Danstar London ESB Stall - Recovery Techniques?

[hopsauce]

Hi,

I just checked the FG of my Tropical Stout after just over 2 weeks and it's 1.026, 10 points too high according to Beersmith (and the recipe).

I used my usual technique, pitched at 18C and ramped up to 22C over the course of a few days. The yeast was a repitch of the slurry from my previous brew (pitched on the same day I bottled the last beer - a dark mild).

I oxygenated with Pure 02 and the mash temp was fine in the grainfather.

Whats the best way to get it to ferment out? I have another section of the slurry in a fridge or US-05 available.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

 

[ESBrewer]

Is it possible to post the full recipe? Personally, I would rouse the yeast back to the solution (probably need to use a paddle or something) carefully, don't splash it. It would have been good idea to do this a little bit earlier when there was active fermentation going on but you can still do it. Then I would give it a few days extra at 22C and after that I would move forward and enjoy the beer whatever the gravity is. 1.026 is not necessarily too much for a stout.

If the beer tastes too sweet, next time you should fine tune the recipe or maybe turn to another yeast source. There are many brewers claiming that this yeast doesn't attenuate very well. I haven't used the dry version but I feel it may be just fine if you adjust the grain bill / mash temp a little bit and possibly rouse the yeast. It is also very common among the stout brewers to add a little bit too much specialty grains and flakes with no diastatic power and end up with a lot of unfermentables that cannot be fermented by any yeast.

 

[kristiismean]

There is a thread on this yeast. I have driven it below 1.020 once, but 1.020 seems to be average.

Post up the Grainbill, the experts on here will be able to help better.

Are you using a hydrometer or refractor to get that 1.026 number.

 

[couchsending]

This yeast doesn’t eat Maltotriose and you need to mash it around 145 to get it below 1.020 according to info from Danstar. It’s also not the dry version of 1968/002 as you would think, it’s a different strain.

 

[thehaze]

You could add another yeast to get it to eat some more of the sugars. I would go with either US-05 or Nottingham.

Danstar ESB, just like Danstar Windsor, " does not utilize the sugar maltotriose (a molecule composed of 3 glucose units). " as per Lallemands specs. sheet. They also write the following:

" Maltotriose is present in wort in an average 10-15% of all malt worts. The result will be fuller body and residual sweetness in beer. Be advised to adjust mash temperatures according to desired result. "

I never used Danstar yeasts before, so I tried Nottingham and Windsor. Nottingham got me 83 and 85% AA. Windsor was 70, 71 and 73% AA, in 3 different recipes. What I did was to mash at 149F and use use sugar in the kettle. This allowed me to get at least 70% AA when usually you would not get more than 65-68%.

If you are willing to use the ESB yeast again, I would pitch the ESB first and then pitch Nottingham 3 days later. You could also pitch them together.

 

[ESBrewer]

I think one of the main reasons why you would use a yeast like this is that you aim to leave residual sweetness typical for these beers. If you aim to eat maltoriose away, you could simply use Nottingham from the start. The real problem is not the fact that wort contains maltriose but the higher than expected amount of other unfermentables (dextrins, melanoidins etc.) in combination with the maltotriose (that we have chosen when we pick this yeast). This could be controlled easily by changing the mash conditions and/or grain bill.

 

[hopsauce]

Thanks for all your replies, figuring out the attenuation (OG was 71), it looks like it's at 63% so I suspect it's done. I mashed at 67C (153F).

The recipe is attached.

Tropical Stout

• hopsauce
• Feb 5, 2018

The sample tastes too sweet, so I might try a US-05 to drop it a bit lower.

 

[seabrew8]

I've used this yeast a number of times now. Makes nice amber ales. The attenuation has been lower. High 60's maybe. Most of the time i get around 80% with any ale yeast.

 

[beersk]

I'm fermenting with this yeast right now too... pitched dry into 3 gallons of 1.046 wort Sunday afternoon, was going by that night, was fermenting like mad the next day, then stopped in the evening...perplexed, I check the gravity, 1.020. WTF. I stepped mashed at 145F for 25 minutes, raised to 161F for 35 minutes. I pitched some S-04 into it yesterday to see if it'd do anything...no activity yet...
This is coming off a string of stuck batches too. In 9 years of brewing, I've never had these problems. I'm about to quit brewing.

 

[bstacy1974]

I used this yeast a few weeks ago for a bitter recipe. After reading all the reviews I could find, I adjusted Beersmith to 65% attenuation for recipe development.
I mashed at 149F and used invert sugar for some additional color and ABV boost.
OG 1.055 to 1.016 last week. It's been sitting for an additional week just because I can't find the time to transfer to a keg. I don't think I gained any additional points but maybe.
One thing I can say is that this yeast absolutely rips for the first 2 days. I highly recommend a blow off tube. I didn't use one and had a small mess to clean up.

 

[thehaze]

I used this yeast a few weeks ago for a bitter recipe. After reading all the reviews I could find, I adjusted Beersmith to 65% attenuation for recipe development.
I mashed at 149F and used invert sugar for some additional color and ABV boost.
OG 1.055 to 1.016 last week. It's been sitting for an additional week just because I can't find the time to transfer to a keg. I don't think I gained any additional points but maybe.
One thing I can say is that this yeast absolutely rips for the first 2 days. I highly recommend a blow off tube. I didn't use one and had a small mess to clean up.

That's 70% AA, which is reasonable, so it is possible to get more than 60-65%.