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fermentation slowing with WLP001

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tdp

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Aug 22, 2011
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Hi there-

I’m fermenting an IPA I’ve made before that’s had great results in the past... it’s the AHA clone of Bell’s two hearted - the IG was about 1.064 (though I had to add 1lb dme to the boil to get there because my mash efficiency was a little low and I over sparged so the boil was too dilute). The point is that with a 150F mash and DME it should be very fermentable.

Anyway, I pitched two (3 month old/carefully stored) vials of WLP001 at 68F about 5 days ago. Have been maintaining 68F since then... I have a TILT and could see that it quickly got down to under 1.030 (within about 2.5 days) - but now it’s stalling out at about 1.025 - has been there for a about 24 hours. This might just be anxiety driven by having the data from the tilt, but last time I made this it finished at about 1.009 in a week! Also, airlock odor has fairly strong banana odor - so I’m wondering if this might be a lack of O2?

My thought was to make a WLP001 viability starter (the way Denny and Drew describe one the Simple Homebrewing book) and pitch that tomorrow or the next day if things are still stalling out.

Any thoughts/insights would be greatly appreciated!
 
Get an actual hydrometer reading before you do anything, I love my tilt, but I don't trust it for final gravities. If it is indeed high, you've got a tough road ahead. I've never successfully gained more than a couple points from a stalled fermentation.
 
wlp001 is known for how clean it runs, so significant ester production suggests an equally significant underpitch.
Perhaps tossing in a high-krausen state starter might help clean things up...

Cheers!
 
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