Laziest yeast ever -

[Kauai_Kahuna]

OK, so I have yeast a little slow, I have yeast that have petered out on me. This is the first time that I have had a yeast just slowly go, and go, and go.

WLP400 Belgian Wit Ale - I think I will name it "Gump", I am wondering if this thing truly can go over a month and still be in primary fermentation.
SG is still dropping, Oh so slowly. Forrest would be a go-go, Gump just seems to sit, slowly fizzle. I have meads that finish primary faster than this.

OK, question here is this normal?

Fun question is what is your laziest yeast?

 

[BarleyWater]

I had a brown take 3 weeks to get to FG recently, and that was with Cal Ale. I wouldn't say it's normal, but I don't think that there is a problem either. Enjoy your Gump.

 

[Brooklyn-Brewtality]

at least Gump's Wit makes a good brew name.

the thing is, yeast are predicable, but not set in stone. sometimes, for no discernible reason, things just go wacky.

 

[Jilaman]

The White Labs WL400 is notorious for not attenuating at a normal pace for most yeasts. I've had it take 3 weeks to properly attenuate. You might want to rouse the yeast and see if that speeds the process.

 

[k1v1116]

if you want to see a slow yeast try wyeast sweet mead yeast Ive used it twice and both times it took over a week to swell the packet and around 6 months to ferment to about 8%, and yes I used plenty of nutrients.

 

[Bytor1100]

This yeast is also a pain in the butt. I have a hard tim making starters without them blowing all over the place. I've had to move to making 1QT starters in gallon jugs without having them overflow

 

[Ysgard]

Funny, I have had a wit in primary for 3 weeks now, and the krausen just now fell. much less the gravity stopped falling.

Same yeast, Belgian Wit from White Labs.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Just short of a month, and the krausen has finally dropped, I think a take a reading this weekend. But I'll be gone for three weeks so I'll just let it sit.
I have used sweet mead yeast that fermented faster than this. Next time I will be rousting this yeast every other day. I am always trying to learn patience, but this is just lazy, who do they think they are? A larger yeast?.
I just hope the beer is worth the major disruption in my brewing schedule. I wanted a mead and a cider to be working while I was on vacation.

 

[Bert]

I've had weird experiences with this yeast also.

The first time I used it for a wit the fermentation started normally but the krausen fell after about a day. I shook the carboy before I left for work and came home to find foam coming out of the airlock from a much higher krausen this second time around. The same thing happened three or four more times over the two weeks in the primary but I ended up with good attenuation and a great beer.

I reused the yeast for a Belgian Pale Ale and it seemed to ferment fairly normally. I then reused some slurry (from the first batch) for another wit and fermentation crawled along for a couple weeks then stuck at 1.020. After a bunch of rousing, adding yeast hulls, etc I gave up and bottled it. Of course about a month later bottles started exploding. I took my life in my hands and releived the pressure about ten times per bottle and the resulting beer ended up being pretty good, but yeasty.

I've got another batch of wit going right now with first-gen WLP400 and I have a feeling it is stuck again. I mad ea 2 quart starter, decanted a quart+ of fermented wort, added another quart and pitched at high krausen. Fermentation took offlike a shot (judging by airlock activity) but slowed dramatically after about 36 hours. Now it's been sitting with a tiny (1/8") krasausen for about five days. I've tried rousting a few time with no apparent results. I'm going to check the SG tonight but am hoping that it just fermented out really fast beacuse it probably got up to the high-70s in my apt for the first day or two.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Just to follow up, I still have a few bottles of this and it does taste fantastic. Hands down it is a bottle I will pull out for any tasting.
I still think the yeast is very slow and one of the laziest workers out there, but the quality is worth it.
Just wanted to bump this to remind people that patience is good, and yeast have their own work schedule and be prepared to adjust you brew calendar for these guys.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I've had this yeast take three weeks to finish in one batch and finish fermenting another batch to FG in 6 days. I think the difference is the one that finished quickly I pitched cool and let it get as warm as it wanted. The one that took 3 weeks to finish was kept cool. Both times I pitched a good sized starter, so I have ruled out pitching rate as the culprit.

 

[chillhuman]

I brew a wit w/ WLP400 probably 3 times / year. SWMBO loves this style. This is a beer that I pitch and then bring up out of the basement where it's warmer. I have had yeast blow out of the airlock probably 70+% of the time, but never a slow finish. However, I usually do this one at around 70F throughout the day. Maybe the slow finishers are not warm enough, but this is a yeast I would not put on the lazy list. The WLP Saison, however, takes a good bit to fully attenuate. Totally worth the wait, too. I brewed mostly Belgian beers when I was first starting out, so I'm not a big Belgian beer fan now, but the Wit and Saison styles I can really get into.