Wy 1318 Question

If I pitch a smack pack of London Ale III onto a 1.055 OG robust porter, Mr Malty says I'll be underpitching. I'm planning on brewing tomorrow, so I need to know what the effects will be so I can try to get a starter together. I have only used dry yeast to this point, so I'll have to take a crash course on starters if it is going to make a big difference for my beer. Thanks.

starters are always a good idea to ensure a healthy ferment. i use a 2 pint starter for anything 1.060 and higher. i've used just a smack pack or white labs vial for anything under 1.060 and i've used a 1 pint starter for anything under 1.060, both with good resulting fermentations and beers. if you have the time and stuff to make the starter, i'd go ahead and get one going. anything to make the beer better.

djfriesen said:

If I pitch a smack pack of London Ale III onto a 1.055 OG robust porter, Mr Malty says I'll be underpitching. I'm planning on brewing tomorrow, so I need to know what the effects will be so I can try to get a starter together. I have only used dry yeast to this point, so I'll have to take a crash course on starters if it is going to make a big difference for my beer. Thanks.

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If you're able and have the ingredients, make a starter. Today is o.k. for tomorrow's brew. It seems much more complicated that it really is.

The effects of underpitching are sluggish/stalled/incomplete fermentation and stressed yeast which may cause off flavors (phenols and acetylaldehyde to name a couple).

BTW, nice choice on the yeast strain. That's my go to yeast for nearly all my beers. From APA to mild, it's a fantastic and versatile strain.

BTW, nice choice on the yeast strain. That's my go to yeast for nearly all my beers. From APA to mild, it's a fantastic and versatile strain.[/QUOTE]

Since you use this yeast on a regular basis I was wondering if you could answer a question or two about it. I have an APA fermenting (fairly high gravity) and was wondering what temp you normally dial in on the 1318. After a very violent initial fermentation (it actually blew out my blow off tube which has not happened in years) it settled in at around 64' but it was still fermenting fairly vigorously a week later and was cloudy so I ramped the temp up to 67' and have left it at there. This is reportedly a very flocculant yeast but I still see a fair amount of yeast in suspension. What temp(s) do you normally use with this yeast? Thanks.

Montanaandy said:

BTW, nice choice on the yeast strain. That's my go to yeast for nearly all my beers. From APA to mild, it's a fantastic and versatile strain.

Click to expand...

Since you use this yeast on a regular basis I was wondering if you could answer a question or two about it. I have an APA fermenting (fairly high gravity) and was wondering what temp you normally dial in on the 1318. After a very violent initial fermentation (it actually blew out my blow off tube which has not happened in years) it settled in at around 64' but it was still fermenting fairly vigorously a week later and was cloudy so I ramped the temp up to 67' and have left it at there. This is reportedly a very flocculant yeast but I still see a fair amount of yeast in suspension. What temp(s) do you normally use with this yeast? Thanks.[/QUOTE]

65/66 is the lowest I've gone and ramp it up when the airlock activity slows.

Here's a pic of a month old apa

Thanks for the info. Nice looking beer...

if you dont have the means of making a starter ahead of time, you can make a real wort starter. just pull aside a quart of your wort, pitch into that, and then pitch that into your fermenter the next day once its krausened.

That's not a bad idea. I'll keep it in mind for the future, as I overshot my OG by a few points and went over their recommended max OG for non-starter use. Either way, I pitched and fermentation (little better than 1 bubble/minute) started in a little less than 12 hours. That seems like a fairly decent lag time, so we'll see how it turns out. Plan on leaving it on the cake for a month. Once I have my stirplate put together and can get a supply of DME (I started with AG, so have never had any extra sitting around), I'll start using starters. Until then, depending on how this turns out, I may stick to dry yeast.