1318 London III - Excess attenuation

[MOAleworks]

Has anyone had experience with 1318 over attenuating? I brewed a blonde with 48% Pils, 48% 2-Row, and 4% carapils, mashed at 152 for 1.050 OG. After 3 days at 68 F, it was at 1.020 and I moved it to 71. 8 days into fermentation, SG is at 1.004!

Tasted it, and it is good: mild bready esters, toast from the pils, but no funk or signs of infection. It does have some phenols reminiscent of a Hef, but not unpleasantly so. No fusels or harsh notes. This is 2nd generation, harvested from a 1.06 OG IPA that fermented clean, ~75% attenuation.

Anyone had experience with this? I haven't brewed with a hef strain or a belgian wit or abbey strain, so not sure how cross-contamination would have worked. Not especially worried given the taste and smell, but a bit alarmed as to whether the ridiculous attenuation is the result of mutation or cross-contamination.

 

[bbohanon]

1318 is a monster..I use it in IPA's quite a bit to as it is slow to fall out of suspension thus the "cloudy" look for my more juicier IPAs.
It will chew through some wort though. I usually leave the beer in primary for 3 weeks when using this one as it does atten on the low side.

 

[MOAleworks]

1318 is a monster..I use it in IPA's quite a bit to as it is slow to fall out of suspension thus the "cloudy" look for my more juicier IPAs.
It will chew through some wort though. I usually leave the beer in primary for 3 weeks when using this one as it does atten on the low side.

90% attenuation is what I got - can you comment on that? You're saying it is on the low atten side, which is what I expected...

 

[atom]

i usually get around 80% on the 2nd + generation.

 

[m00ps]

i use COnan and 1318 for my IPAs and ive found both get higher attenuation with successive generations. Ive never got close to 90 though...

 

[atom]

just checked the gravity on a pale ale that i used 1318. got 90% attenuation. (3rd generation)

 

[bbohanon]

I have a Grapefruit Sculpin clone I just used a fresh pack of 1318 in with a starter. Will report back what I get on this batch as again, I usually get pretty solid results with this yeast attenutation-wise.

 

[gbx]

wy1318 was my favorite yeast for a few years because it repitches so well but you need to top crop it. You can wait until the end of fermentation but skim the floating yeast and repitch that. Don't wait for it to drop and repitch off the bottom more than a week in. I think I did 8 batches once from 1 smack pack with top cropping and the attenuation or flocculation did not change at all.

 

[Xhul]

Oldish thread, I know, but just found it and figured I would add my experience. Last weekend I used what I understand is the Imperial Yeast version of 1318, what they call A38 Juicy. This is the first time I have used this yeast in a New England-y IPA. I figured I would give it a try since there seem to be rumors that Hill Farmstead uses some version of the Boddington's yeast. In the past I have used a bunch of yeasts for this beer: Cali ale yeast, VT ale from a commercial producer, Conan that I cultured from severals cans of Heady Topper, among others.

Based on my grain bill (relatively simple, og of 1.066) my software predicted fg of 1.016 which seemed reasonable since I had heard the thing about this yeast finishing off a bit sweet. After pitching at 65 degrees it began to quickly ferment like a beast, spewing out the blow off...definitely an excellent option for top cropping, as others have said. It slowed down significantly after 3 days so I checked the gravity and threw in some dry hops. To my surprise it is sitting at 1.010, 6 points more than I expected and with an apparent attenuation of 83% (when Imperial yeast says to expect 72-76%). Even now, 4 days old, it tastes absolutely delicious but I have never had a beer ferment out this fast and seemingly over attenuate this much. I'm going to keep this yeast going for a while making an ordinary bitter next and then some more hoppy American styles as it seems excellent for this type of beer.