Problems with Nottingham?

AndytheBeave · May 18, 2015

abrix said:
I got a weird sort of earthy/oaky/harshness from an English IPA fermented at 62F, ramped up to 66F over a week or so that I have come to associate with Nottingham. We've brewed the recipe with other yeasts without that particularly Nottingham character and I get that flavor on occasion from certain commercial beers. At this point, I just think of it as "Nottingham flavor".

Did you rehydrate? what was the pitch temp? pitch rate? age of yeast?

I love UK ales/IPAs/bitters for their earthy notes. Are you sure this isn't just simply the result of the style?

madscientist451 · May 18, 2015

Brewed a chocolate stout and my WL002 repitch wouldn't cooperate so I thew in the notty at the low 60's. Seems almost done after a week, slowly ramping it up to the high 60's. I'll let you know how this works out.

BigFloyd · May 18, 2015

As long as you keep it below 67*F when it's actively fermenting, you should have no issues with Notty. It will work successfully as low as 55*F. It's my go-to dry ale yeast that also does a great job on ciders.

abrix · May 18, 2015

AndytheBeave said:
Did you rehydrate? what was the pitch temp? pitch rate? age of yeast?

I love UK ales/IPAs/bitters for their earthy notes. Are you sure this isn't just simply the result of the style?

11 grams, rehydrated, in 5.5 gallons of 1.056 wort, pitched at 62F and ramped up to 66F over a week, as noted above. Again, I have brewed the same recipe with other English yeasts several times and only the Nottingham batch exhibited this "Nottingham weirdness". While I am by no means an expert on UK styles, I have no hesitation attributing this flavor to this yeast.

AndytheBeave · May 19, 2015

Perhaps the "Nottingham Weirdness" is a subjective thing. I don't use this yeast very often because I find it a bit on the boring side - but maybe that's just me. I prefer S-04 for my English Ales. I have seen other people complain that they don't like the profile that S-04 brings. To each their own I guess.

DoubleDuse · Jul 23, 2015

Glad to hear that the fermentation goes pretty quick with this one. This was the first time I've used it, i brewed Sunday and it was churning good by Monday morning. Added a blow off tube just in case so i wouldn't come home to a mess and by Tuesday it was stagnant. I'm gonna let it sit til the weekend and pull a sample. Hope it turns out good.