1968 or 1318

I'm going to make a Town hall 1800 ipa clone that i found at northern brewer. The recipe calls for british ale 1968, well i bought that and for another beer i bought london ale 3 1318. I never made the other beer so I have both yeasts. Wyeast website says 1318 is the better yeast for the style and i read some things on here about 1968 thats making me rethink using this yeast. Any advice would be appreciated!! CHEERS

Ah, my two favorite Brit strains! I happen to have beers using both fermenting as we speak. 1318 is my favorite, it's nice, mildly fruity, and produces a great ale. 1968 is also great, a little more ester-y, and it can be a bit finicky. It likes to start cool and warm up at the end in order to be at it's best.
Town Hall is brewpub here in town... a really good one, and if I'm not mistaken (I'm not, a buddy used to brew there), they use 1968 in house for that brew. Either way you go, you'll get a great beer.

Looking for some input on WY1968:

Getting set to brew a Lagunitas Lil' Sumpin' this Sunday and currently building up a starter of 1968 for pitching rate. 1.070 is the OG.

It's my understanding this yeast can be a little finicky. I was planning on pitching at 60 and allowing free rise to 65-66F which is the ambient in my fermentation room

First time using this yeast and plan on using a blow off as I do for all my beers. Any input on fermentation process is appreciated

1968 needs a proper pitch rate. Make sure to use YeastCalc or Mr Malty or similar. I've never started 1968 that low, so I can't comment on that portion of your process. Maybe someone else can. It flocculates so aggressively I'd be concerned about it dropping out, but I haven't tried it.

In Brewing Classic Styles, Jamil recommends English styles with this yeast and a temp of 68.

You're brewing an American ale, so YMMV.

Cheers

I typically start 002 (which is supposed to be the same as 1968) at 62 and let the fermentation bring it up to about 66. Once the krausen thins out or drops I'll typically ramp it up to about 69-70 over the course of a couple of days to encourage the yeast to clean up any remaining sugars or diacetyl.

A lot of people mention rousing the fermenter as fermentation slows down - I've done that and haven't noticed much difference - certainly doesn't hurt though. 002/1968 are fast fermenters, typically reach terminal gravity in 2-3 days, and are clear enough to keg/bottle within 7-10.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

Ah, my two favorite Brit strains! I happen to have beers using both fermenting as we speak. 1318 is my favorite, it's nice, mildly fruity, and produces a great ale. 1968 is also great, a little more ester-y, and it can be a bit finicky. It likes to start cool and warm up at the end in order to be at it's best.
Town Hall is brewpub here in town... a really good one, and if I'm not mistaken (I'm not, a buddy used to brew there), they use 1968 in house for that brew. Either way you go, you'll get a great beer.

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Well I'm looking for a pretty easy frementation here, I don't have a lot of time to babysit this beer. I'm going to be using a swamp cooler for the first time, I live is mississippi and its hot as hell right now so my ambient temps are through the roof on these two strains, what temp do you ferment the 1318 at, and seeing as you have had this beer what should i be expecting!! Thanks for all the info> cheers

@KCpup-Already working on the starter as per yeastcalc so I've got that taken care of already. I've researched a couple clones of this beer and all have recommended this yeast so we'll give it a whirl

@AnchorBock, thanks, I've got a brew belt so I can get the temps up as you recommend and I've heard the same about quick fermentation, clearing and rousing. There is quite a bit of dry hopping with this recipe so I'm planning 2 weeks primary and then secondary for dry hop, then bottle

stalewater said:

Well I'm looking for a pretty easy frementation here, I don't have a lot of time to babysit this beer. I'm going to be using a swamp cooler for the first time, I live is mississippi and its hot as hell right now so my ambient temps are through the roof on these two strains, what temp do you ferment the 1318 at, and seeing as you have had this beer what should i be expecting!! Thanks for all the info> cheers

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For either of those yeasts, I would pitch and let them kick off in the low 60's, maybe 63. By the end of fermentation, I'd want the temp ~68 to keep the buggers active. I'd definitely recommend warming +5 degrees or so with the 1968, it helps it clean up any diacetyl.
As for the Town Hall IPA, it's been awhile, I'm assuming this clone is of Masala Mama. I'm pretty sure that's their only regular IPA. I remember it being quite hoppy, lots of citrus on the nose, decent malt backbone. Nothing unique, but very good. Here's a link to their li'l write up on it.

duboman said:

It's my understanding this yeast can be a little finicky. I was planning on pitching at 60 and allowing free rise to 65-66F which is the ambient in my fermentation room

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Yeah, it's a picky li'l yeast. You've got the right idea with it, though. It's great yeast and makes great beer, but you gotta be good to it. Definitely make sure you pitch enough yeast, control temps like that and you should have great results.

Thanks for the input, gonna brew this up Sunday!

duboman said:

Thanks for the input, gonna brew this up Sunday!

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Awesome. Just keep temps down at first, then up ~5 degrees as fermentation slows, it'll keep the yeast up longer and it'll work as a default d-rest, which I think Wy recommends w/ 1968. It took me a few brews with this yeast to really dial in the 'sweet spot', but when ya find what temps work best in your system, you'll realize it's well worth it.
My buddy who used to brew @ Town Hall said in that setting 64 was the sweet spot, but that's in larger glycol cooled conicals. I've found in my fermenters (common 6.5 gal glass carboys) that pitching and starting at 62-63, then up ~5 degrees works best. Also, I can't stress enough how important pitching enough yeast is with this strain.... if it's stressed due to an under pitch, that's where I've noticed it to kick more diacetyl precursor.

Yea, I'm done with the first step and cold crashing to decant so I can step again tomorrow so I hit the estimated 300+B cells yeastcalc got me to so is should be good for another cold crash,decant for Sunday

duboman said:

Yea, I'm done with the first step and cold crashing to decant so I can step again tomorrow so I hit the estimated 300+B cells yeastcalc got me to so is should be good for another cold crash,decant for Sunday

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Yeah, you'll be just fine! I used a 2L starter (beer smith estimated ~195 billion cells) for my APA I just brewed, 5 gal 1.052.

So as an update, the beer was brewed on Sunday, sweltering day! Everything went great, all numbers were hit spot on and the yeast was pitched at 62, placed the vessel in just a water bath and free rose to a stable 64 where it is bubbling away like a rocket ship with a blow off tube. Fermentation took off pretty quick with the appropriate starter and is still going strong. As things slow down I am going to remove it from the water bath and let rise to 68 and hold there until completion. Psyched for this one!

Should I cold crash my ipa, I used the 1318 and there is still a thick krausen on top, I read on here that is all wont settel out but will this help some of it clear before i rack it off the cake, thanks

stalewater said:

Should I cold crash my ipa, I used the 1318 and there is still a thick krausen on top, I read on here that is all wont settel out but will this help some of it clear before i rack it off the cake, thanks

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IME, it'll settle out, but it takes time. What I usually do is gently try to loosen the dough layer by gently moving the carboy, that combined with a ~few degree temp drop should help.

Why worry about the krausen at 5-6 days?

DSmith said:

Why worry about the krausen at 5-6 days?

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Meaning what exaclty

stalewater said:

Meaning what exaclty

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I just realized, you're just a week into this brew? When I've gotten that dough layer, it sits up there for a week or so after FG is reached. Make sure your beer's done before cold crashing.

WY1968 can finish fast in a controlled mid/high 60's primary and Krausen drop in a few days. Am fermenting a bitter now where that happened. I wouldn't even check gravity for 2 weeks from pitching or cold crash before 4 weeks from pitching. Those are just personal preferences/habits.

I have no experience with the other yeast strain mentioned in this thread.

Cold crashing helps any sediment on the surface fall to the bottom but will prematurely stop an unfinished fermentation.