ESB FG too high using Wyeast London ESB

[ntillemans]

Good question.

My thoughts are that I'll add a small starter, probably 1 L in my case, since my London ESB yeast is liquid yeast (and I want a meaningful starter). I've heard 1 pint and a packet of dry yeast is sufficient for this method. In my case, I'm not worried about getting too much attenuation from the London ESB yeast. It gets pretty lazy as the sugars dry up. Worst case scenario, I could cold crash it near freezing in one of my chest freezers for a few days before I keg it and force carb it.

I was thinking I would cool the beer back down to about 68 degrees before repitching. I don't want the fresh yeast to ferment too hot. I am a little concerned about oxidizing the beer with the new starter, though I haven't found anyone citing this as a problem or concern. Presumably the new yeast will use up the oxygen before it drops out of suspension.

It seems worth a shot. As I searched through the forums, I didn't find a downside to this...other than simply wasting money on the new starter (if it doesn't work).

Generally speaking, I don't think you have to worry about getting too much attenuation from pitching an active starter of the same yeast you started with into a stuck fermentation. I haven't heard any horror stories. I have heard people reporting that they didn't get any further drop in gravity points at all from this method. So, it seems a lot like worrying about overdoing it at the gym because you don't want to be too muscular.

Hopefully, I will see some progress.

[FoothillBrewer]

I got my first "bottle" of that yeast from a local brewer who did warn me that it needed rousing quite often. He was right, but I never re-pitched - I just kept rousing and let it finish with a little higher FG than I wanted (maybe .02 or .03 points, though - not much). He did state that he really likes this yeast not for ESB style, but for his Scotch ales and Barleywines.

[jwatkins56550]

Next time you brew this beer, do a Fast Ferment test, and then you can rule out wether your low attenuation is mash related or fermentation related.

If you don't know what a Fast Ferment test is then buy Jamil's yeast book .




or go here: http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Fast_Ferment_Test

[ntillemans]

Jwatkins56550, I have been meaning to buy that yeast book. Thanks for reminding me about that.

And Thanks for the link. That fast ferment sounds like a great idea.

Since it sounds like bread yeast ferments about as low as other yeast strains (within about 2 specific gravity points), I could easily use a packet of bread yeast in the fast ferment and predict very nearly the FG. Sounds like a cheap, easy way to do the fast ferment.

And FoothillBrewer, thanks for relating your experience. I have been shaking the hell out of the ESB a couple times a day for the past five days now. I usually get good results from rousing. This 5 gallons of ESB was at 1.026 5 days ago and has dropped 2 points to 1.024. Doubt I'll get another 6-8 points out of it at this rate.

It will be interesting to see if adding an active starter will make any difference. I'll see if I can't get that experiment going by the end of the week.

[thatguy314]

Huh. I'd always heard it called a forced ferment test (as opposed to the forced wort test). Fast sounds like a better name to me than forced (for the ferment). Forced doesn't sound good for wort either, but you want that shizzle to go slow.

[ntillemans]

So, I added an active starter of the same ESB yeast to my stalled fermentation and saw some light foam on the top of carboy and visible yeast activity. The bubbler started bubbling again, every 10-15 seconds. But the FG didn't drop any further over the course of a week. I sampled some and didn't notice any signs of oxidation. That was a relief, considering I had made my active starter with a stir plate. I was concerned about oxidizing the beer with an active starter; but, then without even thinking about it, I made my starter on my stirplate. Duh. Anyways, I thought I would update the thread with my poor result.

I'll have to triple check my mash temp next time I make this recipe. I picked up a lab thermometer and a new dial thermometer. I'll make sure everything jibes. I thought I had everything calibrated correctly. But something must have been off.