Omega Londen VIII experiences

[Elixer]

Omega London VIII yeast should be similar to WY1968. I recently brewed a stout with it and like to share my experience with it.

To my experience the flavor profile is similar to wy1968, but this yeast attuenated a lot more.
It got my 1.080 stout down to 1.012 which compares to 86% attuenation. According to Omega the attuenation ranges between 65 to 71%. So I got 15% more attuenation!. ?

I admit that I roused the yeast every day until the fermentation was done. This lasted just 4 days before the activity dropped to none.

I pitched a large starter of 2 litres for 3 gallons and fermented a 19 degrees Celsius. The yeast pack was expired for two weeks, so that's why I used a 2 litre starter.

My stout ended up with 9% ABV instead of the 7.5%, which I was aming for, so it will need some extended aging before I can make a descent comment about the real flavor profile.

Since there is almost no information out there on this yeast, it would be great if you would like to share your experiences with this yeast.

 

[Biobrewer]

With attenuation that high, there is likely a strain of something either Belgian or diastatic (or both) that is attenuating way past the mark. Do you use strains in house and with these fermentors that attenuate much more highly?

 

[Elixer]

Never thought of that. And never experienced this in the past. All beers I brewed in the past attuenated to the predicted range. Except for this one.

The previous beer in the fermentor was indeed a saison. It was fermented with WY 3711 French Saison yeast, so it could be plausible that my stout got infected with it, but I do clean the fementors very thoroughly between brews.

I give them a good rinse with a soft cloth before soaking them in Puro Oxi. I usually soak them overnight. Then I rinse them with tapwater and let them air dry until I need them again. Tap water in the Netherlands can almost be considered sterile, containing zero to none viable living organisms. On the brew day I usually fill the fermentor with a Starsan solution and soak it for an hour or so.

I could try brewing another similar stout in a new fermentor with the London VIII ale yeast, rouse it every day until the fermentation is done and check the attuenation. For now that looks like the only way to find out if I get higher attuenation than normal with the yeast or that my previous batch indeed got infected with the WY3711. Nevertheless the beer came out fine. I bottled it yesterday and it tasted very promising. FG was still at 1.012, same as a week ago. If it got infected with WY3711 then I would expected it to drop even below 1.012.


Update: Almost forgot to mention that I used a plastic Speidel fermentor for this brew. I know that plastic can become subseptible to infections when being scratched.

 

[Imperator85]

What is the recipe for this stout? I would think, given your starter size, that the Omega Labs yeast would become pretty established well before any contaminant strain could.

 

[SanPancho]

It is a trick of certain pros to add 3711 towards end of ferment to drive high attenuation with no ester or character.

 

[Elixer]

What is the recipe for this stout? I would think, given your starter size, that the Omega Labs yeast would become pretty established well before any contaminant strain could.

Here you go:

Batch size: 12 liter (3.17 gallon)
Boil Time: 120 min
SG: 1.080
FG: 1.012
ABV: 9.0 %
EST IBU: 54
EST Color: 96.8 EBC

Malts
2000 g Pale Malt, Maris Otter (Thomas Fawcett) 41.8 %
500 g Munich I (Weyermann) 10.5 %
500 g Beechwood Smoked Malt (Weyermann) 10.5 %
400 g Oak Smoked Wheat Malt (Weyermann) 8.4 %
400 g Oats, Flaked 8.4 %
400 g Pilsner (Weyermann) 8.4 %
200 g Carafa Special III (Weyermann) 4.2 %
150 g Black Malt (Thomas Fawcett) 3.1 %
150 g Caramunich I (Weyermann) 3.1 %
80 g Chocolate Malt (Thomas Fawcett) 1.7 %

Hops
35 g Sladek (Boil 60,0 min) 40.9 IBUs
22 g Sladek (Boil 15,0 min ) 12.8 IBUs

Yeast
British Ale VIII (Omega #OYL-016)

Other ingredients
50 g unsweetened bakers chocolate (Boil 90 mins)
2.50 g Smoked Salt (Flame out)
70 g Roasted Cacao Nibs (Secondary 7 days)
70 ml Whiskey - Ommelander No.1 (Secondary 7 days)
1 Vanilla Pod (Secondary 7 days)

 

[Imperator85]

Here you go:

Batch size: 12 liter (3.17 gallon)
Boil Time: 120 min
SG: 1.080
FG: 1.012
ABV: 9.0 %
EST IBU: 54
EST Color: 96.8 EBC

At what point in the process did you measure your final gravity value?

 

[Elixer]

I measured it two weeks after the primary fermentation seemed to be done. One week later it was still at 1.012

 

[brewcat]

Next time maybe try a forced ferment test. It would give you the maximum attenuation of the yeast with the wort. That would help rule out contamination issues.