New bad lot of Nottingham yeast ???

[Zamial]

I posted in the Bad bad notty thread so I will post here as well. The OP in the bad bad notty thread has posted the numbers. When I questioned it through Danstar support this was the reply:

Yes this is true, but the information was released to our distributors and retailer just yesterday so we need it to "get to the marketplace" via retailers to homebrewers. I will be sending information about this to homebrewing forums in the coming days to allow a few days for retailers to get notification first as we want them to be ready for any consumer requests to return the sachets from this batch. As stated below, we feel there is concern among homebrewers regarding this batch so we would like to remove it from the market as we investigate the nature of any problem.

Thanks very much for contacting us. Your support is genuinely appreciated.

Keith Lemcke
Danstar & Lalvin yeast

 

[RavenChief]

I don't know about all the other home brewers out there, but this sounds like a wishy-washy answer from Danstar. I have flushed one six gallon batch of beer down the drain because it never fermented, and have another batch that did ferment but with a plus 72 hour lag time and tastes sour. I know that I spend a lot of time reading the published information about the specific qualities of the yeast strain before I buy yeast. I want to be able to count on my yeast to work "as advertised". I really don't care about getting a refund for a $1.25 pack of yest. I want them to acknowledge all the ruined beer, and state how they have found and fixed the problem. Until they do that I will not buy any more yeast from Danstar.

 

[nutty_gnome]

It IS a wishy-washy answer, just like it was wishy-washy last year with the perforated packets. As with the recall last year there is no public acknowledgement, no posting on their website and no formal explanation of the issue to the homebrewing community.

Sure, you can argue that its a $2 satchet and shouldn't be a big issue. But its so much more than a $2 item. It is the the one thing that turns our costly ingredients and time into a drinkable product. Were I danstar, I would be all over this like 'white on rice' trying to work it out to keep homebrewers in the loop.

Since the debacle last year I've done several batches with S-05 and I like it alot. I can pitch and go to sleep knowing that the cost of the ingredients and my hard-earned hobby-time are not going to be destroyed by a $2 sachet of crap.

 

[CvilleKevin]

For those of you who are looking to replace Notty, and want an alternative to S04 and US05 (which I like a lot), there are some good dry yeasts that are only distributed in the UK, but you can get a UK internet shop to mail them to you for a couple bucks. I've had great results with Brupaks Ale, Gervin English Ale, Ritchies Real Ale and Lager and Youngs Ale and Lager for ciders. These are all inexpensive, so with a few dollars postage its still cheaper than buying Fermentis from LHBS if you get a few packs

 

[Diablo]

I think Gervin might be the same strain as Notty.

 

[wookiemofo]

Brewed up a Fat Squirrel Clone with Notty last night... at what point do I pitch a packet of S-05 that I have laying around? 36 hours with no drop in gravity?

 

[RavenChief]

Brewed up a Fat Squirrel Clone with Notty last night... at what point do I pitch a packet of S-05 that I have laying around? 36 hours with no drop in gravity?

That is a good question. My thought is: if it were me, I would not hesitate to pitch the S-05. I don't want delayed fermentation to allow some other critters to start eating my wort. Someone else will tell you to wait 72 hours...
I think it's really a matter of personal opinion/risk tolerance.

 

[wookiemofo]

Is the notty pack was indeed bad, will it already result in off flavors even if I pitch 05?

 

[trubled]

I don't know about all the other home brewers out there, but this sounds like a wishy-washy answer from Danstar. I have flushed one six gallon batch of beer down the drain because it never fermented, and have another batch that did ferment but with a plus 72 hour lag time and tastes sour. I know that I spend a lot of time reading the published information about the specific qualities of the yeast strain before I buy yeast. I want to be able to count on my yeast to work "as advertised". I really don't care about getting a refund for a $1.25 pack of yest. I want them to acknowledge all the ruined beer, and state how they have found and fixed the problem. Until they do that I will not buy any more yeast from Danstar.

I agree with your appraisal of Danstar's message and am a little steamed myself with having dumped a lot of work.

I am trying to figure out if the infection was a result of ambient nasties or if it in fact came from the packet itself. If we are all getting the same off-flavour profile it is likely from the packet and I had it developing surprisingly rapid in some of my ferments. I would describe these odours as:
medicinal
band aid
sour
plastic
rubbery

does this sound/smell/taste familiar?

 

[brewale4me]

Is the notty pack was indeed bad, will it already result in off flavors even if I pitch 05?

Do you have the empty packet of yeast? Does it smell bad?

I feel that it will carry over in your beer.

If it smells bad, Looks bad or tastes bad I won't put it in my beer.

 

[wookiemofo]

It was in the garbage over night, i pulled it out earlier to check the batch number... so who knows if the smell is legit. In fact I have no idea what it smells like!

it smells like the started, I know that. Which sort of smelt like your average liquid yeast pack I guess.

 

[wookiemofo]

I've got minimal activity going on in mine... coming up on the 24th hour. The amount of yeast icebergs as I've heard them called has doubled. Little packets of what look like white bubbles, which is typically what your beer will look like after you rack it to a secondary for instance.

Is this a sign of things happening?

 

[DrJerryrigger]

Oh poop, I'm a noob and have been using this batch for all of my brews so far. I thought it took rather long to get going from my wine experience, but maybe it only worked out due to my poor sanitation...
Well I guess I'll be spending an arm and a leg for liquids from now on... unless my wilds work out really well.

 

[wookiemofo]

For anyone who might be in my similar situation... I woke up this morning had had krausen in my carboy.

So it took between 24-36 hours... at the 24 hour mark i could see that things were starting to happen.

I rehydrated at 90-95, sprinkled on top and let it sit 15 minutes. Stirred and let it sit another 5. I couldn't pitch right away, so I think it sat another 25 minutes until I pitched.

Hopefully everything turns out alright.

 

[Rover]

Brewed up a Fat Squirrel Clone with Notty last night... at what point do I pitch a packet of S-05 that I have laying around? 36 hours with no drop in gravity?

I would pitch after 24 hours. The two Notty batches that took longer than 24 hours tastes very yeasty, drinkable but yeasty, it lost the taste after two months but that messes up the pipeline. I too brewed up a Fat Squirrel clone three weeks ago. I pitched the Notty batch in question, and while holding my breath I pitched the yeast. It must have worked because the brew tastes unbelievable with a week to go before bottling.

So I have a new theory on how to make this batch work..... Hold your breath before pitching.

 

[cklages]

So far I have made 4 batches with notty (all with the bad lot), and they have all fermented as well as one could expect. I am something of a noob, but I definitely got some aromas and flavours during transferring and bottling that I found pretty unsettling. I'm trying to identify it as some of the things that are being mentioned like bandaids (which I've never tasted, oddly enough) or phenols (I do enjoy peaty single malt, so I can spot a phenol). The best thing I could describe it as is 'three day old beer tent', or maybe 'scuzzy bar with extra ass'). Now I fermented many beers with coopers yeast, and some with US-05, and I have never experienced this particular aroma before.

The good news is that almost all of this nastiness was gone after a month long bottle condition. So before you dump that beer, you may want to consider giving it a bit more time. Now I don't know if this stuff will age out in a keg like it does in bottles, but for me, this went from an undrinkable hydrometer sample (which for me is rare) to an OK beer in only a month.

Don't get me wrong, I will not be buying notty again, but I just hate to see all of this poor defenceless beer watering lawns prematurely.

 

[wookiemofo]

Man that makes me strained that even though my batch is fermenting away, that the quality may be subpar. But I guess that's the case with any beer I haven't brewed before!

Time will tell...

 

[boss429]

is this the only batch of nottingham available? or is there many different batches? should I buy it if its a different batch #? ima go to brew mart soon

 

[ILuvIPA]

nope. Not the only batch available. I just got an order last week from Rebel and the current batch they shipped is lot 0671001V Exp. 11-2012.

 

[shanecb]

Well the one I used that started just fine seems to be crawling along. It's about 10 days and it's still slowly fermenting. I raised the temperature about 5 degrees to hopefully kick it up some.

 

[HalfPint]

Just a bit of info for you guys.

First off, I'm not knocking Austin Homebrew Supply or saying that any of their products are bad. Anyways, I went to my LHBS today, DeFalcos in Houston, because some Nottingham that I got shipped to me from AustinHomebrewSupply last week didn't take off after 3 days. When at the LHBS, I asked them why they didn't have any Nottingham in their fridge. He proceeded to tell me that Danstar called them and recalled all of the Nottingham in the area not b/c it's infected, but b/c it's dead or something. When I got home, I called AustinHomebrew and told them about what I'd heard. They didn't know about it yet, and the guy I was talking to on the phone was yelling at people around the store to see if they'd heard of it, but apparently this was new to them. After he thanked me for letting them know, he said they would contact their Notty distributor and see what the deal was. With that said, they said that they would

 

[HoppingRazor]

Well there is something up with the Nottingham yeast, my LHBS had a box of it, they had to go through all their extract kits etc... odly enough I did have a successfull brew/fermentation with the Notigham yeast 2 weeks ago, so I think its a certain batch number thats bad. I wish I have kept my old yeast sachet, I could have posted a batch that had good yeast... Bummer,

 

[Bithead]

A month ago I brewed Orfy's Hobgoblin & a Columbus & Willamette IPA with that certain lot # and date. Both took off in about 24 hours & seemed to ferment normally. At bottling both tasted delicious with no discernable off flavors. Guess I was lucky.

 

[RavenChief]

A month ago I brewed Orfy's Hobgoblin & a Columbus & Willamette IPA with that certain lot # and date. Both took off in about 24 hours & seemed to ferment normally. At bottling both tasted delicious with no discernable off flavors. Guess I was lucky.

I don't think anyone knows what percentage of this yeast is really "bad". But even if only 10% of the yeast packs are bad, I don't think it's worth it to me to take that chance.

 

[Bithead]

Not suggesting anyone should use it. Just posting my experience with it.

 

[DrJerryrigger]

I just pitched some in a side by side with Sierra Nevada pale ale dregs. I'll see in a few weeks.

 

[Austinhomebrew]

Just a bit of info for you guys.

First off, I'm not knocking Austin Homebrew Supply or saying that any of their products are bad. Anyways, I went to my LHBS today, DeFalcos in Houston, because some Nottingham that I got shipped to me from AustinHomebrewSupply last week didn't take off after 3 days. When at the LHBS, I asked them why they didn't have any Nottingham in their fridge. He proceeded to tell me that Danstar called them and recalled all of the Nottingham in the area not b/c it's infected, but b/c it's dead or something. When I got home, I called AustinHomebrew and told them about what I'd heard. They didn't know about it yet, and the guy I was talking to on the phone was yelling at people around the store to see if they'd heard of it, but apparently this was new to them. After he thanked me for letting them know, he said they would contact their Notty distributor and see what the deal was. With that said, they said that they would

Sorry about that. I have a brand new guy answering the phones and several new guys on the sales floor.

We had replacement yeast as quick as possible. I explained it to key people but I didn't want to alarm customers and employees.

Once there is a problem with any product, people will forever be looking for problems with that product.

Thanks for letting me know you had a problem with the yeast. Just drop an email to the store at [email protected] and we can refund the price you paid for the Nottingham.

Forrest

 

[RavenChief]

Sorry about that. I have a brand new guy answering the phones and several new guys on the sales floor.

We had replacement yeast as quick as possible. I explained it to key people but I didn't want to alarm customers and employees.

Once there is a problem with any product, people will forever be looking for problems with that product.

Thanks for letting me know you had a problem with the yeast. Just drop an email to the store at [email protected] and we can refund the price you paid for the Nottingham.

Forrest

I have no problem knocking Austinhomebrew.
I really don't like the patronizing attitude of their posts reguarding the people who really have experienced problems with Danstar Nottingham yeast.
Telling people that they should contact the manufacturer was also not helpful, since I don't know of anyone who tried to contact them who actually got a reply.

 

[Shooter]

You all got a reply, they pulled the yeast. Let it go!

 

[DrJerryrigger]

I just pitched some in a side by side with Sierra Nevada pale ale dregs. I'll see in a few weeks.

So the Sierra Nevada was only from one 24oz bottle, and I didn't do the best job getting it going. When I pitched there was a lot more going on in the Notty starter cup. This morning, Notty:3 to 5 bubbles per min, SN: 0, and right now; the same.
But once (if) the SN gets going, I'll be interested to compare finishing time and SG.