Normal or not?

I brewed a 10 gallon batch of a Blonde Ale and pitched different yeasts into each carboy. I've never used either of these, Nottingham and Wyeast 1272.

Both started active fermentation within 12 hours of pitching. My fermentation temp is 68 degrees.

Now after 8 days, kraussen has completely dropped out in the Nottingham batch while I still have a somewhat thick kraussen layer with the Wyeast 1272 batch. What's prompting my post is that the w1272 kraussen appears somewhat.. well... sticky or filmy for lack of a better explanation.

I have read some folks say W1272 can be a slow fermenter so I should probably just look at it in another week. Meanwhile, does this look normal to anyone?

Looks normal to me. Remember there is much more yeast in dry yeast than liquid. That may be the reason.

No starter with 1272... Ugg! The OG on this one was 1.045 and I thought I'd also just try pitching the SmackPack. I see from Mr. Malty that I'm about ~58 billion cells shy and should have used 1.6 packs with no starter. Guess I'll chock this up as an experience point!

The recipe I used called for a 68 degree fermentation temp using Nottingham. It's basically BierMuncher's Centennial Blonde with the addition of some Hallertau and the use of WY1272 was the suggestion of a good friend. I figured I'd try both since I was using two carboy's.

Okay, so at least I get the lower than ideal pitch rate as an explanation for the seemingly slow fermentation and questionable looking kraussen. Thanks for the feedback!

I have the same thing going on right now with 1272. It looks almost like mucus and hasn't dropped at all in almost two weeks. This is my first time using this yeast but I've never had anything like this happen before.

Glad to know I'm not alone with this... Mucus is a good way to put it! lol I'm glad I took my pic because I can tell there has been a very small increase in the diameter for the "hole" in the center of the kraussen. Everything else looks about the same.

Did you make a starter or just pitch the smack pack?

I just pitched smack pack but I do that pretty regularly and haven't had this before.

I don't even have a hole in my krausen. It's thick all the way through. I moved it into my furnace room so that it will hopefully heat up a bit. It's been at 62 the whole fermentation. I haven't taken samples to see if ferm is done but I figure it can't hurt.

I do think the mucus/sticky appearance is odd. I wondered if it could be some type of contamination but I was pretty careful with sanitization, StarSan in the carboy and bung/blowoff, on the smack pack and scissors too.

If you check SG pleas let me know what you find. I figure I'll wait and see what it's like next weekend which would be 3 weeks. If I see good attenuation I'll probably secondary this one for another week for grins...

My mucus krausen is going away. It only warmed up 2 degrees to 64 so I'm not sure if it was the slightly warmer temp or it just needed a couple days. How's yours looking?

Mine is absolutely dropping. The Kraussen hole is now a Kraussen O...

So, apparently this can be normal and now I can't say "I've never seen this before".

Quick update:

I did secondary the Wyeast 1272 batch. Also, the two yeasts attenuated pretty dang equally.

Whole batch OG = 1.045

Nottingham FG = 1.0074
Wyeast 1272 FG = 1.0068

Both bottle time samples tasted pretty good. Cant wait to do a side by side taste test!

You've got some nice hydrometers!

Interesting thread, thanks for documenting it. It is really astounding what a new yeast strain can do to your sensibilities once you get used to a particular array of varieties.

I'm a little surprised that this would contributed so much to under-pitching. I've pitched straight smack packs into 1.45-1.055 without any noticeable difference than using a small starter. That said, I've always used starters with 1272 (which is a great yeast) because I usually use it for my IPAs and other high abv american beers.

I did an IPA a couple weeks ago with 1272 and pitched a 2.5L starter and the krausen only fully dropped yesterday. This is my first time using it but I think it's a fast starting yeast but slow to finish out. Haven't taken a sample yet but I'm going to transfer to secondary for dryhopping this weekend, provided fermentation is done, and will sample.

Hey Nagorg,

How'd this batch end up tasting for you? I'm drinking one right now and am pretty happy with it. Mine finished at 1.008 so fairly close to yours.

hogwash said:

I did an IPA a couple weeks ago with 1272 and pitched a 2.5L starter and the krausen only fully dropped yesterday. This is my first time using it but I think it's a fast starting yeast but slow to finish out. Haven't taken a sample yet but I'm going to transfer to secondary for dryhopping this weekend, provided fermentation is done, and will sample.

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I agree, the krausen hangs around. The pictures in this thread looks normal for 1272. Cold crash and the yeast will fall out of suspension along with any remaining krausen. I like this yeast though, flocculates well, very compact yeast cake and I like the extra flavor profiles vs. 1056.

dachbach said:

Hey Nagorg,

How'd this batch end up tasting for you? I'm drinking one right now and am pretty happy with it. Mine finished at 1.008 so fairly close to yours.

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Glad you asked, I needed to update that important detail..

As expected, the two yeasts did produce a different end result. IMHO the Nottingham produced a better flavor profile for this recipe. I think there are some nice fruity esters that compliment the style whereas the Wyeast 1272 seems to be a bit dull, almost dank by comparison. Of course I cant help but wonder if I'd get better results with a better pitch rate after making a starter...

Oh well, I'd say that Nottingham was the winner for my palate in this recipe!