WY1968 London ESB starter

[ba-brewer]

I use a pipette and refractometer to check fermentation progression, no graphs but I sleep well.

Someone mentioned WY3522, that yeast makes a very thick sour cream like krausen and has launched a airlock or two on me. I could imagine that one getting your tilt horizontal for some krausen surfing.
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[Rob2010SS]

Fermentation just definitely picked up speed is what happened. I don't think it was REALLY fermenting yet prior to this. I think the drop in gravity i was seeing was a false read. This pic is after the initial cleanup. I swapped out blow off jars and within minutes, this one was already brown. Seems to be fine now

 

[couchsending]

1968/002 is not necessarily an ideal yeast for this type of beer. It is one of the fastest/most robust fermenters in the planet and when you throw it that much sugar it can do some crazy things. Are you measuring internal temperature? This yeast can create some serious heat, especially at that high a gravity. Ideally for a beer this Big it needs to be around 64 or lower (internal temp) for a while and then raised. It also needs lots and lots of O2 even for a sub 1.050 beer.

For future reference I’d use 1056 or 1728 for a big beer like this. They’re much more forgiving and will produce a better beer if you don’t have really good control over every aspect of fermentation. And both (especially 1728) have higher ABV tolerances.

 

[Rob2010SS]

1968/002 is not necessarily an ideal yeast for this type of beer. It is one of the fastest/most robust fermenters in the planet and when you throw it that much sugar it can do some crazy things. Are you measuring internal temperature? This yeast can create some serious heat, especially at that high a gravity. Ideally for a beer this Big it needs to be around 64 or lower (internal temp) for a while and then raised. It also needs lots and lots of O2 even for a sub 1.050 beer.

For future reference I’d use 1056 or 1728 for a big beer like this. They’re much more forgiving and will produce a better beer if you don’t have really good control over every aspect of fermentation. And both (especially 1728) have higher ABV tolerances.

Yes, I'm measuring internal temp to the best of my current ability. I have the inkbird temp probe insulated against the outside of the carboy and the tilt hydrometer is measuring it from the inside.

I'm noticing that it is probably the craziest fermentation I've had. I'm actually pissed at how much beer i've lost thus far in fermentation. Below is a comparison of day one to now, in regards to the level in the carboy. The foam coming out of the blow off just won't stop! I had 1/4" layer of liquid on the bottom of my freezer this morning from everything getting pushed out.

I'll be home in 4 hours so maybe I'll turn the temp down a bit. The website said 64 was the bottom end so it's been holding at 66.

In regards to 1056, thought about it at first but I took someone's advice to use a more characterful yeast, which is why I chose this one. However, 1728 was also recommended by that individual, but I didn't go with it.

 

[Rob2010SS]

1968/002 is not necessarily an ideal yeast for this type of beer. It is one of the fastest/most robust fermenters in the planet and when you throw it that much sugar it can do some crazy things. Are you measuring internal temperature? This yeast can create some serious heat, especially at that high a gravity. Ideally for a beer this Big it needs to be around 64 or lower (internal temp) for a while and then raised. It also needs lots and lots of O2 even for a sub 1.050 beer.

For future reference I’d use 1056 or 1728 for a big beer like this. They’re much more forgiving and will produce a better beer if you don’t have really good control over every aspect of fermentation. And both (especially 1728) have higher ABV tolerances.

Additionally, this website is really why I chose 1968 for this. I've read of people using this strain for this style with good results, so I figured I'd give it a whirl.

Anyone experienced serious blow off with this yeast and volume loss? I'm pretty sure I've lost a gallon out of the fermenter with everything that's come through the blow off.... Luckily I targeted 6 gallons in the fermenter but it still pisses me off a bit.

 

[couchsending]

You can use it for this “style” for sure... Issue is this yeasts alcohol tolerance. Great yeast but it won’t get much past 9%. Not sure what you were expecting your FG to be. With 002 you probably won’t get much below 1.040.

 

[Rob2010SS]

You can use it for this “style” for sure... Issue is this yeasts alcohol tolerance. Great yeast but it won’t get much past 9%. Not sure what you were expecting your FG to be. With 002 you probably won’t get much below 1.040.

Yeah, my ABV wasn't supposed to get to 10.5% originally. I was planning for 9.5-9.8% in which it would have been fine. Oh well, we'll see where it finishes out. I'll pitch some US05 to finish it if I have to.

 

[poley]

I've had a lot of success getting 1968 over 10% on a regular basis. Keep your temperature under control early to control your ester profile, then let it rise to 72 to finish fermentation and clean up VDKs. That yeast is a beast and I haven't found an upper limit yet, though I haven't pushed it past 12%.

 

[Rob2010SS]

I've had a lot of success getting 1968 over 10% on a regular basis. Keep your temperature under control early to control your ester profile, then let it rise to 72 to finish fermentation and clean up VDKs. That yeast is a beast and I haven't found an upper limit yet, though I haven't pushed it past 12%.

Unfortunately, looks like it stalled on me. Gravity has been sitting at 1.045 for a few days (. I pitched 2 packs of rehydrated US-05 the other day to see if I can get it to finish. We'll see how it goes. This yeast for sure was a beast. I need to work with it more to get used to it. Very finnicky.

 

[IslandLizard]

Unfortunately, looks like it stalled on me. Gravity has been sitting at 1.045 for a few days (. I pitched 2 packs of rehydrated US-05 the other day to see if I can get it to finish. We'll see how it goes. This yeast for sure was a beast. I need to work with it more to get used to it. Very finnicky.

1.045 with a hydrometer? Or your Tilt?
I wouldn't trust a Tilt reading with all that foam.

If it's still foaming and bubbling it isn't stalled.

 

[Redtab78]

has the krausen fallen all the way back down? I use this yeast on just about every beer I make, I absolutly love it. having that said, I have seen what I thought was a stall, but I just gave it about 2 days and once the krausen completely dropped took another sample with a wine thief and found it dropped down to 1.014 from 1.022 (where I thought it had stalled).

 

[Rob2010SS]

1.045 with a hydrometer? Or your Tilt?
I wouldn't trust a Tilt reading with all that foam.

If it's still foaming and bubbling it isn't stalled.

It's 1.045 with the tilt. No foam, no krausen, nothing. Haven't checked with hydrometer yet.