Wyeast 1056 American ale

[Jimmeh-James]

It says on the package that it can handle OG's of 1.060. My brew is about 1.070. Will I need to add more yeast?? I would hate for it to stall, I am not looking for a sweet beer.

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

It says on the package that it can handle OG's of 1.060. My brew is about 1.070. Will I need to add more yeast?? I would hate for it to stall, I am not looking for a sweet beer.

I strongly recommend 2 packs or at least a 1.5 L starter. 1 may work just fine. But, if may not.

 

[LLBeanJ]

Unless it's a small batch, one smack pack will not be nearly enough. You can either pitch multiple packs or make a starter to increase the cell count. Consult a yeast calculator to determine how many cells you have and need.

Yeastcalc

 

[Jimmeh-James]

Crap. It's a 6gal batch. I had to add another gallon of water to bring the OG down after brewing yesterday. Can I still add yeast to the brew. It is in full karusen in less than 15 hrs.

 

[LLBeanJ]

At this point I think I'd just let it ride. You underpitched, but it doesn't sound like the lag time was much longer than normal (generally, you want to see signs of active fermentation in about 12 hours). Try to keep it cool and let the yeasts do their thing.

 

[Jimmeh-James]

My FG is supposed to come in at 1.013. I hope it makes it, it smells fantastic!!! It is my first partial mash and my second brew ever. I am fermenting at 67 F. Could I add yeast when I go to my secondary if it stalls? I really should just relax and have a home brew eh?

 

[Jimmeh-James]

I checked my gravity at 70 F and didn't adjust for temp. Does this matter?

 

[LLBeanJ]

My FG is supposed to come in at 1.013. I hope it makes it, it smells fantastic!!! It is my first partial mash and my second brew ever. I am fermenting at 67 F. Could I add yeast when I go to my secondary if it stalls? I really should just relax and have a home brew eh?

I don't think people have much success with adding more yeast, but it could help if done properly. It's all pretty premature at this point. There's a good chance it will finish just fine without any intervention.

I checked my gravity at 70 F and didn't adjust for temp. Does this matter?

Not really. At 70°F (assuming your hydrometer is calibrated for 60°F) your OG would only be a point or two higher than what the hydrometer indicated.

 

[flars]

Leave your beer in the primary for at least three weeks, try to keep the wort temperature constant. Forget the secondary, it is more important to have the yeast finish the job, than worry about clearing. The pitch was low for the OG you are brewing. It will have the best chance of finishing if you leave it on the yeast cake and keep the temperature stable.

Your beer will clear just as well in the primary as a secondary, if you give it enough time.

 

[Brettomomyces]

My FG is supposed to come in at 1.013. I hope it makes it, it smells fantastic!!! It is my first partial mash and my second brew ever. I am fermenting at 67 F. Could I add yeast when I go to my secondary if it stalls? I really should just relax and have a home brew eh?

If it starts to stall you can do a couple things without having to add more yeast. Gently swirling the carboy a few times a day to get the yeast back into suspension can help a lot. And you can warm it up a bit to around 72 to increase the yeast activity. But this is only necesarry if it does stall.

I wouldn't worry too much, 1056 is a strong yeast and a lot of us are guilty (myself included) of using one smack pack for a batch when we first started and still made good beer.

 

[Jimmeh-James]

Thanks for the advice guys. When the krausen falls I will check the gravity. I am lucky that I have two storage rooms in my basement. 1 stays at 68F and the other at about 74 - 76F. It will be fine.

 

[Jimmeh-James]

Krausen still thick and bubbly.. Feeling optimistic!!

 

[MattyIce]

I have always used a big starter with this yeast, but I have taken a 1.083 iipa down to 1.012. It will likely be fine.

 

[Weezy]

It'll be fine. You might end up with some extra esters and slightly higher FG, from yeast stress, but I wouldn't expect it to be a *bad* beer by any stretch.

let us know how it ends up!

 

[jmward21]

Well, before I started reading about yeast, I made a stout (OG 1.106) and only pitched a smack pack of london ale yeast. I let it sit for 3 weeks and the yeast did good work. I hit my FG number perfectly. As far as stressing the yeast, I'll find out the results in the next week or so. I'm currently carbing the beer and will be tasting it soon.

Now I make starters for all my beers, but mostly because I started washing and reusing Wyeasts. Yeast is just another topic that can take average beer to great beer. Make beer, learn and improve, and make more beer.

 

[DurtyChemist]

After reading a lot of advice on this forum I wouldn't even check the gravity until three weeks from now. Otherwise you'll see it stop at some point, come back posting about how you underpitched and what possible options you have and you'll worry about the beer for two weeks longer than if you'd just ride it out until April 8 at the earliest.

 

[Natdavis777]

Jamil touches on the whole "can handle a beer up to 1.060" on the Yeast starter BrewStrong podcast. Yes, they can ferment the beer, but flavor is what suffers.

It's hard to over pitch. Not saying it can't happen, but the threshold is far out there. I am brewing an IPA Sunday with an expected OG of 1.071 and I'm doing a two step starter with my WLP001 to reach a 450 billion cell count (think it called for 420billion)

 

[Jimmeh-James]

So the Krausen has fallen. I checked the gravity..... It began at 1.070.... Today.... 1.012! BAM just where the recipe is supposed to turn out. I got lucky!! It was a super fresh smack pack, made in feb. I will be racking to a secondary and finishing @ about 10C for two weeks.. That's if the gravity is consistent this Sunday.

 

[Jimmeh-James]

It also tastes great. I will post the recipe tomorrow. I will also be dry hopping the secondary. Wow soo much noob excitement!!