stratslinger
Well-Known Member
I recently fermented a very simple beer - a Marris Otter/EKG SMASH - with the 3rd pitch of washed Wyeast 1968. I've read various reports that the 3rd pitch is supposed to have some sort of "magical" qualities, and I'm seeing anything but...
First off, a very brief history of the strain: it was first used to ferment a low gravity English mild. The day I racked that beer, I split its cake roughly in two (without washing) and pitched it into two fermenters of a relatively higher gravity winter warmer (mid-1.070's OG, no spices or anything like that). It was from one of these primary fermenters that I washed and harvested the yeast I just used, back in mid October. Both of these fermentations happened rapidly and, as is typically the case with 1968, the yeast dropped out of solution within the first 2 weeks (probably faster).
So, I brewed up my SMASH on 2/23 and pitched, due to a starter timing issue, 3 weeks ago yesterday (2/24). The beer reached FG in about 8 days, but it has remained cloudy. There's a good yeast cake, but there's obviously still a lot of yeast in solution (obvious by both appearance and flavor/aroma). Since I'll need the fermenter this weekend, I kegged the beer last night, and will be cold crashing (and dumping the first few pints) as soon as I get some space in my kegerator.
But I'm wondering what the heck is going on with this yeast at this point, and if anyone else has experienced anything similar with a typically highly flocculant strain turning, well, not so flocculant after just a couple generations. I'm considering dumping the yeast I harvested last night from this batch and starting fresh the next time I want to use this strain - is that overreaction?
First off, a very brief history of the strain: it was first used to ferment a low gravity English mild. The day I racked that beer, I split its cake roughly in two (without washing) and pitched it into two fermenters of a relatively higher gravity winter warmer (mid-1.070's OG, no spices or anything like that). It was from one of these primary fermenters that I washed and harvested the yeast I just used, back in mid October. Both of these fermentations happened rapidly and, as is typically the case with 1968, the yeast dropped out of solution within the first 2 weeks (probably faster).
So, I brewed up my SMASH on 2/23 and pitched, due to a starter timing issue, 3 weeks ago yesterday (2/24). The beer reached FG in about 8 days, but it has remained cloudy. There's a good yeast cake, but there's obviously still a lot of yeast in solution (obvious by both appearance and flavor/aroma). Since I'll need the fermenter this weekend, I kegged the beer last night, and will be cold crashing (and dumping the first few pints) as soon as I get some space in my kegerator.
But I'm wondering what the heck is going on with this yeast at this point, and if anyone else has experienced anything similar with a typically highly flocculant strain turning, well, not so flocculant after just a couple generations. I'm considering dumping the yeast I harvested last night from this batch and starting fresh the next time I want to use this strain - is that overreaction?
