Two brew, fermenting differently???

[MrZ2U]

So I have a friends beer fermenting alongside mine in my freezer right now.

His was an extract clone of Lagunitas Maximus and we double pitched white labs WLP001 California Ale Yeast at around 1800hrs CST this past Sat.

Mine was an all grain/BIAB clone of Stone IPA and I ran a 24 hour starter with WLP023 Burton Ale Yeast and pitched about 1300 CST on this past Sun.

His is still visibly bubbling albeit very slowly and mine does not seem to be. I always do a 24 to 36 hour starter and by this time in the week its always quite so that seems normal to me.

Why do you think his is still gassing off ?

 

[FREUNDOFBIER]

This is not unusual at all to me, different yeast strains convert sugars to ethanol and CO2 at different rates. Whenever you buy yeasts, the manufacturers generally provide information on character of the yeast, attenuation and flocculation, but there is no metric for how fast the yeast consume, probably because it depends on too many variables (original gravity, fermentation temperature, nutrient content, pitching rate..etc).

It has been my observation the the california ales (WLP001, Wyeast-56, Safale-05) are moderately paced strains, usually see activity stop completely around 5-7 days. Some of the english strains (particulary safale-04) are rapid fermenters with the majority of activity being done in 2-3 days in my experience. This could be what is going on in your freezer.

Might be worth keeping track of this data for yourself if you are interested. The 'time to ferment" information is probably most useful for the brewing industry where throughput and profit is critical. However, if you are about to run out of beer, it is nice to know of a fast fermenting yeast. With a quick yeast and kegging system, it is possible to drink beer only after 4-5 days after the boil.

 

[beerman1957]

Just check your SG and compare it to future gravity readings. I wouldn't be surprised if an English IPA was not as "active" as a California style ale. I like the previous comment by Fre.