White Labs 002 English Ale

[niall]

This is one flocculant yeast. After a couple of days it had all clumped to the bottom. I have read that this yeast needs to be roused on the second day, I have read that it needs rousing twice a day and I have read that it doesn't need rousing at all. Unfortunately I broke my hydrometer and I'm waiting on a new one to arrive so I won't be able to check gravities until the weekend at the earliest.

For those of you who have used this yeast before what would your recommendation be regarding rousing the yeast? And secondly how would you do it? So far I've given it a gentle stir every couple of days, lifting the big clumps of yeast up to the surface (whereupon they instantly sink again ) Am I risking oxidisation by stirring the wort so often.

By the way I had a sneaky taste and it's got that Fullers yeast flavour I was after - very impressive.

[Oscar Brewer]

I am a brewer who does think that this yeast needs rousing to prevent it flocculating too soon to the bottom of the FV. Providing you don't over agitate and keep a cover on the wort you should minimise any chance of the beer oxidising or becoming infected; unfortunately without a hydrometer it is difficult to be sure that fermentation is complete. When you tasted your beer did it taste overtly sweet, if so fermentation is probably not complete. As regards the conflicting advice re rousing; I have an idea that when this yeast is used in a deep tank or conical the strong recirculating action keeps the yeast in suspension but when used in shallow vessels this does not occur and some sort of agitation is required. This seems to be a common complaint with WLP002, Y1968 & SO4 when used by craft brewers. Micro (and larger) breweries who use these yeasts in deeper tanks or conicals do not seem to have any problems. Also note these strains require plenty of aeration and a good pitching rate. Hope this is some help.

Oscar Brewer

[niall]

Cheers Oscar,

That makes complete sense on all fronts. It did taste sweet but then again one of the traits of this yeast is (I believe) residual sweetness so I won't try to judge whether or not it was overly sweet. I should have a new hydrometer by the end of the week at which point I can check the gravity and get an idea where I stand.

I take your point on aeration - I normally run the wort into my fermenter from a height and give the fermentation bin a good shake. This usually gets fermentation starting quickly but I noticed there was very little activity with this for about 18 hours. I used a 1 litre starter so I would hope the pitching rate was OK - more aeration next time will probably help. I plan to save some yeast from this and repitch this for a future batch so that may get a faster start. (If I time it right I might repitch onto the yeast cake)