Will Denny's Favorite 50 work out in my situation?

Ok, so I'm brewing for a competition tomorrow. The beer has to be a stout, and everyone has 6 weeks to get their beer from grain to glass.

Mine is going to be a bitter American stout with a hoppy finish.

The OG is going to be about 1.069.

I originally chose to use Denny's Favorite 50 because of all of the good qualities it can lend to a stout (mouthfeel, maltiness). But now I did some further reading around here, and it seems like Denny's takes a while to fully ferment. And it also seems to take a while to flocculate. Some have said it works best in the 1.040-1.060 range. I've never used Denny's Favorite 50, so I've got some questions...

Considering I've only got 6 weeks total, will Denny's Fav. 50 be okay if I only let it ferment for about 3 weeks? Right now I'm planning on letting it ferment 3 weeks, and having it in the bottle for 3 weeks. Should I perhaps let it ferment for 4 weeks, and bottle for 2 weeks?

I want to keep the fermentation in the warm range - around 67 or 68 - because I've heard that Denny's can be sluggish. Will fermenting at 67-68 leave me with any bad flavors?

I plan on mashing at 151 to keep lots of fermentables in the wort and to give Denny's as much help as possible.

As far as the OG is concerned - I assume I can't change my recipe for the competition at this point because the organizers are supplying the ingredients, but I was thinking that I might get rid of maybe 1/2 pound of grains to keep my OG a little lower - think that's a good idea?

Any input is appreciated!!!!

I would make a large starter and pitch it. I have found that 1450 is a yeast that gets better the more generations it has. The third and fourth generations seem to be its sweet spot for me.

I used it once on Dennys Rye IPA and honestly the beer was gone in 6 weeks so I guess it worked fine.

Using Denny's for the first time myself. It reached FG in a week at 64 degrees. Ramped it up to 68 degrees over the next four days to let the yeast clean up. This morning I stuck it in the fridge for cold crashing at 34 degrees. Expecting it'll be clear and ready to keg (or bottle) after a few days at that temperature.

Sound like a schedule that might work for you?

Sounds great! What was your OG?
and
Did you use a normal starter size? I'm thinking of making a slightly bigger starter than I need based on onthekeg's suggestion.

I just looked at Denny's Rye recipe, and he primaries for 3 weeks, then secondaries for 3 weeks for a total of 6 weeks.

I'm only going to primary for 3 weeks and then bottle...

AfternoonReview said:

Sounds great! What was your OG?
and
Did you use a normal starter size? I'm thinking of making a slightly bigger starter than I need based on onthekeg's suggestion.

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This was a 1.063 gravity IPA.

I don't think the time to attenuation will be a problem for you.
Clearing could be, but in a stout it will be less of an issue.

Yeah I'm more worried about the attenuation than the clearing.

O2 and yeast nutrient go a long way in assuring timely and complete attenuation.

I haven't used a nutrient before - what did you use?

I've been using Wyeast Beer Nutrient Blend with good results.


Great for starter health too.

Sounds good, thanks for all the input.

I just did a batch with it and reached terminal gravity in about a week and a half. I pitched at 60, fermented at 62 first day or two then ramped it up to 68 slowly over the next few days after that. If you need a quick floculation I would think gelatin and crash cooling would accomplish that.

Cool - good to know it didn't have trouble at 62F.

I believe Denny's rye ipa has an og of about 1.072, so you'll be fine.

I used it in a American Strong Ale.. Finished right at 10%. I re-pitched some US-05 to bottle condition the beer. Tasted great out of the carboy at bottling. I let mine start at 63 degrees and rose it steadily 1 degree over a period of 4 days and maintained at 67 degrees for the 4 weeks.

Good to know it's been attenuating strongly as of late. Some of the older posts made it look like it could take a while.
I picked up the yeast yesterday and it was manufactured on 2/8/12!!! So that's another plus --- super fresh yeast! The starter is going well and everything should be good when I pitch tonight.

I ended up using Wyeast nutrient, but I forgot to dissolve it in water before putting it in the boil. I assume that won't be a big deal because it must have dissolved in the wort since it boiled in there for a good 10-15 min. I'm going to check the grav. in a few days to see where it's at...

Won't hurt to skip the dissolve step, but I do believe that some minerals dissolve better in cold water. Not really up on my chemistry to tell you which ones. When I first started using nutrient I just dumped it into the boil without issue. Now I put it into an old White Labs vial and shake it up with water first.

Well, fermentation is done - went from 1.060 (I didn't hit my efficiency) to 1.012 in 2 weeks. Tastes great too. Can't wait to use this yeast again.

AfternoonReview said:

Tastes great too.

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Nice! Good luck in the competition.