Anyone use wlp001 in a stout?

[Coastalbrew]

I brewed a 3G batch of Yoopers oatmeal stout on Sunday. Pitched a pack of Wyeast british ale II @ 3:15, 64*. Checked this morning, no activity and the fermenter still @ 64*. I decided to raise the temp up to 67 and swirled the wort to try and rouse the yeast. Still nothing. I've ramped the temp up again to 69 in the hopes that the extra warmth will inspire the beasties to start eating. I know it's only been 24 hours, but usually my fermentations start within 6, so I'm starting to think about a re-pitch.

The only other yeast I have on hand is wlp001. The lhbs is 45 minutes away and I won't be able to get up there until Thursday, and with it being new years eve, they may or may not even be open. So am wondering if anyone has ever used 001 in a stout and what I might expect out of it. I plan on giving it another 24 hours at the higher temp before re-pitching.

Any thoughts or advice are appreciated.

Cheers!

 

[day_trippr]

Take a gravity reading, then decide what to do...

Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Take a gravity reading, then decide what to do...

Cheers!

There's no krause ring, no bubbles of any kind inside the fermenter. The inside of the bucket looks exactly the same as when I added the wort, and the wort itself is just a pristine crystal clear surface. Or at least as clear as an oatmeal stout can be. Can fermentation happen with literally no signs inside the bucket?

 

[Jag75]

I use 001 in my stout all the time.

 

[Jag75]

What was your OG ? Was a starter used? Did you aerate before pitching?

Only way to know is do what day trippr advised , then you'll know.

Edit: Just looked up that yeast . Says works up to a 10% beer . So may of not needed a starter unless yeast was old .

 

[Coastalbrew]

What was your OG ? Was a starter used? Did you aerate before pitching?

Only way to know is do what day trippr advised , then you'll know.

Edit: Just looked up that yeast . Says works up to a 10% beer . So may of not needed a starter unless yeast was old .

Og was 1.061. I used 1 pouch of yeast, but no starter on a 3.25 G batch. For aeration I empty my kettle from about 2 feet above the fermenter and use the natural splashing action to aerate the wort. This has always worked fine for me with beers up to 7.5%. I had the yeast in the fridge for about 3 weeks, didn't look at the date on the pack though. I did notice that the smack pack didn't really inflate prior to pitching. Maybe it was a bad pack of yeast.

I'll check the gravity before re-pitching just to be sure. Mostly I'm just trying to figure out if the 001 is going to impart any character to the beer? As much as I'd like to wait and get a new pack of the British ale yeast, I'm not feeling good about leaving wort in the fermenter for 4.5 days with no yeast. Feels like I'm asking for infection.

 

[Jag75]

If you have to re pitch , don't worry about the 001. It turns out great . To me its very clean & neutral.

 

[day_trippr]

Somewhat surprising to me, a 3.25 batch of 1.061 wort needs somewhere between 140B and 180B cells, per Homebrew Dad (I'm a fan of Dad - or at least his yeast calculator )

The typical smack pack leaves the factory with a promised 100B viable cells on Day Zero, so it seems for an ideal pitch (at least .75M cells/°P/ml but preferably imo 1M cells) a modest starter would have been a good move.

Still...hang around here for awhile and you'll read of all kinds of "interesting" happenings, including apparently still fermentations that actually had dropped to desired FGs - and in some cases, then some. I don't like opening fermentors, period, and certainly don't cherish the idea of re-pitching without due cause.

Do the gravity check. Who knows?

Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Thanks, we'll see how it goes.
Cheers!

 

[Coastalbrew]

Update: got up this morning and there was action in the air lock. It's bubbling away happily now. I guess it just needed a little more time and temp.

Thanks again for the advice.

Cheers!

 

[VikeMan]

Update: got up this morning and there was action in the air lock. It's bubbling away happily now. I guess it just needed a little more time and temp.

I'll just add that WLP001 would have done just fine at 64F, without bumping the temperature up. (I routinely do imperial stouts at 61F with WLP001.) The best and simplest answer to any "It's been X hours since pitching after there are no signs of activity" is almost always "wait."

 

[Coastalbrew]

I'll just add that WLP001 would have done just fine at 64F, without bumping the temperature up. (I routinely do imperial stouts at 61F with WLP001.) The best and simplest answer to any "It's been X hours since pitching after there are no signs of activity" is almost always "wait."

Yeah, I just got nervous and wanted to have plan b in place just in case. I've never had a batch take more than 8 hours to start and usually it's less than 6. You know, you never really feel good about a batch until you see those happy bubbles.

Cheers!