Wyeast Ringwold

[Montanaandy]

I am interested in those who have used this yeast (Wyeast Ringwold) before and how the yeast works compared to other strains.

I used a smack pack that was manufactured at the end of Oct. 09 so it was about 3 months old but within the 6 month period that is the max recommended.

For the first time since I have used a Wyeast smack pack the pack did not swell up like they normally do (bursting at the seams). The package swelled up a bit but not all that much.

I made a 2000ml starter and kept it on the stir plate for 48 hours and it appeared that I had a nice starter. Pitched into the cooled wort (oatmeal stout) and fermentation took off but it was very controlled. I was expecting an explosion of the type that you get with Wyeast Irish Ale or Scottish Ale yeast but this one never did blow off anything other than CO2.

The heavy fermentation pretty much stopped after 48 hours and I replaced the blow off tube with an airlock.

Is this normal behavior for this yeast or is it normally much more active? Thanks, Montanaandy

 

[stevedasleeve]

My one experience was:

1. Smacking did not yield any result for quite a while and not that much as you experienced
.
2. The Fermenting stalled at 1.020 or so and did not budge even after changing temps and swirling and praying to one of my many (though not terribly effective) gods (Arnold Schoenberg, Miles Davis, & Kermit the Frog)

3. The result was OK but I decide it was too much babysitting/coaxing praying to be worth doing the next time.

4. The next time I used S-04 dry yeast for the same recipe and it all worked out peachy (less fruity though) and rather less expensive (psst... my real reason for using Nottingham - don't tell the beer geek snobs you can make good beer with $2 worth of yeast... they'll just tell you about "attenuation" and "efficiency" and ultimately use the word "utilization" instead of "use" to make them selves feel intellectual)

YMMV and FWIW and WTF,
Steve

 

[Montanaandy]

Thanks for the heads up Steve. I bought the Ringwold because the LHBS had it in and it sounded interesting. I guess that I will just have to see how this one ends up and go from there. Thanks, Montanaandy

 

[stevedasleeve]

OK slight hyperbole on my part perhaps! See how it goes and report back. I know others like this yeast.

 

[Montanaandy]

"OK slight hyperbole on my part perhaps!"

No that's cool. Not everyone has great results with specific yeast. I apreciate you taking the time to let me know your experience with it. Montanaandhy