Wyeast 1028 London Ale attenuation

Hey yall.

I recently brewed a N. English Brown.
Maris Otter base malt
1lb C40
0.5 Victory
0.75 Special Roast
0.25 C80
0.25 Chocolate Malt
Wyeast 1028 London Ale, 1 month old smack pack

Mashed @ 154, 1.052 OG

Aerated, 1.3L yeast starter, 8hr lagtime. Fermented @ 67F

I'm currently stuck @ 1.018. I used this yeast on a porter I brewed early in my beer career that stuck @ 1.020. That one was a little bigger though.

I'm trying to figure out what's up, this yeast should attenuate to at least 73%(according to spec) and I'm at just under 65%. It tasted fairly fruity, but otherwise very clean and delicious.

How does this yeast perform for you guys?

How did you oxygenate? How much yeast did you pitch?

Aerated with a 2um scintered steel stone for an hour, 1.3L starter. Always use the Mr. Malty pitching rate calculator. My beers usually attenuate very well.

I am fermenting with this yeast now. My OG was 1.050 and 2 days in I am at 1.030. I'll be able to tell you in about a week how far I get. I do extracts though and RARELY even with proper pitching procedures do I do better than 70% attenuation.

Smizak I also just read you're in Buffalo. W-ville here. I got like NO snow today.

How much base malt?

Just something I noticed is you have 2.75 lbs. of specialty grains. These may have more unfermentable sugars than the base malt. If 2.75 lbs. is a high percentage of the overall grain bill then your FG will be higher than if it was all base malt.

petep1980 said:

I am fermenting with this yeast now. My OG was 1.050 and 2 days in I am at 1.030. I'll be able to tell you in about a week how far I get. I do extracts though and RARELY even with proper pitching procedures do I do better than 70% attenuation.

Smizak I also just read you're in Buffalo. W-ville here. I got like NO snow today.

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Let me know how you do.

I <3 -2F wind chills BTW.

Soperbrew said:

How much base malt?

Just something I noticed is you have 2.75 lbs. of specialty grains. These may have more unfermentable sugars than the base malt. If 2.75 lbs. is a high percentage of the overall grain bill then your FG will be higher than if it was all base malt.

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That's an interesting point.

Especially if my efficiency is higher than a recipe was formulated for. I would extract a higher percentage of un-fermentable sugars vs. a lower efficiency, higher base-malt grain bill/process.

I've always wondered what effect efficiency has on SRM. Does a lower efficiency all-grain process have a lighter colored beer vs. a higher efficiency process and identical character malts? Hmmmm.

Mine seems to be stalling around 1.018. LME was 55% of my grain bill, and DME the other 45%. My SG was 1.050. I also pitched just above 70°F and fermented at 63/64°F. I'm going to move it to 69/70°F for a couple days, then back to the basement and give it another 9-10 days. I don't have time for syphoning or bottling, so this will get the benefit of an extended primary fermentation.

petep1980 said:

Mine seems to be stalling around 1.018. LME was 55% of my grain bill, and DME the other 45%. My SG was 1.050. I also pitched just above 70°F and fermented at 63/64°F. I'm going to move it to 69/70°F for a couple days, then back to the basement and give it another 9-10 days. I don't have time for syphoning or bottling, so this will get the benefit of an extended primary fermentation.

Click to expand...

Mine's cold crashing as we speak. Stuck a sanitized racking cane in and roused the yeast, cranked up the temp to 72F, got one more point out of it, FG 1.017->66% attenuation. It's really not bad when you consider, as Soperbrew pointed out, that over 25% of my grain bill was specialty grains.

Gotta scale back my specialty malts more. I'm used to seeing recipes adding a pound of this, pound of that, with me not consideration for differing efficiency.

It does, however, point out an annoying oversight with the Beersmith software. It does not factor at all differing amounts of fermentability in specialty malts vs. base malts. I tested it by subbing my 8.5 lb of Maris Otter with Caramel 120, it still says I should get an FG of 1.012!

I used this yeast for my favorite beer yet (a mild). I think the problem is that it clears SO fast. The yeast was done, and dropping out of suspension within 48 hours or so. That being said, I have no idea what my FG was since I broke my hydro right after taking the OG, and have yet to replace it.

Mine tasted good. Give it a taste, and if its good, who cares about the FG?

If it helps, I've got a robust porter fermenting with London Ale yeast that recently went from 1.066 to 1.018 in 6 days at 66F. That works out to 73% apparent attenuation, which is spot on according to White Labs.

I also mashed at 154F, but I pitched a 2 liter starter. How big was your starter?

FYI, mine stopped @ 1.016.