Beer Forum

I rinsed and repitched the prime yeast (WLP001) from my Flanders into a porter. The Flanders sat on WLP001 for 5 days is now on Roeslare in secondary. I noticed some residual activity in secondary, which I believe might have been the less flocculant/more attenuative pirmary yeast in solution.. fighting with the Roeslare bugs for residual sugars.

In the porter, I noticed a shorter lag time but the ferment is slowing down sooner in the repitched beer compared to the first generation, by about a day. Do repitched batches attenuate sooner in your guys experience? I bottom cropped.. Now it seems before the first generation properly attenuated out... So could it be that I selected for a more flocculant/less attenuative yeast when rinsing?

Check your gravity, if it's near terminal, your good. And with the repitch you probably had a bigger pitch of awake and alive yeast

Another cofounding variable I forgot to mention was mash regime. The wort for the first generation beer mashed at 154F.. The mash temp on the wort for the second generation beer was 156F. I think there may be multiple causes for inadequate attenuation here.. I have yet to taste the beer.. Do you agree?

It looks like the second gen has less fermentable sugars in it. The second gen yeast usually is more viable than your first pitch. I agree to check your gravity. It is the only way to know for sure since it is a different beer you repitched to. Sometimes the activity in a secondary is really just some carbon dioxide coming out of solution. It is usually normal to see this for the first day or two. If it continues on, you might be having some true secondary fermentation going on. It could be wild yeast or just what you explained about the less flocculant yeast. The only way to know is to check to see if the gravity is dropping and taste the finished beer. Personally, I have not started repitching yeast yet because I don't want any "Wild Labrador yeast" in my beer, thats right, my dog sheds like no other. Once I am able to move into a bigger house I will quarantine an area to be my yeast lab. Good luck with the porter, I hope it turns out fine.

Well, you did leave the less flocculent/more attenuative yeast in your first beer, but odds are, since you would have had a very large, healthy pitch, the porter may just finish quicker. You may see lower attenuatiom in successive generations if you keep repitching the same yeast so quickly.

Savage Brewer wrote: Sometimes the activity in a secondary is really just some carbon dioxide coming out of solution.

It had high krausen. Just for 2-3 days though. As soon as it formed. It fell back in. I'm tasting the beer today after work.. before the superbowl. Wish me luck.

RDWHAHB
A day or 2 is well within the 'noise level'. Besides, you want the yeast to keep going for at least 10 days just for conditioning.

I agree with the above that you have more healthier yeast, on a more dextrinous wort, which scrubbed the fermentables faster.

Just tasted the beer. Tastes like flat porter and not overly sweet either. I think I'll package after another week. Thanks guys!