Winsor done already?

So I brewed up a Chocolate Milk Stout Sunday, and I rehydrated and pitched Winsor, my 1st time using it. Well, it took off in about 4 hours, just happily bubbling away. Pitched at about 70F, ran it down to about 64-65F, and it was still going just fine yesterday (Monday). Today, I get home and check on it, and there is NO visible activity in the airlock. Just to be sure, a few hours ago I gave the bucket a little swirl, but still nothing. Is this normal for Winsor? I did see on Danstar's website that it can finish major activity in like two days. I'm going to let it run for a week or two before I rack to secondary for the add of the cacao nibs, but I was just wondering if anyone else had seen any similar activity with this yeast.

Oh, and my OG was 1.070...but some of that was the lactose...

Yeah, it can do this. The first time I used it, I didn't understand temp. control, and I let it get up into the low 70s. It was done in under 2 days. Having said that, I think you're doing the right thing by giving it some time on the yeast cake. If you have any doubts, just check the gravity. I suspect it's done, though.

Windsor is sort of a "drive by" yeast. It gets going fast, ferments quickly and then suddenly stops. Don't be surprised, however, if you get fairly modest attenuation from it. I don't use it any longer unless I really want low attenuation.

Even though it's done bubbling, let it sit a total of at least 2 weeks. Fermentation isn't done when the bubbles stop.

Make sure your beer is at true FG before you bottle. My beer was in the fermenter for 3 weeks, one week at 62 F. and 2 more at 74 F. and the hydrometer showed the beer to be at the expected FG. It wasn't done yet and I ended up with way overcarbonated beer and a couple bottle bombs. Windsor is no longer on my list of approved yeasts.

Thanks for all of the replies. Yeah, was looking for moderate attenuation, but I think next time I'll search other avenues...although it depends on how this one turns out. I do plan to let it set for a couple of weeks before I rack it onto the cacao nibs.

Well, now for the rest of the story. Racked this to the secondary (Sunday) onto the cacao nibs (soaked for 3 days in vodka) after two weeks and now fermentation has restarted. The gravity was at 1.028 when I racked it, and apparently the foam from the star san woke the little yeasties up...I had krausen blowing up into my airlock for the first 24 hrs or so, and kept swapping it out so it wouldn't clog. Now I just have regular airlock activity. No visible sign of infection, just looks like a regular fermentation. Guess I should find a proper size hose for a blow-off next time. I am anxiously awaiting this to finish...the sample tasted really good, and the nibs smelled wonderful after the vodka soak.

Your experience is not uncommon. There are a number of threads commenting on the biphasic nature of Windsor fermentation. For me, it always restarted 5-7 days after the initial blast of activity was over. It made me nervous and I quit using it.

Ok, so I'm finally getting around to bottling this today sometime after a 3-week secondary. Now, knowing how unpredictable this Windsor yeast has been, should I trust it to condition properly with just corn sugar for priming or should I add a pinch (a gram or so) of EC-1118 to the priming/bottling bucket? And, no, I didn't cold crash...

HopinJim said:

Ok, so I'm finally getting around to bottling this today sometime after a 3-week secondary. Now, knowing how unpredictable this Windsor yeast has been, should I trust it to condition properly with just corn sugar for priming or should I add a pinch (a gram or so) of EC-1118 to the priming/bottling bucket? And, no, I didn't cold crash...

Click to expand...

No need to add more yeast. What's there will do the job just fine.

Thanks, BigFloyd! I hope it works out, because this is a really tasty Chocolate Milk Stout! SWMBO approves!