Windsor: the worst yeast ever? Attenuation problems...

I brewed an Oatmeal stout, all-malt, and decided to try Danstar Windsor for it's tendency to leave some residual sugars and big mouth feel. But seven days into this brew, I've only attenuated 60% or so. Bah humbug.

Anyone had similar problems?

7 days? If it were me I would chill with a homebrew and wait a little longer. My Oatmeal Stouts usually end up in the 1.020 range. What are you at now?

I've got an Oatmeal stout stuck at 1.020 for two weeks now. Used S-04, which is supposed to be similar. It's still VERY slowly fizzing along. Can't do anything but leave it to finish when it's finished, but I'm a little miffed about how it crapped out.

Oatmeal stouts will finish with a higher gravity anyway (lots of starches in the oats). One of the characteristics of Windsor is it's low attenuation. That isn't always appropriate so not always a good choice in yeast.

1.020 is perhaps a little high but that would depend on the recipe. As was mentioned, leave it be for another week and check it again.

I'm at 1.028 now. Luckily, I had a pretty sizable grain-bill (hoping to compensate for low-efficiency due to lack of brewing) and had a good mash and sparge.

I did mash at 157*, so I anticipated a higher FG, but I've got no reason to believe this thing is still fermenting.

At what temperature is the beer fermenting?

It's been at 70* for the entire duration of the brew. Pretty steady. And, as near as I can tell, the wort was adequately aerated.

I am leery of pitching more yeast. The beer tastes pretty good, but I'd like to get it down below 1.020, at least.

Hmmmm. I like Windsor yeast, and am using it again on Wednesday for an Irish draught. That recipe uses honey, though, and has a pretty low OG to start. The last time I made it I had an OG of 1.052 and a FG of 1.012. In my oatmeal stout now on tap, I had an OG of 1.053 and a FG of 1.021 using S04.

Ingredients and mash temperature play a huge part in attenuation. Windsor yeast is a nice yeast to use for some ester and yeast flavors. It clears well, and I have an average attenuation of 72-75% using it.

Yooper:

Glad to hear there's an upside to Windsor. It's probable that the combination of a higher mash temp and a low attenuating yeast are the culprits, more so than just the yeast.

What's weird is how fast this beer took off ~4 hours or so, and how quickly air-lock activity went from vigorous to non-existent (~24 hours).

Give the fermenter a swirl (not shake) to rouse the yeast a bit. There is no need to add more yeast as there is plenty in there already. After you do that give it another week before you check again. As Yooper said, Windsor is a nice English yeast.

I've used Windsor once on my Bitter recipe. I got 68% attenuation. But I adjusted the recipe (lower mash temp, increase sugar syrup addition, remove Cara-Pils) to account for it's notoriously low attenuation. I also used Gelatin for the first time to clear it.

I normally use WLP023 (Burton Ale) yeast in that recipe, but wanted to try a dry alternative. The flavor was good with the Windsor, but the ester profile wasn't near as unique as the Burton Ale yeast. It was more of a generic fruitiness, if that makes any sense. I'd consider using it again, but it's not at the top of my list. I wish there was an all-around good dry British ale yeast with a fruity ester profile.

If you mashed an Oatmeal stout at 157°F and got 60% attenuation so far, that may be all you'll get out of the Windsor.

Windsor is like Muntons and Cooper's, it works best in low gravity, simple recipes. They are all good and fast on simple sugars, not too great for complex ones.

You could safely pitch Nottingham at this point. It won't damage the existing esters.

Is there anyway to calculate how much lower Nottingham would take this beer? I'd like to finish @ 1.015-1.018 if possible.

MT

BangorBrewer said:

Is there anyway to calculate how much lower Nottingham would take this beer? I'd like to finish @ 1.015-1.018 if possible.

MT

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You could ballpark it by looking at the attenuation ranges typical for these yeasts and compare it to the 60% attenuation you already got for Windsor. IOW, if the typical attenuation range of Windsor is 60-70% and Nottingham is 70-80%, you could theoretically expect close to 10% more attenuation than what you have.

There are many variables here and I doubt it will work out that simply. Your beer would probably get 5 to 10 % more attenuation with the Nottingham, which would put you in the low 1.020s.