Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

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suttonbrewer
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Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

Post by suttonbrewer » Mon Nov 28, 2011 9:38 pm

I have just done my second all grain brew and used Danstar Nottingham yeast in both. The first brew (T.T.L. recipe from Graham Wheelers book) fermented as I would have expected with a nice foamy head on the beer. The second brew (Old Thumper recipe from same book) the fermentation looks completely different. There is no foamy head on the beer at all. The beer is fizzing away nicely, so it is fermenting o.k. There are no "off" smells or skin on top of the beer so it is not infected, I'm just curious as to why the two brews are fermenting completely differently. could it be something to do with the different starting gravities?

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simple one
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Re: Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

Post by simple one » Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:36 pm

I have had many differing ferments from Nottingham Yeast. I usually see similarities when the colour of the beer is the same.

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Andy
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Re: Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

Post by Andy » Tue Nov 29, 2011 9:28 am

Odd not to get Krausen with Nottingham, I've always had it with all my brews. Have you checked the gravity to ensure it is actually dropping gravity points ? And how old was the yeast ? There were some dodgy batches of Nottingham 18 months - 2 years ago IIRC, batch numbers available via google (if you've kept the packet).

Also:

What method did you use to re-hydrate/pitch the yeast ?
What temp was the wort you pitched in to ?
What temp are you fermenting at ?
Dan!

suttonbrewer
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Re: Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

Post by suttonbrewer » Tue Nov 29, 2011 8:23 pm

The yeast was re-hydrated as per instructions on packet. when pitched it looked perfect and smelt fine. The yeast was purchased last week and the vacuum pack was o.k.
The wort temperature was around 25 degrees when the yeast was piched and the fermentation temperature is around the 21 degree mark, but probably falls away a few degrees over night.
The original gravity was around 1051 and I have just checked it now and it is down to 1012, so I don't expect it to drop much more, if at all.
The yeast wasn't piched until about 4.00pm on Saturday so the gravity has fallen all that way in 3 days!
The beer tastes fine and smells fine, so I guess it is just one of those mysteries.

critch

Re: Strange Nottingham Yeast Behavior

Post by critch » Mon Dec 05, 2011 6:12 pm

i often see notty colapsing off like this after a couple of days.never had a problem

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