Wyeast 1968, chunky cheese!

I've heard the stories over and over about how Wyeast 1968 floccs like crazy and takes on the consistency of cheese. This is my first time using it, though. Getting ready to brew a Dark Mild on Sunday, so naturally have a starter going. During the active part of the fermentation of the starter, the starter looked like it usually does. But now that it's done, it looks entirely different. Went to check on the starter, which is still on the stirplate, and it looked like I had dumped a bunch of cottage cheese into there. Interesting.



Look forward to this brew. Curious about this yeast.

California Ale yeast does the same thing. I had to scoop some of the chunks off the top just to get a hydrometer sample. It makes for a very clean beer tho. The resulting beer looked like I had cold-crashed it or lagered, but it was just a regular ale.

I started to use 1968 because I liked the year - then I realized it was Fuller's yeast and I started to work it into all my bitters. It has never let me down from temps 60-74.. and I know 74 is pushing it but it was before I was enlightened re. swamp coolers and even the 74 had very low butters. You're going to love the yeast and it won't be the last time you use it.

I just used Wyeast 1968 in an ESB, and just transferred it over to secondary. After 19 days in the primary I am very pleased with how clear the beer already looks. I doubt I'll leave it in secondary very long, but I can't wait to try out this beer in a few weeks.

And, yes, the bottom of the primary was very chunky. It really reminded me of when I used the Irish Ale yeast, too.

hoppymonkey said:

California Ale yeast does the same thing. I had to scoop some of the chunks off the top just to get a hydrometer sample. It makes for a very clean beer tho. The resulting beer looked like I had cold-crashed it or lagered, but it was just a regular ale.

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Huh, really? I haven't used WLP001 in a long time, but Wyeast 1056 doesn't act like that at all. At least not for me. It's not a very flocculent yeast at all.

Netflyer said:

I started to use 1968 because I liked the year - then I realized it was Fuller's yeast and I started to work it into all my bitters. It has never let me down from temps 60-74.. and I know 74 is pushing it but it was before I was enlightened re. swamp coolers and even the 74 had very low butters. You're going to love the yeast and it won't be the last time you use it.

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I like the year too! It's my birth year!

I'll be fermenting this mild at 68. I've drank my share of Fullers beers while in the UK, it being the country I've visited most other than the US and Croatia.

Weezknight said:

I just used Wyeast 1968 in an ESB, and just transferred it over to secondary. After 19 days in the primary I am very pleased with how clear the beer already looks. I doubt I'll leave it in secondary very long, but I can't wait to try out this beer in a few weeks.

And, yes, the bottom of the primary was very chunky. It really reminded me of when I used the Irish Ale yeast, too.

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Cool. Are any of you guys rinsing this yeast for reuse? How does the procedure vary?

Huh. That's exactly what our WLP0037 looked like, except maybe with bigger chunks.

I'm loving this yeast. I used it first in my Fuller's London Pride clone, which turned out great. I washed some, and have used it in a mild and an IPA. It's currently churning in my Bishop's Finger clone. Clears great. Tastes great!

WLP001, wyeast 1098 & US-5 all did that for me big time!!! I can't recall if wyeast 1028 did that for me or not.

I even have WLP001 in secondary now and I have some cottage cheese. I had no idea what it was, I've never seen that in secondary. At first I thought infection, then thought it may have been the dry hops. I figure w/ a good cold crash maybe overnight I should really have a crystal clear beer.

petep1980 said:

WLP001, wyeast 1098 & US-5 all did that for me big time!!! I can't recall if wyeast 1028 did that for me or not.

I even have WLP001 in secondary now and I have some cottage cheese. I had no idea what it was, I've never seen that in secondary. At first I thought infection, then thought it may have been the dry hops. I figure w/ a good cold crash maybe overnight I should really have a crystal clear beer.

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Here's the thing: That picture is with the stirplate on, so it's doing the cottage cheese thing while swirling. I just used 1028, which didn't do that for me. Just used 1098, 1388, WLP023 and 1056 and none of them did that, at least not for me (and I've used 1388, 1056 and 1098 a LOT).

This yeast looks totally different from all of those. Looks much, much more flocculent.

Mine have never looked anything like that w/ stir plate on. It's the usual yeast cloud and some small amount of krausen.

petep1980 said:

Mine have never looked anything like that w/ stir plate on. It's the usual yeast cloud and some small amount of krausen.

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Yeah, exactly. For me, all of those other yeasts are just mixed into the beer and the yeast looks more and more milky as the starter progresses. The picture is what I encountered when I went to check on the starter and the stirplate was still on. Couldn't believe it. After I turned it off, it settled out and doesn't look so strange. But it was like a swirling cheese starter with the stirplate still on.

How old is the starter?

petep1980 said:

How old is the starter?

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That pic was from 36 hours in. Nothing to worry about.

1968 is the SHIZZ~!!!
Clean crisp yeast.

Here's my 1968 starter. I absolutely love this yeast! It clears so fast. This is 10 hours into the starter. Stepped up from an 800mL.

the beauty of starters with 1968 is that you have to wait like 5 minutes for it to floc and then you can just decant before pitching. great yeast.

Hey Matt,

I recently used WLP002 for an ESB and I had a similar experience. The stuff was really thick and "yogurty" in the vial, and my 2 quart starter flocced out in 3 days. The cake was so thick and compacted that I had to swirl the bejesus out of the 1/2" or so of starter wort I left (after decanting the rest) around the flask just to get all the yeast into suspension to pitch. I took a gravity sample 5 days into fermentation to see what was going on (because there was no airlock activity), and the beer was at .013 and already crystal clear. I just cold crashed it for 4 days and I'm bottling tomorrow. Cool stuff!

Matt,

Did you try washing this stuff? If so, how did it go? I tried washing the White Labs equivalent (WL002) and failed horribly. The yeast clumped up so much that all I was able to get out was a mere dusting on the bottom of my jars. Now I am trying to find a good English strain to wash and re-use.

Naw, haven't rinsed it yet. It's still fermenting. I'll post to the yeast washing thread.

sp1365 said:

Matt,

Did you try washing this stuff? If so, how did it go? I tried washing the White Labs equivalent (WL002) and failed horribly. The yeast clumped up so much that all I was able to get out was a mere dusting on the bottom of my jars. Now I am trying to find a good English strain to wash and re-use.

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Hmmm...I was going to try and wash my 002. I'll report back when I do...

KayaBrew said:

Hmmm...I was going to try and wash my 002. I'll report back when I do...

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I just posted to the yeast washing thread, so you might read there over the next day or so before you do it to see if there are any good pointers.