Windsor yeast

[wulf]

I know this yeast attenuates low leaving a high FG, but out of all the threads on this forum that I've searched up, I haven't really seen a "FG" as high as what I'm showing.

NB's bourbon porter kit. OG @ 1.07 and current SG over two weeks later has been sitting at 1.03. This seems higher than this strain of yeast should leave.

Should I pitch something else? Tastes great though still sweet, reminds me of a milkier version of black butte.

It's worth noting that this yeast took off almost immediately, with quite a bit of blowoff the first day.

 

[Kent88]

Was this the partial-extract or all grain recipe?

1.070 seems a little high, the kit page says 1.065, so I'd assume all-grain. If so can you tell us about the mash? Did you hit your temperatures pretty well?

Did you make a yeast starter? How well did you aerate the wort when you pitched yeast? 1.070 is borderline when you start calling a wort "high-gravity", so that could be stressing them out.

What temperature have you been keeping the fermenter at?

Did you take the extra step of infusing oak cubes with bourbon and adding those? If so, how did that go?

What instrument are you using to measure gravity?

 

[dmtaylor]

Windsor is a very poor attenuator. I've seen attenuation as low as 60-61% with Windsor. If you started at 1.070 and it's now at 1.030, it's all done and there's nothing you can really do to get it going again except to add a big starter of highly attenuative yeast like US-05 or Nottingham. Otherwise, just enjoy it.

 

[wulf]

Partial-extract. I've always had rather high OGs with kits even when doing the temperature correction calculations for the hydrometer. Maybe it's because I will literally hold the extract bottle above the kettle for minutes to get all of it out.

Used dry yeast, rehydrated it but no starter. starting ferm temp was a bit high (first 4 hours was 76-78) but I immediately swamp coolered it down to proper temps for the yeast and monitored for a whole week. First two days fermentation was quite powerful

These gravity readings were taken before using oak.

Thanks!

 

[wulf]

Windsor is a very poor attenuator. I've seen attenuation as low as 60-61% with Windsor. If you started at 1.070 and it's now at 1.030, it's all done and there's nothing you can really do to get it going again except to add a big starter of highly attenuative yeast like US-05 or Nottingham. Otherwise, just enjoy it.

This is what I was thinking. I just wanted to be certain that the 60% attenuation range was ok enough for this yeast to not worry about bottle bombs.

 

[flars]

I brewed NB's Caribou Slobber a few months ago using Windsor ale yeast. The beer finished at 1.019 after three weeks in the primary. Too sweet to drink. Pitched a half liter starter of WY 1056 at high krausen. Beer fermented slowly for a week finishing at 1.010. Test bottle tasted great after three weeks of conditioning. Total primary time was five weeks.

 

[ncbrewer]

Since this was an extract brew, that could account for part of the high FG. There are lots of threads on this forum and others about lower attenuation with extract. It's not a sure thing, but a possibility.

 

[mattdee1]

I tossed Windsor in a 1.07ish batch and it seemed to stall around 1.03 so I bottled it. I don't think it was done yet though, because the beers were waaaay overcarbonated and there were lots of gushers. I know it wasn't an infection or too much priming sugar because the batch was split with a different yeast and only the Windsor half was like this.

 

[daksin]

I would consider warming it up and tossing in a bit of sugar boiled with yeast nutrient. This has helped me dry out overly sweet beers in the past.

 

[Subdivisions]

I made an all-grain Caribou Slobber using NBs recipe with Windsor once....... ONCE...... I won't use that yeast again. It stayed cloudy as hell after a month in the keg and ended up about 1.018 as someone above stated. You shouldn't have any issues with bottle bombs since that yeast won't eat any of the residual sugars left in the beer. I like the idea @daksin had of pitching some simple sugar to boost the alcohol and cut the sweetness a bit.

 

[daksin]

I made an all-grain Caribou Slobber using NBs recipe with Windsor once....... ONCE...... I won't use that yeast again. It stayed cloudy as hell after a month in the keg and ended up about 1.018 as someone above stated. You shouldn't have any issues with bottle bombs since that yeast won't eat any of the residual sugars left in the beer. I like the idea @daksin had of pitching some simple sugar to boost the alcohol and cut the sweetness a bit.

The sugar isn't really there to boost alcohol or anything- I wouldn't use much at all. The idea is that by giving the yeast some nutrient and easy-to-eat food, whatever cells are still kicking in there will be re-energized and ready to chow down on the more complex sugars still left in the beer. That's my theory, anyway, and it seems to have worked alright in the past.

 

[wulf]

Any rough idea of how much sugar I should put in? I was going to boil maybe a teaspoons worth and see if that kicks it off.

 

[Kent88]

The idea is that by giving the yeast some nutrient and easy-to-eat food, whatever cells are still kicking in there will be re-energized and ready to chow down on the more complex sugars still left in the beer. That's my theory, anyway, and it seems to have worked alright in the past.

Interesting, as I've heard that brewers yeast fed simple sugars will mutate over the generations and lose the ability to ferment the more complex ones. I'm pretty sure (but not 100% sure) I've heard that from White and Zainasheff in their yeast book, from one of Zainasheff's podcasts, and something along those lines in a Brulosophy experiment where they tried making a yeast starter from simple sugar.

But I'm no expert. That mutation might happen to a degree that is negligible at the homebrew scale.

That a late addition of sugars (preferably toward the end of krausen) boosts the alcohol a bit, which dries out the beer by a few points, makes sense to me.

I think you'll need more than a teaspoon. I usually don't mess with adding sugars, though, so I can't be sure.