WLP067 Coastal Haze - Not sure what to think.

[refect]

Brewed up a session hazy 2 weeks ago and decided to use WLP067 for my yeast. I usually like to use imperial juice in my hazy's, but my harvested juice yeast was pretty old in generations, and just old in general. I didn't have time to build it back up in a starter, so I decided to try something different this time. I went with WLP067 because it was readily available at my LHBS. I have used this yeat once or twice before maybe 5 or 6 years ago and remembered it being pretty good.

However, this time around I don't remember having the same experience. It has been two weeks in the fermenter now and it is still gasing off enough to build up a good amount of pressure. I've seen a lot of people say this yeast is super slow and took forever to finish, but i am thinking they might be done for me. I am just not sure though from how much it is still off-gasing.

I am wanting to produce a 4%-ish abv hazy that still has all the qualities and mouthfeel of a regular/higher abv one. I like my hazys to finish around 1.020 - 1.022, so I mashed at 160 F in hopes to still have a decently high final gravity on a low starting gravity beer. My gravity readings are:

OG - 1.047
FG - 1.022

Beersmith estimated me to finish around 1.014, but I have been sitting around 1.022 for 4-5 days now. I think it's done, but just not completely sure from the amount off-gasing happening. Final gravity has been consistent for almost a week now, pH has been consistent for about a week now, no off flavors, and I did not detect any diacetyl in a forced diacetyl test.

No starter was used on this batch. Aerated with pure o2 for about a minute at 1 liter p/m. Fermented at 70 F and closed the blow off at day 7 to caputre remaining co2 and prep for soft crash and dry hop. Several days later it built up to 10psi. Been holding it around 10 psi since with my spunding valve and its still gasing off a good amount.

Everything in my mind points to it being done, so I decided to soft crash it and get ready to start dumping yeast and dry hoping.

Anyone use this yeast before and have similar experience with it, or similar experience in general? I've never really experienced this much co2 off gas after fermentation was supposedly done for this length of time. Unless they were still working?

 

[VTMongoose]

White Labs says WLP067 is STA1 positive (interesting choice for a hazy IPA strain), so if the yeast is in fact diastatic (which it might not be, despite carrying the gene), it's probably creeping slowly like any other diastatic yeast. If that's the case, and you want it to finish, heat is your friend. Warm it up to like 75-76°F. The other possibility is this yeast is one of those yeasts where you put head pressure on them and they just slow to an absolute crawl. Maybe a combination of both.

Of course you run the risk of diacetyl if you crash now and it's still creeping, but honestly, you can always fix that later in the keg by keg conditioning with CBC-1.

 

[bailey mountain brewer]

I use wlp067 exclusively for my hazies and brew them on the regular. Id guess its done, 1.022 for a week.. yeah I'd say you're good. I typically finish at 1.020, but I mash at like 154f however I don't use pressure until time to soft crash and dry hop, and I just do 2psi so maybe that’s playing a role.

 

[refect]

Definitely has been strange. I diid mash at 160 F to try and keep FG as high as possible despite the low starting gravity. I'm happy with 1.022 for my hazy, but was expecting it to go a bit lower given the stats on this yeast and what beersmith calculated. I know beer can off-gas.for some time after fermentation is complete, but i couldn't understand how this one was doing it so much that it would keep building pressure (very slowly) if I closed my spunding valve 2 weeks later. Unless it was still slowly working (insanely slow)? I did not detect any diacetly after a forced diacetyl test and gravity was consistent for almost a week (gravity was measured using my easy dens and a hydrometer), so it has been soft crashed to 50 F. Dry hops are currently in with it sitting at 8 psi. Pressure has stopped building since i soft crashed, but so far it is tasting delicious! Mouthfeel is pretty good too for a 3.3% abv hazy! I was shooting for around 4.5% abv when I built the recipe.

 

[refect]

So I decided to close my spunding valve to see what would happen while it sat at 50 F over the last few days on the hops. It slowly started building pressure again and went from 8 psi to 10 psi over the course of a day. I figured the hops are probably causing it to off gas more. It is crazy to me how much and how long this has been off gasing though. I checked gravity again and it is now down to 1.021. Maybe it still has been fermenting this whole time? Hop creep possible to happen at 50 F with this yeast? I don't know what to think anymore. I am coming up on 3 weeks now, so it is crazy if it took a week and a half to drop 1 point.

I went ahead and cold crashed today, and have started dropping my hops in preparation for kegging. I'm not bottling this so i wont have to worry about bottle bombs if it really did not finish. I just hope it wont over carbonate if this thing some how keeps going. I have become pretty frustrated with this yeast strain. I don't think there is an infection in there. pH was pretty stable at 4.1 pre dry hop, no off flavors detected, and no diacetyl detected on a forced diacetyl test. Current pH is sitting at 4.41 post dry hop, so everything is looking great. I just still don't know what to think.