Brewing to Bottle with 1968 . . . What Have I Done?

[GinSlinger]

So, in my new-found passion with working towards the less hoppy styles to help me make sure my techniques are good, I've decided to brew Orfy's Hobgoblin II with some slight (very slight!) modifications.

3 G to fermenter
5.75 lbs Marris Otter
5 oz [British] Crystal 60
4 oz Carapils (*sigh*)
3 oz Chocolate malt

3 additions (FWH, 20 minutes and FO) of 1/3rd oz each Fuggles, Williamette, and Styrian Goldings (the three Fuggles).

Will, following ajf's method, mash this 1:1 at 150 for 60-90 mnutes (until iodine test is passed).

After a lot of poking around, and thinking about expanding my yeast usage by trying new things, I took the advice of several who recommended Wyeast 1968. Was looking forward to an ESB with ESB yeast and ESB hops!

Grains are purchased and crushed, starter is made and completed.

Then I found the mega thread: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/b...on-temps-profiles-cybi-other-thoughts-221817/ *car crash*

So, yeah, okay, 1968 is horrible in bottles(?). I don't keg. I can't afford to get into kegging for this batch. Please tell me someone has figured out the secret to bottling with this yeast. I see bierhaus15 has recommended keeping the carb light, which I had planned on. But, will this "cure" the cidery taste some people get (frequently) in bottles with this strain?

Additional constraints: I can't cold crash this as cold as some recommend to drop the yeast out then bottle with another strain. I have a pack of Nottingham, but haven't enjoyed it in any of the beers I've used it in. I plan on starting this low (63), allowing to rise to about 68, then dropping it back to 63 after a couple of days as the megathread recommends. However, I'm one of those sensitive few who can detect diacetyl at very low levels, so I may need to bring it higher to do a rest.

I'd hate to throw out the starter and wait another week to brew (for 3 G batches, yeast is about 1/3rd the cost), so all suggestions are welcome.

 

[bierhaus15]

By no means should you throw out the starter just to use a different yeast! Wy1968 can be temperamental for long term bottling due to the yeast reactivating, but that doesn't mean you'll encounter the same problem. Just be sure to pitch plenty of yeast, oxygenate very well, and make sure the beer has reached it terminal gravity before bottling. A lot of people complain that this yeast doesn't fully attenuate and I think it is mostly due to the yeast flocculating out early or because of a weak fermentation.

An easy test to see how your yeast will behave in the bottle is to siphon off a small amount of beer to a jar (enough to fill a hydrometer/beer bottle) before you are going to bottle the batch and add a tiny amount of dextrose or the appropriate carb tabs. Give it a few days and compare the gravity out of the fermentor and the gravity after adding the dextrose. If you see a major restart in fermentation or sizable drop in gravity, chances are the yeast flocculated early. A local pro brewer mentioned this to me when they were having issues bottling one of their specialty releases.

Also, regarding the ferment temp schedule, don't worry if you can't cold crash. Just pitch low (62-64F) and slowly let the temp rise to 66-68F and then give it a week or two for a good D-rest. Crash cooling helps with flavor and clarity, but it is not necessary if you are dealing with a yeast that throws lots of diacetyl.

Good on you for trying out a new yeast, hope the beer turns out well!

 

[GinSlinger]

Great, thanks bierhaus! I was being melodramatic when I said throw out the starter, but I'm generally pretty good about researching new techniques/ingredients an was quite shocked when I cam across that thread.

I don't have an O2 system, so I'll not have enough oxygen, but was planning on slightly overpitching to compensate (133 v 114 billion). Would you recommend daily swirling to help keep the yeast in suspension?

 

[Ari]

I know this is an old thread, but there's a bunch of complaints about bottling with this yeast. I brewed a bitter, a brown ale and an IPA with it. The bitter is in the bottles and I definitely have that off flavor of apple cider and weird tartness. I don't want that in the other two beers which are in primary.
Here's my solution:
After primary is done I added some wlp090 to each the IPA and the brown in the primaries. This will help it attenuate a little more so the next step doesn't make all the bottles explode. Then I'm going to krausen the batch with wlp090 any sacch should work because it's not going to mess with the flavor at this point. For reasons of attenuation and bottle bombs I'd suggest using the same strain for both these steps. I don't have enough gyle on hand(leftover wort) so I'm going to use some gyle and bump it up to the right priming concentration with some cane sugar.
The reason I'm doing this is to prevent the 1968 from metabolizing once bottled as best I can. The wlp090 is the most nuetral and hungry yeast I have at the moment and I already have some on a stir plate. Hopefully when this yeast gets going on the simple sugars it'll finish up eating them in the bottle before the 1968 can get a bite. I've searched around and I couldn't find any info on this unique problem. Hopefully this is just crazy enough to work...
Here's a krausening process and calc if anyone wants to try this.
info:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Krausening

Calcamulator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/

I'm mostly gonna wing it with the sugar levels, but I know some people like to be exact. It's an english brown so I'll shoot for about 2 volumes.
I'll crack one open in exactly a week and let ya know!
-Ari