TTL with Wyeast 1469

[Jymbo]

Got myself hold of some wyeast 1469 so I decided to have a rattle at GW's TTL clone. Followed the recipe precisely except for a few extra finishing Styrians and some more after flamneout. OG was bang on at 1042 and looks like FG will be bang on 1010. All in all it was a normal brew, but the yeast is not like anything I've used before.

I pitched the slap-pack without making a starter as it was fairly fresh and this was only a 1042 wort. 24 hours later and there were no signs of fermentation - I was nearly ready for tipping a packet of Safale-04 into the FV. But I left it for another 12 hours and thankfully it started to bubble very slowly. At 48 hours it started bubbling regularly and at day four it had a massive krausen which was very thin and whispy. After day 4 the krausen got really thick and sticky but it stayed thick until about day 8-9. Bubbling stopped around 1018, but after rousing a few times its started up again. Its been going 12 days now and the SG is around 1011, but it's still bubbling away. and still has a small amount of krausen on top.

Think I'll make a starter next time - although I have read some reports of it being a slow finisher even with a starter. Lets hope it's worth the wait.

[seymour]

...Think I'll make a starter next time...

That's probably best practice. It sounds like you just had a pack with lower cell-count or struggling health. Shouldn't be a big problem, though, since you gave it the time it needed to reproduce. If it was a bit stressed,it may have generated some extra fruity esters, but that's appropriate to this type of beer anyway. Cheers!

[Jymbo]

Cheers, Seymour,

Yeah, I usually do make a starter but I'm trying to streamline my processes as much as possible (without affecting quality of course). So I've cut my mash and boil times from 90 mins to 60 mins, and I only make a starter for higher OG worts. Maybe need to rethink that one

[seymour]

...Maybe need to rethink that one

Not necessarily. Just see how this tastes, and go from there. Many of us just sprinkle one pack of dry yeast with perfectly fine results. It would be different if you were trying to brew a super-transparent lager, but Big Brown English Ales are very forgiving.

[Jymbo]

Day 19 and the FV is still bubbling (very slowly) - this thing won't finish - I took the FG a few days ago and it had already dropped from 1042 to 1009 - more than this yeast is supposed to attenuate, but it tasted fine so no infection. Hopefully it'll stop soon - I'd liked to get it bottled before the weekend.

[jonnyt]

Might be just temperature variations.
I'd give it a good old rouse to make sure as this yeast supposedly needs it!

[Jymbo]

It's in the bottle now -at 1008. A few points lower than I expected. Looks really clear too, this yeast drops out very well.

[jonnyt]

Yuk! Not the same brew in a bottle from my experience and you will also notice the bottle version has a different ABV. I wonder why that is?

[Jymbo]

I've often wondered that myself. But I do like the bottled version, it still has a good malty flavour even though it's weaker than the cask.

[seymour]

...even though it's weaker than the cask.

Yeah, this is a weird one. I don't know why either.
My understanding is that normally the cask recipe is the lower ABV%, the original recipe as fashioned by the brewer, intended to be delivered and consumed relatively quickly. The bottled recipe is typically the higher ABV% because it needs to sit on shelves longer, survive export, etc...

[stevetk189]

Day 19 and the FV is still bubbling (very slowly) - this thing won't finish - I took the FG a few days ago and it had already dropped from 1042 to 1009 - more than this yeast is supposed to attenuate, but it tasted fine so no infection. Hopefully it'll stop soon - I'd liked to get it bottled before the weekend.

I used 1469 once and it took three weeks to finish. I didn't make a starter though, just smacked the pack the day before. I will try it again one day but for now I'm sticking with SO4 and WLP002.

[Jymbo]

This yeast may have taken a while but it was worth the wait. This is the best brew I've made in a long time and I've done this recipe with a number of other yeasts. I'll definitely be using 1469 again, tho' I'll make a starter next time. Even though it attenuated from 1042 down to 1008 it still left a rich malty flavour and didn't mute the hops. The esters it produced added to the complexity too without being overpowering and it dropped out very quickly leaving the beer very bright within a week or two.

[vacant]

1469 is my favourite. Currently sitting in my fridge on a fourth generation slant (could be older, swapped slants with Ali).