WLP007 Dropped Out Early?!!

[permo]

So I made a 1.091 OG imperial brown ale on Sunday. I pitched an actively fermenting 4000 ml starter directly from the stir plate. Pitched at 70 degrees, starter was at 70 degrees, fermenation temperature at 70 degrees. Fermentation exploded out for approx 24 hours and now the krausen is gone and it looks like my yeast gave up.

I have seen WLP007 work miracles before, so I thought maybe it was finished. Gravity at 1.060 or so tells me it is not. I roused the yeast hoping to resurect them, but who knows.

I have never had this happen with WLP007 before, it is usually a beast. I will give it another few days to see if it keeps dropping in gravity or not. After those few days I will spin up a starter of something else to finish the job. The sample I took was still cloudy, but compared to the first 24 hours the activity is crazily slower. Like crawling.

Any suggestions on a secondary strain to pitch in there? 1056? 1084? I also have a nice californial lager (wyeast) cake sitting there ready to use.

 

[Quaker]

The 007 should have done enough work to get the British ester characteristics, so I'd finish with something capable of the task. Either make a healthy starter of the 1056 or try the cake.

Did your temp get too low to cause the yeast to drop? I haven't used 007 yet, but I have it on hand for a couple future brews. Now i'm curious if others have experienced this.

 

[permo]

A big starter of 1056 is in order. Temp didn't drop, plenty of oxygen, mashed low, added candi sugar to boil.......I think the yeast just got going to good.....like a shooting star I guess.


For the record, WLP007 has never let me down. Always attenuates fully in 3 days or less. It is a crazy strain. Apparently this time something isn't right with it.

 

[permo]

I have a Irish Ale (Wyeast 1084) starter on the plate right now. 1500 ML of starter wort and I pitched a smack pack into it. I will pitch this at high krausen. that should restart the party

 

[zing]

My IPA (1.070 OG) uses 007. The last batch seemed to crap out at 1.016—not terrible for a 1.070 beer, but not where I wanted it to be. The oxygen pickup in moving it over to secondary ended up getting it restarted, and I finished up at 1.012.