premington
Well-Known Member
Okay... Maybe somebody can explain Wyeast 1187 Ringwood Ale yeast to me. Here's my experience with this yeast, and I've been trying to figure this particular strain out. By outward appearance, it functions very strangely compared to every other yeast I've used.
I'm making a gruit. It's 6 gallons in the fermenter and contains the grain bill (nothing out of the ordinary) and herbs: chamomile, yarrow, juniper berries, and wormwood. I bought two Wyeast smack packs. The packs were dated 4/5/17. I smacked them on 6/15/17. After six hours or so, nothing. The bags were flat. I left them overnight, and in the morning they were about 1/2" expanded, so a little activity was there.
Because that day (6/16) was brew day, I had to use a vitality starter, like Coors does. A vitality starter is a good backup for when time is compressed and you just can't get a good 2- or 3-day starter going.
I created a 1.040 yeast starter using light DME and pitched the yeast at 68F. A spin plate was used. It seemed to take. Small bubbles were rising, then dropped off a few hours later. When I went to use it 8 hours later, it had some foam and there was a small amount of bubbles swirling around.
We got everything in the fermenter, suspended a boiled muslin bag of herbs in there, and filled her up. I oxygenated the wort using 95% oxygen through a 0.5 micron stone for a little over 1 minute. We pitched the yeast at 68.5 F. A blow off tube was installed on the airlock, which was tubed to a growler with water and Starsan.
Then I waited... and waited... and waited... for over a day. Nothing. Dead. Wyeast did say 1187 can be a slow starter, so I decided to dig in and research this online.
After hours of reading, I found some interesting things about this yeast. It derives from a pub on the east side of England. I believe it was actually harvested from a pub in southern England. I read the yeast benefits from being roused a few times a day and can really take off with heat, so it's a high maintenance yeast and needs to be looked after and attended to. I've found this to be true... read on.
So I thought... okay... let's rouse them. About a day and a half had passed at this point since the yeast were pitched. Still no activity at all. So I took my SS Brewtech conical fermenter, tipped it on one leg, and started swirling the contents around and around. I put it down, and about two seconds later, it exploded! I mean, the airlock spewed out so much CO2, it gushed gas, krausen, and beer all the way into the growler. This was a welcome thing! I was happy about this mess.
After the explosion, a minute later, it fell silent. Weird. No activity at all. So I left it until the next day. The following day, I gave it a swirl, and the same thing. It gushed and fell silent.
So I decided to check the gravity. I drew off a sample and it read 1.030 (1.019 adjusted for the presence of Ethanol). Wow! Without me ever seeing it, the 1187 had been fermenting all along! I was amazed.
At this point, I decided to prepare the honey. This recipe takes about 16 oz of the beer, adds 1 lb. of honey, boils it, cools it, and adds it back to the fermenter for the rest of the fermentation. This was supposed to be done at high krausen, but all I had to go by was the gravity, since I can't see inside the fermenter.
I took the top off (remember, a SS Brewtech fermenter is stainless steel, so you can't see what's happening inside), and I was amazed to see no krausen! Maybe it had blown off? Or swirling caused it to drop. I don't know if this is good or bad. I could see evidence on the lid that one was present, but it wasn't there when the top was removed.
The honey/beer mixture was added at 66 F (beer at 72.5 F) and the lid put back in place.
Here's the weird thing. Up until this time, this fermentation had been silent. No airlock activity at all. After I put the lid back down, about 15 seconds later, it came alive. It didn't explode, but had robust and healthy activity. At one point, the bubbles were exiting 15 to 20 a second! After about 30 minutes, it had settled down to 6 or 8 bubbles a second. But it's consistent. It's now appearing to be fermenting properly.
Right after I add the honey. Why? What difference does it make if the sugar originates from the beer or if it originates from the beer and honey? And why would it wake it up so consistently?
This yeast really fascinates me. I want to understand it, but don't. It's an odd fella'! Kinda' like that friend you know who is an odd bird, but harmless and does things his own way in a way that you like.
I have some questions. How is there no airlock activity with all the CO2 present? If it's in the beer, will I need to degas it before bottling? Is there an increased threat of bottle bombs?
Also, why would it switch from a silent fermentation to a normal one just after introducing the honey? Now it's bubbling away fantastically!
I'm not into tasting green beer this early in a fermentation. It's usually disgusting and not representative of what you get in the end. But a gruit is a very different animal, and I wanted to try it after less than two days fermented.
Ringwood 1187 yeast is known for throwing esters that are fruity and at times buttery (acetaldehyde and diacytl). A diacytl rest is recommended. I expected to taste perhaps green apples and butter. But this early in the ferment, I tasted none of this. It was actually very clean. I could taste mild toasted notes (probably the roasted barley), a very strong and wonderful spicy body, a touch of sweetness, and a kiss of yeast and alcohol. The yeast flavor wasn't anything outrageous, like I've tasted with other yeasts. I wouldn't drink a glass of it, but the taste didn't leave me reaching for another drink to cleanse my palate.
Thanks for reading... Sorry to ramble on and on, but using this yeast has been an interesting journey! Just wondering what other people's experience is with it.
I'm making a gruit. It's 6 gallons in the fermenter and contains the grain bill (nothing out of the ordinary) and herbs: chamomile, yarrow, juniper berries, and wormwood. I bought two Wyeast smack packs. The packs were dated 4/5/17. I smacked them on 6/15/17. After six hours or so, nothing. The bags were flat. I left them overnight, and in the morning they were about 1/2" expanded, so a little activity was there.
Because that day (6/16) was brew day, I had to use a vitality starter, like Coors does. A vitality starter is a good backup for when time is compressed and you just can't get a good 2- or 3-day starter going.
I created a 1.040 yeast starter using light DME and pitched the yeast at 68F. A spin plate was used. It seemed to take. Small bubbles were rising, then dropped off a few hours later. When I went to use it 8 hours later, it had some foam and there was a small amount of bubbles swirling around.
We got everything in the fermenter, suspended a boiled muslin bag of herbs in there, and filled her up. I oxygenated the wort using 95% oxygen through a 0.5 micron stone for a little over 1 minute. We pitched the yeast at 68.5 F. A blow off tube was installed on the airlock, which was tubed to a growler with water and Starsan.
Then I waited... and waited... and waited... for over a day. Nothing. Dead. Wyeast did say 1187 can be a slow starter, so I decided to dig in and research this online.
After hours of reading, I found some interesting things about this yeast. It derives from a pub on the east side of England. I believe it was actually harvested from a pub in southern England. I read the yeast benefits from being roused a few times a day and can really take off with heat, so it's a high maintenance yeast and needs to be looked after and attended to. I've found this to be true... read on.
So I thought... okay... let's rouse them. About a day and a half had passed at this point since the yeast were pitched. Still no activity at all. So I took my SS Brewtech conical fermenter, tipped it on one leg, and started swirling the contents around and around. I put it down, and about two seconds later, it exploded! I mean, the airlock spewed out so much CO2, it gushed gas, krausen, and beer all the way into the growler. This was a welcome thing! I was happy about this mess.
After the explosion, a minute later, it fell silent. Weird. No activity at all. So I left it until the next day. The following day, I gave it a swirl, and the same thing. It gushed and fell silent.
So I decided to check the gravity. I drew off a sample and it read 1.030 (1.019 adjusted for the presence of Ethanol). Wow! Without me ever seeing it, the 1187 had been fermenting all along! I was amazed.
At this point, I decided to prepare the honey. This recipe takes about 16 oz of the beer, adds 1 lb. of honey, boils it, cools it, and adds it back to the fermenter for the rest of the fermentation. This was supposed to be done at high krausen, but all I had to go by was the gravity, since I can't see inside the fermenter.
I took the top off (remember, a SS Brewtech fermenter is stainless steel, so you can't see what's happening inside), and I was amazed to see no krausen! Maybe it had blown off? Or swirling caused it to drop. I don't know if this is good or bad. I could see evidence on the lid that one was present, but it wasn't there when the top was removed.
The honey/beer mixture was added at 66 F (beer at 72.5 F) and the lid put back in place.
Here's the weird thing. Up until this time, this fermentation had been silent. No airlock activity at all. After I put the lid back down, about 15 seconds later, it came alive. It didn't explode, but had robust and healthy activity. At one point, the bubbles were exiting 15 to 20 a second! After about 30 minutes, it had settled down to 6 or 8 bubbles a second. But it's consistent. It's now appearing to be fermenting properly.
Right after I add the honey. Why? What difference does it make if the sugar originates from the beer or if it originates from the beer and honey? And why would it wake it up so consistently?
This yeast really fascinates me. I want to understand it, but don't. It's an odd fella'! Kinda' like that friend you know who is an odd bird, but harmless and does things his own way in a way that you like.
I have some questions. How is there no airlock activity with all the CO2 present? If it's in the beer, will I need to degas it before bottling? Is there an increased threat of bottle bombs?
Also, why would it switch from a silent fermentation to a normal one just after introducing the honey? Now it's bubbling away fantastically!
I'm not into tasting green beer this early in a fermentation. It's usually disgusting and not representative of what you get in the end. But a gruit is a very different animal, and I wanted to try it after less than two days fermented.
Ringwood 1187 yeast is known for throwing esters that are fruity and at times buttery (acetaldehyde and diacytl). A diacytl rest is recommended. I expected to taste perhaps green apples and butter. But this early in the ferment, I tasted none of this. It was actually very clean. I could taste mild toasted notes (probably the roasted barley), a very strong and wonderful spicy body, a touch of sweetness, and a kiss of yeast and alcohol. The yeast flavor wasn't anything outrageous, like I've tasted with other yeasts. I wouldn't drink a glass of it, but the taste didn't leave me reaching for another drink to cleanse my palate.
Thanks for reading... Sorry to ramble on and on, but using this yeast has been an interesting journey! Just wondering what other people's experience is with it.
