Wyeast London Ale lll

[Meatymc]

Evening

1st time with this yeast and using a smack-pack.

Read the instructions, watched youtube and proceeded to 'smack where I perceived the inner 'pouch' to be. No joy 1st, 2nd - let's cut a long story short, knocked the sh$t out of the pack numerous times and finally thought I'd 'smacked' it in the right place.

5 hours later the pouch had swelled but nowhere near the size of all the examples I'd seen. Anyway, sanitised and pitched from the pouch only to see the nutrient bag - still intact, plonk into the wort. Retrieved, sanitised again, cut open and poured in. Mega stir and crossed all appendages. This was Tuesday.

Wednesday, Thursday and this morning, no krausen as such - only a sorry looking uneven layer of bubbles but you could clearly see them rising and a gentle 'swirl' going on. Had another look tonight and no swirl and only minimal bubbles visible.

Just done a reading and it's down from 1056 to 1012!

Is this in any way normal with this yeast/smack pack

[guypettigrew]

Personally, I can't stand the Wyeast smack packs. Never managed to break the inner pack, never managed to get a good fermentation.

Give me Whitelabs any day. Easy to use, always work.

Guy

[richard080561]

I've had smack packs not swell and nutrient bags not burst, but the beer has always turned out ok.
However, my first choice is Whitelabs or dried yeast.

[Jocky]

I love the smack packs, but they are a ballache to smack sometimes, particularly if some nutrient has escaped and the pack is semi swollen when you receive it.

Two ways I’ve found that work:
1. Get the nutrient pack in the V at the bottom. Then just put it on a solid surface, put the heel of your palm over the nutrient pack and push down until it pops.

2. Get the nutrient pack in a corner or the V. Put pack in one palm of a hand and than slap that f***er as hard as you can with the other hand.

[Eric]

An interesting and nicely put together description of that experience and if your readings were by hydrometer, the outcome seems ideal.

It's a while since using either Wyeast or Whitelabs yeasts and while their outcomes were mostly OK, there were frequent doubts and occasional resorts to pitching more or another yeast a day or so later. As a consequence, brewdays would end with fear of no active fermentation the next morning. That caused me to change to slants from Brewlab. After some reorganisation, it appears those are back again.

Thames Valley 3, which I assume to be their equivalent strain, Brewlab's site has the following:-

Single character. Standard bitter production. Slow fermentation speed. High mineral worts preferred. Moderate ester ability. Strong flocculation.

This London ale yeast has slow but steady fermentation abilities, prefers a strong mineral wort and produces a low to moderate ester flavoured beer. Very low sulphur is produced under stress and phenolic off flavours are not produced. It flocculates strongly producing a light head initially while cells sediment rapidly at the end of fermentation forming a strong sediment.


That description does, to some degree, fit with what you described, but personal experience suggest Brewlab yeasts from slants perform more like the originating strain than those in any form from some other sources. The following picture was taken 24 hours after pitching a Brewlab yeast into 30 litres of wort in a 50 litre vessel. It wasn't Thames Valley 3, but it was like the original as I saw it when that brewery was working.

[Jocky]

An interesting and nicely put together description of that experience and if your readings were by hydrometer, the outcome seems ideal.

It's a while since using either Wyeast or Whitelabs yeasts and while their outcomes were mostly OK, there were frequent doubts and occasional resorts to pitching more or another yeast a day or so later. As a consequence, brewdays would end with fear of no active fermentation the next morning. That caused me to change to slants from Brewlab. After some reorganisation, it appears those are back again.

Thames Valley 3, which I assume to be their equivalent strain, Brewlab's site has the following:-

Single character. Standard bitter production. Slow fermentation speed. High mineral worts preferred. Moderate ester ability. Strong flocculation.

This London ale yeast has slow but steady fermentation abilities, prefers a strong mineral wort and produces a low to moderate ester flavoured beer. Very low sulphur is produced under stress and phenolic off flavours are not produced. It flocculates strongly producing a light head initially while cells sediment rapidly at the end of fermentation forming a strong sediment.


That description does, to some degree, fit with what you described, but personal experience suggest Brewlab yeasts from slants perform more like the originating strain than those in any form from some other sources. The following picture was taken 24 hours after pitching a Brewlab yeast into 30 litres of wort in a 50 litre vessel. It wasn't Thames Valley 3, but it was like the original as I saw it when that brewery was working.

Great to see the yeast slopes are back!

I didn't think that Wyeast 1318 London Ale III is the same as Brewlabs Thames Valley 3. But as I'm gradually working through various London yeasts to find one that makes a strong bitter I like, I may have to try them side by side and see.

[FUBAR]

Thanks for the heads up about Brew labs Eric , I've just placed an order .

[bitter_dave]

Thanks for the heads up about Brew labs Eric , I've just placed an order .

Yes, thanks indeed! I think I'll be getting some of the Sussex yeast, which looks a lot like the Harvey's yeast from the description!

[guypettigrew]

Good grief, Eric. If the slants produce that much head every time there's no way I could use one!

My fermenter has 23 litres of wort/beer in it with only about 3-4 litres head space. There's a blow off tube which vents into a bucket, but a huge bucket would be needed if that much yeast was produced.

Guy

[Eric]

Just pleased to get the ball rolling again with and for Brewlab, they have been and still are of massive support to me, often at arm's length and more. Even occasional reading of their blog can raise your aspirations to another level.

I don't know the ins and outs, but there have been changes in direction and strategy of Brewlab of late. I notice the Darwin Brewery is under different control and Alison (now Douglas) has been a Director of Brewlab for 3 months.

Yes Dave, I'd think Sussex will be Harvey's. Brewlab did once supply me with the John Smith yeast strain passed to Harvey's when they lost their Burton supply. I've never been disappointed by what I've had from Brewlab. The only problem you can have, is using it the same way the Brewery does.

Yes Guy, I think that explains why Wyeast and Whitelabs strains might behave as they do, rather than the way they did. It must be said that my preference is for heavy top fermenting types, and that one is no exception. Such yeast climb out and quickly flocculate, requiring action by the brewer to return it to maintain fermentation. But the benefit, as fermentation nears completion, the beer quickly clears of yeast without need of fining, as seen, even in a darker beer, in this picture taken at racking.



However, there will be yeasts from Brewlab that don't have such large yeast coverings, such as Thames Valley 3.

Wort for a starter for a slope can be got for free from the malt after a mash by adding more sparge liquor and leaving it for an hour before slowly draining, then boiled down to about 1030 should do fine.