Super Yeast

[WiseEyes]

My brother and law and I made a high gravity IIPA 1.12 sg. We pitched 1040 and it chewed it down to 1.047 and completely pooped out on us. I tried everything to get it to finish nothing So I pitched white labs super high gravity yeast to get fermantation going again with the thought that i would monitor gravity. In 36 hrs it took it down to 1.02 so i decided to rack it and then cold crash it to get the yeast to drop out. I put it in my lager freezer kicked my controller down to 29 F 24 hrs later the beer still had krausen on the top and was clearly still going I had no choice but to filter and keg. Even lager yeast would have dropped out at that temp so I began thinking it must be infection, but the beer tastes great I mean not the greatest beer ive made but good nonetheless.
Has Anyone else had this experience with this yeast WLP099

 

[AmandaK]

1) What is Wyeast 1040?

2) Why did you have "no choice but to filter and keg"?

3) If the only sign of an "infection" is that your yeast is still active at a low temperature, why would you think it was an infection? Wouldn't wild yeast and bacteria also drop out at that temperature?

 

[WiseEyes]

1. I meant 1056- I dunno where the hell i got 1040 from

2. I had no choice but to keg and filter because i did not want the beer to attenuate any firther than it already had. With the amount of bitterness I wanted some malty sweetness to balance it out.

3. As far as infection, I have never had one in 75+ batches, but i dunno if bacteria in particular has the same temperature threshold as brewers yeast.


Im not an expert, but am far from being a rookie brewer. When I say it was working at an ambient temperature of 29 f it was really working. It was working with the same ferocity as it was at 65 f

 

[AmandaK]

Im not an expert, but am far from being a rookie brewer. When I say it was working at an ambient temperature of 29 f it was really working. It was working with the same ferocity as it was at 65 f

Hmm... the reason I say that it probably isn't an infection is because you cannot detect it in taste or smell. Also, most infections have strange looking fermentations (pellicles, floating white angular icebergs, huge kruesen bubbles - like 5" in diameter), which you didn't mention.

I think you'll be fine based on what you described.

 

[NoRoom4Error]

Sounds tasty!

 

[WiseEyes]

Update. Carbed this up and am drying hopping in the keg. poured a sample. Definitly has a ester profile beyound 1056, but really is complimented by citra hops. I washed the yeast and have a starter going going to try this one again more out of curiosity than anything else. So ya no infection (atleast not one bad enough to destroy the beer) Still find it fascinating that wlp099 kept going at those temperatures. I am thinking about an Imperial Pilsner with this yeast addeded when the lager yeast kicks it

 

[JesperX]

How big of a starter of 1056 did you pitch? Some of that ester profile could have been from stressing that yeast out until it caved.

 

[WiseEyes]

I pitched 1.5 liter per Mr. Malty calcualtions. and fermented at 64 degrees

 

[stjackson]

I wouldn't reuse the yeast from a batch with a OG that high and with, what I can only assume to be, a large amount of hops. Generally, if you're fermenting a batch at a high gravity, the yeast becomes stressed to the point that reusing it can provide unpredictable results.

Also, a 1.5-liter starter seems really small for a batch that strong, unless you were pitching multiple vials of yeast into that one starter. Even with 97% viability and a stir plate, 1 vial into a 1.5-liter starter will only give you about 65% of the needed yeast for that batch. (according to yeastcalc.com, which I like better than Mr. Malty.)

 

[JesperX]

Yea, unless your batch size was 1.5 or 2 gallons that starter size sounds way too small. For a 5 gallon batch you'd want almost a 4 L starter.