Fermenting with WLP644

[Queequeg]

I will be making an IPA with this yeast this weekend. For those of you with experience using this yeast I would like to ask a few questions:

1) white labs state is has an attenuation of 85-90%. Have you experienced high attenuation with this strain and did you get a lower FG than you would expect? I am considering to mash at 160F to get a FG of 1.012 according to beersmith

2) What fermentation temp schedule did you follow? I want to maximize the tropical fruit esters, I am considering pitching at 70F and letting it free rise with the temp controller set cap temps at 85F.

3)What pitch rate did you use? I am considering pitch at 0.5m/ml/P to again encourage ester production as opposed to pitching at 0.75m/ml/p

4) how did you aerate? I am considering halving my aeration to promote ester production, so 45s of O2 as opposed to 90s (at a flow rate of 0.3L/min)

All advice and suggestions appreciated.

 

[deadwolfbones]

I brewed a "saison" with this yeast recently.

It worked fast—I used one packet, no starter, in a 3gal batch of 1.055 wort. No idea what that is in terms of pitch rate, but I don't usually worry about that.

I aerated by shaking the fermenter before pitching. I started it at 68 and steadily brought it up to 80F over the course of a couple days, holding it there through the end of primary.

I ended up with a FG of 1.007 (87% AA), but that was after 3 weeks on a ton of kumquats.

The beer is the best I've ever made.

 

[Eltes]

I've used 644 in a couple of IPAs. I got 80-85% attenuation. I fermented at 23-24C for a few days and then ramped up to 26C. What I noticed is that it sees to get off to a quick start, but then slows down. In the end it takes about two weeks to reach FG.

 

[Queequeg]

Ok thanks for you input.