ESB with WLP002

[bmberger21]

So I brewed an ESB last Saturday, 7/30/2016. Everything went well. Hit OG of 1.054. I made a half gallon yeast starter the night before with WLP002, no stir plate, but plenty of shaking and agitation. I never really agitate or shake my actual beer that I am fermenting and always get great results with my typical half gallon yeast starter. I just dump the whole thing in the wort. However, I have been reading the profiles on this yeast and it seems to floc out pretty quickly and leave behind some residual sweetness. I am ok with that as long as it flocs out around 1.016 or lower. Do you think I will attain this with my procedures or can I expect something a little north of 1.016. I find beer that is north of this to just not be acceptable.

 

[lowtones84]

I would gently "rouse" the yeast by giving just a turn of the fermenting vessel or something of the like. It seems unscientific, but the yeast really does flocc out hard and sometimes doesn't complete fermentation as much as it can.

 

[BrewerBrad82]

White Labs lists the attenuation of WLP002 as 63-70%, so getting under 1.016 might be a little tough. The corresponding terminal gravity ranges based on an OG of 1.054 and the listed attenuation is from 1.020 - 1.016.

Was this an extract or all-grain batch? If extract, I would not expect it to get to the full listed attenuation for this strain. If all-grain, you should be able to get it to 1.016 as long as your mash temps were relatively low (around 150F).

 

[bmberger21]

Thanks for the replies fellas. BrewerBrad82, my mash was 152 for an hour. Mostly MO malt with a touch of crystal. Pretty basic ESB. I know that ESB is usually a bit sweet in the finish, but it seems like attenuation for that WLP002 yeast is pretty lousy. My main concern is that on top of the lousy attenuation for this yeast I also didn't aerate my 5ish gallons of wort before pitching. Like I said I always shake the crap out of my half gallon yeast starter and pitch it about 12 hours later with little to no issue, regularly hitting 1.010-1.012 final gravities. Just concerned this yeast may not perform in that manner. I may try rousing or even transferring to my serving keg and purposefully allowing some yeast to transfer with it at let the keg sit a room temp for about 5-7 days if I don't get the FG I'm after. I would ideally like to see 1.014 as I would think this would be the perfect sweetness for this beer. Would the transfer to a keg idea be a pretty successful attempt? Anyone tried this?

 

[BrewerBrad82]

If you do not get full attenuation with the WLP002, one trick you can use it to get something very neutral (WLP001) and bring it to high krausen in a small starter. Once highly active, add it to the under-attenuated beer and it should chew through a few more gravity points. This will dry out the beer a bit, but will not change the ester profile of the WLP002. The downside is that WLP001 will not flocculate nearly as well as the 002, so extra time or finings will be needed.

 

[lowtones84]

Sound like some decent plans. In the future, replacing a bit of your base malt with an adjunct/sugar to dry things out a bit can be helpful, but a gentle rouse is still helpful.

 

[IslandLizard]

Huh, funny to see this.

Finished a Little Sumpin' Sumpin' clone last week with a fresh pack (and starter) of WY1968, similar to, or the same strain as WP002. It's at 1.024 now, and the yeast has definitely called it a day. I'd moved the whole shebang (yeast and all) to a keg 3 days ago, and I've been safely rousing it every 12 hours with CO2. Nada! No budging! It's done for this yeast.

I never realized that 71% attenuation on a 1.071 OG beer gets you 1.021, at best. Plus this was mashed at around 160F, after a 20' protein rest at 121F. It tastes a bit sweet but nice and not really cloying. With 4.5 oz of dry hops it should be very drinkable. Lagunitas is known for sweeter beers. But I'd really prefer to get this beer to 1.014 or so.

 

[PearlJam]

I did a brown ale a month ago and got from 1.044 down to 1.015 with WLP002. Mashing was done at 155f/69c

 

[bmberger21]

Thanks again fellas for all the feedback. Its neat to see that some people are having the similar results (i.e. that this thing truly drops like a stone). I guess I should have paid a bit more attention to the attenuation percentages for this yeast. I have since roused up the yeast and bumped up the temperature to 72F from 68F. We will see what it finishes at. I will definitely keep yall posted. If worse comes to worse I will do what BrewerBrad82 suggested and just pitch some WLP001.

 

[bmberger21]

So all that worry was for nothing. It dropped to 1.012. All good! Thanks again for all the tips!

 

[lowtones84]

Glad to hear it!