Evan!
Well-Known Member
I've got a conundrum that I need some sort of explanation for...
Some of you may know that I sometimes procure fresh yeast and specialty grain as needed from a brewmaster I know at a local brewpub. He pulls it straight from the conicals into my mason jar, usually the day before my brew session. So, a few weeks ago, I was in there trying to scrounge some roasted barley because I wanted to make a stout. While I was there, I got some of his house yeast, the WhiteLabs British Ale. He said it was very vibrant and healthy at the time.
Now, usually, when he gives me a mason jar of fresh healthy yeast, my lag times are short. But when I made that stout, the lag time was at least 12 hours. Oh well. No big deal. It fermented that stout down pretty well, but it was a weird fermentation. Instead of my typical krausen, it looked like a bubbling cauldron on top, without much krausen at all. After awhile, it gained a weird krausen that looked like pudding. It took about 10 days to finish, and all went well, so I didn't worry.
So, this past Saturday morning, I brewed another stout, and strained it directly on top of the cake from the last stout. I expected the usual crazy vigorous fermentation that is typical of pitching onto existing cakes. No such luck. This time, I had a short lag time, and saw airlock activity within a few hours. But, this time, there was NO krausen. Just a bunch of bubbles and crud on top, but no actual krausen. Airlock activity got pretty frenzied from saturday on through sunday. I woke up this morning...and it had slowed to a creep, but still no krausen.
So, I took a sample before I left for work today, and checked the gravity. Lo and behold, it'd gone from 1.082 to 1.028, or, 64% attenuation. I don't expect it to go too much further, since I used 2 pounds of oats, a pound of carapils and 5oz of maltodextrin, but there is still activity going on, so I should see at least another 5 points. The WLP005 has a standard att. of 67-74%, which I'm not too far off of, especially considering the nonfermentables I added.
Anyone have any idea what is going on? Why no krausen? Is it possible the guy mistakenly pulled from the wrong conical and gave me lager yeast? I've just never seen this before. Since I'm hitting my targets, pretty much, I'm not worried, just wondering what this is all about.
Some of you may know that I sometimes procure fresh yeast and specialty grain as needed from a brewmaster I know at a local brewpub. He pulls it straight from the conicals into my mason jar, usually the day before my brew session. So, a few weeks ago, I was in there trying to scrounge some roasted barley because I wanted to make a stout. While I was there, I got some of his house yeast, the WhiteLabs British Ale. He said it was very vibrant and healthy at the time.
Now, usually, when he gives me a mason jar of fresh healthy yeast, my lag times are short. But when I made that stout, the lag time was at least 12 hours. Oh well. No big deal. It fermented that stout down pretty well, but it was a weird fermentation. Instead of my typical krausen, it looked like a bubbling cauldron on top, without much krausen at all. After awhile, it gained a weird krausen that looked like pudding. It took about 10 days to finish, and all went well, so I didn't worry.
So, this past Saturday morning, I brewed another stout, and strained it directly on top of the cake from the last stout. I expected the usual crazy vigorous fermentation that is typical of pitching onto existing cakes. No such luck. This time, I had a short lag time, and saw airlock activity within a few hours. But, this time, there was NO krausen. Just a bunch of bubbles and crud on top, but no actual krausen. Airlock activity got pretty frenzied from saturday on through sunday. I woke up this morning...and it had slowed to a creep, but still no krausen.
So, I took a sample before I left for work today, and checked the gravity. Lo and behold, it'd gone from 1.082 to 1.028, or, 64% attenuation. I don't expect it to go too much further, since I used 2 pounds of oats, a pound of carapils and 5oz of maltodextrin, but there is still activity going on, so I should see at least another 5 points. The WLP005 has a standard att. of 67-74%, which I'm not too far off of, especially considering the nonfermentables I added.
Anyone have any idea what is going on? Why no krausen? Is it possible the guy mistakenly pulled from the wrong conical and gave me lager yeast? I've just never seen this before. Since I'm hitting my targets, pretty much, I'm not worried, just wondering what this is all about.
