F, I believe. I drank it really fast and am now cleaning the keg

I brewed a Bitter with it last weekend and have high hopes. I plan on washing this yeast and saving as well.

-Josh

I brewed this recipe a few weeks ago. I am about to keg it. But from the few samples I have had, it is a really great yeast. The fruit notes, especially peach, are great.

I tried my ESB recipe with it and love the flavor. Very malt forward with nice esters. The toffee is palpable with this one. I also found it to be nicely flocculent.

In all, a fantastic yeast for British milds and bitters. I wish they would make it a year around offering.

Used it in an ESB, good stuff.

I put it in the same category as the Wyeast Kolsch and Saison strains, yeast that make great beers but are a pain to work with. I did a Landlord inspired beer with it when it first came out a few years ago, the krausen never dropped and it took a couple months in the fridge to drop bright in the bottles.

Have people had better experiences with its flocculation since it was re-released?

Oldsock said:

I put it in the same category as the Wyeast Kolsch and Saison strains, yeast that make great beers but are a pain to work with. I did a Landlord inspired beer with it when it first came out a few years ago, the krausen never dropped and it took a couple months in the fridge to drop bright in the bottles.

Have people had better experiences with its flocculation since it was re-released?

Click to expand...

I have had the opposite problem with that yeast. It flocc's so hard in the bottom of my conical that it makes getting the yeast out a pain. My harvested yeast in the fridge has such a tight cake I have to stir it up with a fork before adding to the starter. All of the beers I have used it on were crystal clear after 1 week in the keg.

Oldsock said:

I put it in the same category as the Wyeast Kolsch and Saison strains, yeast that make great beers but are a pain to work with. I did a Landlord inspired beer with it when it first came out a few years ago, the krausen never dropped and it took a couple months in the fridge to drop bright in the bottles.

Have people had better experiences with its flocculation since it was re-released?

Click to expand...

Yes. This was the cloudiest beer I have ever made. No kidding. I started drinking it about a month after brewing it though. Despite not letting it age very long, every other English strain I have worked with was very clear shortly after FG was reached. Also, the krausen persisted long after fermentation had stopped, so I just racked from underneath. This strain is notorious for having a cheesy krausen that continues to float and never fully drops.

It was delicious though. Good thing it was a dark brown beer.

really? that's interesting. it's noted to drop clear. Thames Valley II dropped like a stone for me. so much so I didn't even try to harvest it. wish i had tho.

I have mixed success with this yeast in terms of flocculation. Sometimes it ferments fast and drops clear within three days (lighter colored bitters, esbs) and is ready to drink in two weeks. Other times it doesn't flocculate at all and I have to wait months for it to clear. Actually, I just added gelatine last night to a batch wy1469 brown ale that was refusing to clear.

In terms of flavor, I think this is about as good as English strains get!

maybe the mixed results is why wyeast isn't making it a permanent strain?

also, i bought this, and ingredients to make a modified version of my esb:

9.50lb Warminster Floor-Malted Maris Otter
0.75lb Simpsons Medium Crystal
0.25lb Simpsons Dark Crystal

2oz Goldings at 60
.5oz Goldings at 20
.5oz Goldings at 0

I'm drinking a Landlord clone right now. Oldsock was spot on about the krausen - never dropped and racked from beneath after three weeks. I added gelatin to the keg, cold crashed it for a week and it's crystal clear.

It has a fantastic flavour, though. Balanced with a touch of fruit. The malt and hops both come through nicely. Kinda wish that this was a permanent fixture. I'm a big fan.

Just kegged a mild that I used repitched 1469 from the Landlord. Again, malty, but a soft fruitness from the yeast that balanced things out nicely.

Brewed a basic Pale Ale a couple of months ago to try a Willamette / Chinook hopping combination. Willamette was the major player, but the Chinook added nice citrus, piney complexity. It was the favorite beer at our Thanksgiving gathering and the first keg to kick. I had planned to re-brew this weekend again using a clean American yeast, but all the positive 1469 talk has me excited. The nuttiness and dark fruit esters from this yeast might be a good compliment to Willamette’s earthy character. Any opinions on using 1476 with American hops as opposed to making a traditional English style beer?




Thanks to motobrewer for starting this thread.

it's what i do.

i'm pretty stoked to brew this. my last ESB with thames valley II was one of my best beers ever. hopefully, this will be the same. and hopefully it clears quickly, this needs to be ready in about 6 weeks.

bierhaus15 said:

I have mixed success with this yeast in terms of flocculation. Sometimes it ferments fast and drops clear within three days (lighter colored bitters, esbs) and is ready to drink in two weeks. Other times it doesn't flocculate at all and I have to wait months for it to clear. Actually, I just added gelatine last night to a batch wy1469 brown ale that was refusing to clear.

In terms of flavor, I think this is about as good as English strains get!

Click to expand...

+1 in an ESB. Fermented down to 1.014 in 4 days and the krausen had almost completely disappeared. Still a little cloudy in the keg but improving all the time.

I used this to brew an English IPA in place of the 1969 London ESB yest (which my LHBS was out of). They had the same temperature profiles, flocculation rating, and attenuation range (67-71%).

My IPA, however, attentuated to nearly 73%, which was more than I was hoping. I wanted a bigger malt backbone to remain. Oh well, it still seems good. The only test-taste I had was yesterday as I racked it to secondary.

Just my experience...it might attenuate more than advertised!

ok, so, long story short, i had to abort my brew day....

but i still have this 1.6L starter. this is for 5.5 gal of 1.050 beer.

it's in my fridge right now, and I plan on brewing sunday. So, should I just decant and pitch, or add some fresh wort? I don't want to build this up much more as I think I might get into the overpitching range, something that doesn't seem like a good idea with this type of beer/yeast.

Decant and pitch. You're fine, no need for more wort as long as you got a good crop out of the starter.

This is my new favorite yeast. I did a ESB with it that was amazing. Then I got crazy, I did a RPA with it and it's heaven in a glass.

8lbs. M.O.
3lbs. Rye malt
0.5lbs. Crystal rye
2.00oz Glacier 5.0% - 60min
1.00oz Glacier 5.0% - 10min
1.00oz Glacier 5.0% - 0min

The color was pretty light going into the kettle and I was worried it might be a bit too fermentable with the 150F mash, so I kicked the burner on as soon as I had about an inch of first runnings, and stirred constantly for the rest of the sparge. It turned a beautiful copper color. The beer finished at 1.016. I also had the yeast drop like a rock in a vacuum.

I've washed it and just pitched a jar into a 5gal batch of Munich/Summit SMaSH. Should be interesting.

thanks for the info. i'm excited to use this as well, and I plan on washing and saving this. never done it before tho, we'll see.

motobrewer said:

i'm excited to use this as well . . .

Click to expand...

I was looking forward to brewing over the weekend, but had to work. Finished the job up Monday, so took yesterday off and brewed. There’s eight gallons of wort down in the basement, but the excitement won’t end until there’s beer to drink. High hopes for this yeast!

Took off sometime last night. Here’s a carboy with a happy airlock after less than 9 hours. Started without a blow-off. Four gallons in a five gallon carboy. Hope that’s not a mistake!

A little more experience with this yeast.

Started fast, but not a huge krausen. So far the lack of using a blow-off tube hasn’t been a problem. Strange thing is that there is usually a direct correlation between krausen and heat, but this yeast is breaking that rule. I have one 5 gallon carboy in a temperature controlled fridge holding at about 66 degrees. I left the other out on a bench thinking it would be fine because the basement temperature is 62 degrees. Surprisingly, the carboy temperature is up to 70 (read by a digital probe taped to the side.) I do have it bundled up in a couple of sweatshirts to keep out light. That's holding in some of the heat, but still . . .

thanks for the info. i plan on fermenting in my 60F basement, i think that should be adequate.

couple of sweatshirts will certainly insulate. try a garbage bag.

I'm about to make an ESB with this yeast, and I think i'll ferment it in my 60-65 degree cellar. Judging by what you guys are saying, this should be adequate.

One thing i'm curious about is the attenuation of this strain, since it's lower than any other yeast I've used. Obviously, this will be good for this style, but has anyone had any cloying sweetness? Beersmith says my FG should be about 1.014, which isn't too high, but has me concerned.

SchlazzGraft said:

I'm about to make an ESB with this yeast, and I think i'll ferment it in my 60-65 degree cellar. Judging by what you guys are saying, this should be adequate.

One thing i'm curious about is the attenuation of this strain, since it's lower than any other yeast I've used. Obviously, this will be good for this style, but has anyone had any cloying sweetness? Beersmith says my FG should be about 1.014, which isn't too high, but has me concerned.

Click to expand...

I got 75% attenuation with this strain. For my beers, any yeast strain attenuates on the higher end, or more, of the advertised attenuation.

My last batch with this yeast went from 1.050 to 1.008 with a mash temp of 156F. A little more than I wanted, but I pitched a pretty big starter.

Though one thing I am loving about this yeast is that it gives the beer a really nice smooth mouth feel, without lots of residual sugars. Hope they make this available all year.

Another update.

I spoke too soon. Woke up this morning to a foamy airlock. Nothing to serious, just a PITA. It's falling back already. Strangely it was the carboy that was kept at a slightly cooler temperature. It did have about a quart more wort than the other, so that may have been just enough to make the difference. Even the other had krausen right up to the rim. Just seems odd that they both took off fast, but then regrouped for another spurt of growth after more than 48 hours.

Any explanations?

This strain also attenuated about 3% more than advertised for for the maximum. I wonder why they labeled it as such? Oh well...

I also had some airlock overflow. Had about 5.5 gallons in the ale pale. Not too much of a mess, but I just wanted to share my experience.

Seems to be fermenting great for me! Nice airlock activity and swirling wort after less than 24 hours. I'm keeping it on the landing halfway down my cellar, which is keeping it at a steady 63 degrees (all the way down there is a bit too cold, upstairs is too warm). Pretty vigorous fermentation for how cold it is, the krausen is almost to the top of the 6.5 gallon carboy!

edit: maybe the wyeast advertised attenuations are for the direct smack-and-pitch method with no starter. This is how i pitched mine, since I wasn't aware of the benefits of making a starter until it was too late. Oh well, my other beers have turned out fine and this one doesn't seem to be lacking yeasties... maybe next time i'll try doing a starter

I pitched around noon today, and 6 hours later there's already bubbling and a krausen forming.

its in a new carboy that doesn't have a temp strip, but the basement's at 61, so it should be around 65

AnOldUR said:

Another update.

I spoke too soon. Woke up this morning to a foamy airlock. Nothing to serious, just a PITA. It's falling back already. Strangely it was the carboy that was kept at a slightly cooler temperature. It did have about a quart more wort than the other, so that may have been just enough to make the difference. Even the other had krausen right up to the rim. Just seems odd that they both took off fast, but then regrouped for another spurt of growth after more than 48 hours.

Any explanations?

Click to expand...

From what I've read, 1469 is a true top cropper. You get a first krausen like in pretty much 99% of your beers, it might drop a little, and then a big portion of the yeast starts accumulating on the surface, creating a foamy "second" krausen.

You can harvest the yeast from the top by scooping the foam and adding some sterile water to a sterile mason jar. I bought some of it along with London Ale III precisely because they were top croppers and it makes open fermentation along with yeast harvesting so much easier.

jfr1111 said:

From what I've read, 1469 is a true top cropper. You get a first krausen like in pretty much 99% of your beers, it might drop a little, and then a big portion of the yeast starts accumulating on the surface, creating a foamy "second" krausen.

You can harvest the yeast from the top by scooping the foam and adding some sterile water to a sterile mason jar. I bought some of it along with London Ale III precisely because they were top croppers and it makes open fermentation along with yeast harvesting so much easier.

Click to expand...

I noticed that about this one... the first signs of life i saw were white colonies forming on the surface. Beware though, it is insanely vigorous and i've had to clean the airlock twice now (48 hours since pitching it). Should I be worried about infection removing the airlock so often? I've never done a blowoff hose, and i feel like at this point i should just ride it out... what do you guys think?

SchlazzGraft said:

Should I be worried about infection removing the airlock so often? I've never done a blowoff hose, and i feel like at this point i should just ride it out... what do you guys think?

Click to expand...

As long as the airlock is not getting clogged and nothing is getting back into the beer, you should be fine to just let it ride out. However, as long as your are sanitary, there shouldn't be much risk in cleaning the airlock if it's really nasty.

i 2nd the double krausen.

within 6 hours of pitching, I had a smaller, rocky krausen but very constant airlock activity.
this morning (42 hours after pitching) I woke up to a slowed airlock but a giant krausen, almost blowing off a 6gal fermentor.