Weak ferment with WLP570

I'm curious about people's experience with WLP570. I did my first Belgian Golden Strong recently and am disappointed in the extent of attenuation I've acheived so far. This is my first time using WLP570 as well.

I followed Jamil's BCS recipe, built up a large starter, oxygenated the wort with pure O2, used yeast nutrient, and did an escalating temperture fermentation pattern like he recommends. I've had good luck with his recipes in the past and generally get very good attenuation numbers.

After 9 days in primary there is still yeast visibly in suspension, but the airlock has slowed to a bubble every 30 secs or so. There is a large yeast cake on the bottom of the carboys. I took a gravity reading and got 1.021. The sample tastes noticibly sweet and cloying.

Certainly the easy answer is that the yeast aren't done fermenting and that I should just wait. This is my plan, but I'm somewhat worried that I will not get the desired continued drop in gravity given the appearance of the yeast and the slow off gassing of CO2.

I plan on keeping the carboys at the elevated temp for a while longer and see if I can get some more fermentation to occur.

Here are my questions:
1. What are your experiences with the timing needed for this yeast strain to get to terminal FG?
2. Should I expect this to get anywhere near the predicted FG from BeerSmith of 1.005?

Here are the specifics of the recipe/process:
12G batch 90 min boil; 90 min mash.
80% Pils (19 lb 2 oz)
20% Table Sugar (4 lb 12 oz)

34 IBUs Saaz (200g)
Mash temp 149 deg F
Mash efficiency 91%
OG 1.072
FG (?) 1.021
apparent atten 71%
ABV 6.9%

60 secs O2
Starter was 4500ml done 3days prior to brew on a stir plate with 2 vials of WLP570. (Chilled one day prior to brew, but only a small portion was decanted off since the yeast didn't really settle out well.)

Begin ferment at 64degs then raise over one week to 82 degrees. Held at 64 deg for 36 hours then allowed to free rise slowly and finally heated to heating blanket.

How did this turn out? Most people that have commented on this strain actually celebrate (or complain, depending) that attenuates really high. I just used it in a Belgian blonde, and it took it from 1.052 to 1.006 with no problem. I never check mine until ~a month in, unless I'm doing something low gravity that I want to be quick, so I'm not sure how quickly it got to FG.

But I actually wish it hadn't attenuated that much, as I wanted a bit more body in the beer.

Anyway, what did your final gravity end up at?

Give it more time. I brewed 2 beers with it recently and the first one went pretty slow. It started at 1.082 and was still at 1.020 after 2 weeks, and was extremely cloudy. I split that batch and the other 2 yeasts went much faster (those being WLP530 and WLP545. Can't recommend that 545 as it kicked out a TON of diacetyl even though I pitched cold and warmed it up.).

It was bottled after about 7 weeks total and finished up at 1.009, which is 89% attentuated.

Second batch I went ahead and reused that yeast even though it was from a high gravity beer. That one started at around 1.080 and was at 1.006 after 19 days, for 92% attenuation. It was still very full of yeast at that point, though. Very cloudy whereas the other yeasts (again, split batch) had already dropped and those beers were bright.

It tastes great when it finishes, but just requires a bit of time, IMHO.

Ah, just saw the date you posted. So, how did it end up?

Well, I'm still waiting on it. It's sitting in my temp controlled freezer at 82 degs right now. It's been 22 days since I brewed and the airlock is still bubbling about every 30 secs and there's a lot of yeast in suspension. I'll take another gravity sample one of these days.

Interestingly, I have two carboys of this beer from the brew. One that is close to full with around 5.5 gallons and is the one I posted about earlier. The second carboy was about half full (3 gallons) and seemed to finish out around day 9 or so. I took a gravity sample on the less full carboy and it was down at 1.005 and the sample tasted good. I tried to pour more of the starter into the fuller carboy since it had more wort. Otherwise, they were treated exactly the same throughout the fermentation with the same amount of O2, nutrient, and temps. One behaved and one didn't...

Anyway time will tell about the fuller carboy.

The up side is that you will have a blending opportunity. The drier finishing beer should help you if the other just doesn't progress.

My beer is also really cloudy, even after giving it 5 weeks in primary. I've heard this yeast doesn't drop for a while, and usually requires a few weeks of cold conditioning before doing so. Hopefully after a few weeks in the keg, this one will clear up.

The fuller carboy seems to have finished it's ferment. The gravity now sits at 1.004. So the apparent attenuation is 94%. That's pretty darn dry and I'm also happy with how the hydrometer sample tastes. Seems like it just took more time than I was expecting. Anyway, I'm chilling it now and will be kegging it next week.

nberk said:

The fuller carboy seems to have finished it's ferment. The gravity now sits at 1.004. So the apparent attenuation is 94%. That's pretty darn dry and I'm also happy with how the hydrometer sample tastes. Seems like it just took more time than I was expecting. Anyway, I'm chilling it now and will be kegging it next week.

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From everything I've read, this high attenuation is pretty common. My Belgian blonde is slowly clearing, although its still nowhere close to clear. Tasting really good, although not nearly as intense of an ester profile as the Belgian strains I'm used to - e.g. WY Ardennes, WY Abbey I. Great beer, but I'm just not used to such a "clean" Belgian, but I've also read that this is expected for this yeast.

moti_mo said:

From everything I've read, this high attenuation is pretty common. My Belgian blonde is slowly clearing, although its still nowhere close to clear. Tasting really good, although not nearly as intense of an ester profile as the Belgian strains I'm used to - e.g. WY Ardennes, WY Abbey I. Great beer, but I'm just not used to such a "clean" Belgian, but I've also read that this is expected for this yeast.

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Do you fine your beers? I have been using Biofine Clear with good results with a wide variety of yeasts. I'm going to add it to the keg for this one as well. I'll report back.

I don't fine my beers beyond Irish moss in the last 10 minutes of the boil (if I remember). I believe I remembered the Irish moss for this batch, but I don't have my notes in front of me. Most of my beers are pretty clear after 1 month in the primary and then a week in the keg (even if I forget the Irish moss), but this one could probably benefit from some additional clarification.

I certainly wouldn't call this yeast "clean" as in lacking character! For me, it has more pear or apple in the fruit and not so much banana or any of that. It's very different from the Chimay or Achouffe yeast, but those yeasts are also different from each other.

Tasting the Golden Strong after ~12 days in the bottle. Lovely. Needs more conditioning, but it's quite nice. A lot of fruit, a lot of character. And it's cleared up. I didn't fine with anything other than Irish Moss and never do. This one is pretty clear already. Slight chill haze, but that's about it. It should be entirely clear in another month, I'd say, which is fine since it needs more conditioning time at 9.7% abv or whatever it is...

Goes lovely with Saaz hops for flavor at 30 minutes. Used 40 grams in a 20 liter batch for this one and it goes quite nice with the yeast.