RIS with wlp007.. Expecting a blowoff, why didn't it happen?

Hello all. It's my first RIS and first time with 007. Needless to say I was expecting a blowoff, but only got a small 1" krausen.

Below are some details, just trying to learn more about this wonderful hobby!

OG: 1.093
3L starter w/ stir plate, extra chunky
Fermentation ambient temp ~ 59-62* (basement)
Beersmith target FG: 1.022

After 5-6 days krausen completely fell in, no co2 bubbles rising to the surface and no apparent activity in the carboy. Sample @ 1.036. From some research I was worried about stalled fermentation due to cold conditions for 007 to finish properly. Stirred yeast gently & moved upstairs to 68-70*. Picked back up nicely.

What the hell happened? Just too cold in the basement for 007? Was my experience normal? I'm just guessing at this point.

My experience with 007 is that It does not like to go much below 64ºF, I typically keep it at 64-66º for bigger non-english style beers (To get a neutral fermentation profile).It tends to be a slower and more subdued fermentation 3-6 days. With english ales I tend to try an keep the fermentation temp in the 68-70º range and use a blow off tube, these beers can reach final gravity in 3-4 days, and is much more active.

ya i would say that was too cold a fermentation temp.

Bsquared said:

With english ales I tend to try an keep the fermentation temp in the 68-70º range and use a blow off tube

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my experience says that 68+ is too high for average gravity english ales. most english yeast will throw off big fruity esters in the upper 60's & up. i do main fermetation 62-66, depending on the strain, then ramp up when fermentation has slowed a little.

I've had problems with WLP007 not finishing up. I've had to bring the temp up to 68-70F to get a gravity lower than ~1.035 on two separate big beers.

I use Nottingham now.

Id Raise the temp as stated above, also I saw no mention of the PH of your wort. this could cause serious problems. yeast has a very specific PH it likes to live in 3.8ish for wines and I think 5.5 is around the magic number for beer. Obviously there is a range and it changes from yeast strain to strain. A lot of things can throw off your PH: Water, Hops, Grains, etc. Id check the PH. Also you can try adding a nutrient regiment to try to wake the yeast up. You may get blow off while your mixing it in so be careful (this happened to me with a batch about a month ago).

I'm usually pitching at 64-66 and letting it ramp up to 68-70, so I don't get much of an ester profile from 007. I use 007 in quite a lot of my beers and find with a large pitch ~1.5e6 cells/ml/ºP and I can get a good clean fermentation. I like the higher attenuation and floculation with 007.

I found that if you under pitch with 007 it can start to flocculate out of suspension before you reach terminal gravity and can take a few more days than normal.

sweetcell said:

my experience says that 68+ is too high for average gravity english ales. most english yeast will throw off big fruity esters in the upper 60's & up. i do main fermetation 62-66, depending on the strain, then ramp up when fermentation has slowed a little.

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Awesome, thanks everyone. This goes along with my research of 007 and low temps. Time to step it up soon to a ferm chamber!f