I am looking for some feedback from people on their experience with WY1318. I have been using this strain as my goto strain pretty much since I started brewing back in March. I have used in for 15 five gallon batches of beer so far. I make NE IPAs using the BIAB method.
I have used several different fermenters so far. I started with carboys. I started looking for a better solution as I found this strain would consistently blow the top off the fermenter a make a mess nearly every time. I did however have pretty consistent beers when using these, though that may be do to other reasons as I will state below.
Next I tried 30L Spidels. Now these gave plenty of headspace, but I had constant issue trying to transfer out as the style of beers I am making have a lot of dry hop trub and I struggled even with a rotating racking arm to be able to get the beer out of the fermenters. I also did not like not being able to see what was happening. I never had a good batch in 4 attempts come out of these. The beer never seemed to clear and all 4 batches were so horrible they had to be dumped.
Finally I settled on the fermentasaurus. It gives me the headspace of the Speidel, its clear like the carboy and it allows me to dump trub and also pressurize for carbonating and transferring. It also has not been without issue. The end of the hose tends to get stuck right to the side of the fermenter ALL the time. pressure transfers take upwards of 50 minutes. I have tried troubleshooting with the company that makes them and while they are responsive I just get a response that no one else has my issues and they are not sure what is the cause. Out of the 5-6 batches I have made in the Fermentasaurus only one has been really good. 1-2 others were semi drinkable and the others were dumped.
I am adding an SS Brewtech 14 gallon Unitank to my arsenal this week. SO before I get to that point, I have some concerns and I am trying to narrow down the issues I have seen so far that have let to wildly inconsistent results.
The first 8-9 batches of beer I made were good-excellent. All were at the very least drinkable and on the better end, some of the best beers I have ever had. It almost was starting to feel too easy as by brew day 6,7,8 I was just banging out very good beer. Around this time a couple things happened:
1. June hit. Around this time the walkout basement I leave my fermenters in did start to warm up. However I will say it was still probably in the low to mid 60s through most of June.
2. I added a new 20 gallon kettle and pump for whirl pooling. So this replaced a 10 gallon kettle and just letting the beer sit for 30 mins at the end with an occasional stir. Neither of these should have let to quality issues, in fact a true whirlpool setup should have improved the hop aromas and flavors from the whirlpool stage.
Once I moved to this setup and June, July, August hit, I really started producing some truly horrible beer. Most were dumped. The taste was very in your face harsh, burning, the beer was very murky, (more so than usual NE IPA). I don't believe my issues are from the hot side of the equation. My brew days seem to go as planned most days. After maybe the first 1-2 batches with the new kettle, I was able to really start nailing my mash temps. Hitting same temps with very similar grain bills as all my good-excellent batches. SO I feel like the wort is getting to the fermenter as it should.
Now I also did have a couple batches where I feel the starter was off. The first time making a 10 gallon batch I mad a 1.5 L starter with 1 cup of extract which I think was too much. I then really screwed up next time and make a 1 L with 1 cup extract for a 5 gallon batch. So The first one I think maybe I did not have enough yeast, maybe they did not completely do their job and were left in the beer? The next one I think had way to much and possibly a similar issue? After this I have been back to 5 gallon batches and 1 L starter with anywhere from 100-112 grams of extract based on the age of the yeast smack pack. But the extremely harsh taste, and murkiness has continued.
Now I will say it does not appear to be an issue with it fermenting. I usually have an OG between 1.054 and 1.068. Every single batch has been down to 1.006 to 1.010 when transferred to keg. I have typically left the beer in the fermenter about 10-14 days during this bad stretch. I was getting beer 5-7 days in the spring. So I have tried extending the time a little bit to see if things clear up and the extra time has not been helping.
I have also noticed a few things. Sometimes the beer is completely clear on top. Other times it has like a film over it and never quite clears. As I move to a unitank and really will not be able to see whats going on, this troubles me. Has anyone else noticed this? When using the Speidels I peeked in a few times and it had ton of residue on top every time I used them. But lately whether clear or not, (could be left over hop matter?) the taste has just been really bad.
Now the prevailing thought at the moment and I am sure the first thing a lot of people will say is it is probably temp related. I have the ability to heat but not cool. When the room is in the mid to upper 60s I am sure the temp in the fermenter is low to mid 70s. Now WY1318 is rated from 64-74, so it should still be in or around the range at worst. Could this be an issue that would make the beer undrinkable? Has anyone else been fermenting around the upper end of the range for this strain but had good results? I am getting the FTS temp control system with the fermenter and will rig up a cooler with ice for now to assist with any needed cooling. I will look to get a glycol chiller in the spring before next summer hits. I just am not 100% sure this is why my beer has sucked.
I took about a 4 week break and of august thru most of sept from brewing to kind of reset mentally and to let things cool down. Of course we are having some crazy heat the last couple weeks and the basement is back up to mid-upper 60s as I have a batch in the fermenter right now. I have kept daily temp long this time around for the current batch to try and dissect any issue that might crop up. Below is the daily chart:
Day 0 - ferm pitch 70 room 65
Day 1 - ferm 64-68 room 63 (1-2 krausen)
Day 2 - ferm 61-64 room 63.5 (3-4 krausen)
Day 3 - ferm 63 room 61 (1-2" k)
Day 4 - ferm 66 room 62.5 (2-3" k) why the rise when it should be dropping?
Day 6 - ferm 69.2 room 68.1
Day 7 - ferm 69.5 room 68.2
Day 8 - ferm 68.5 room 65
Looking for some feedback on the temp range. It looks like it should be right in the sweet spot for this strain. Currently its got a little film on top but otherwise is pretty clear. I am thinking of transferring on day 10.
Sorry for the really long post, hopefully someone is still reading, lol. I just wanted to provide as much detail as possible to try and get some useful feedback to try and solve my issues and get back on track.
I have used several different fermenters so far. I started with carboys. I started looking for a better solution as I found this strain would consistently blow the top off the fermenter a make a mess nearly every time. I did however have pretty consistent beers when using these, though that may be do to other reasons as I will state below.
Next I tried 30L Spidels. Now these gave plenty of headspace, but I had constant issue trying to transfer out as the style of beers I am making have a lot of dry hop trub and I struggled even with a rotating racking arm to be able to get the beer out of the fermenters. I also did not like not being able to see what was happening. I never had a good batch in 4 attempts come out of these. The beer never seemed to clear and all 4 batches were so horrible they had to be dumped.
Finally I settled on the fermentasaurus. It gives me the headspace of the Speidel, its clear like the carboy and it allows me to dump trub and also pressurize for carbonating and transferring. It also has not been without issue. The end of the hose tends to get stuck right to the side of the fermenter ALL the time. pressure transfers take upwards of 50 minutes. I have tried troubleshooting with the company that makes them and while they are responsive I just get a response that no one else has my issues and they are not sure what is the cause. Out of the 5-6 batches I have made in the Fermentasaurus only one has been really good. 1-2 others were semi drinkable and the others were dumped.
I am adding an SS Brewtech 14 gallon Unitank to my arsenal this week. SO before I get to that point, I have some concerns and I am trying to narrow down the issues I have seen so far that have let to wildly inconsistent results.
The first 8-9 batches of beer I made were good-excellent. All were at the very least drinkable and on the better end, some of the best beers I have ever had. It almost was starting to feel too easy as by brew day 6,7,8 I was just banging out very good beer. Around this time a couple things happened:
1. June hit. Around this time the walkout basement I leave my fermenters in did start to warm up. However I will say it was still probably in the low to mid 60s through most of June.
2. I added a new 20 gallon kettle and pump for whirl pooling. So this replaced a 10 gallon kettle and just letting the beer sit for 30 mins at the end with an occasional stir. Neither of these should have let to quality issues, in fact a true whirlpool setup should have improved the hop aromas and flavors from the whirlpool stage.
Once I moved to this setup and June, July, August hit, I really started producing some truly horrible beer. Most were dumped. The taste was very in your face harsh, burning, the beer was very murky, (more so than usual NE IPA). I don't believe my issues are from the hot side of the equation. My brew days seem to go as planned most days. After maybe the first 1-2 batches with the new kettle, I was able to really start nailing my mash temps. Hitting same temps with very similar grain bills as all my good-excellent batches. SO I feel like the wort is getting to the fermenter as it should.
Now I also did have a couple batches where I feel the starter was off. The first time making a 10 gallon batch I mad a 1.5 L starter with 1 cup of extract which I think was too much. I then really screwed up next time and make a 1 L with 1 cup extract for a 5 gallon batch. So The first one I think maybe I did not have enough yeast, maybe they did not completely do their job and were left in the beer? The next one I think had way to much and possibly a similar issue? After this I have been back to 5 gallon batches and 1 L starter with anywhere from 100-112 grams of extract based on the age of the yeast smack pack. But the extremely harsh taste, and murkiness has continued.
Now I will say it does not appear to be an issue with it fermenting. I usually have an OG between 1.054 and 1.068. Every single batch has been down to 1.006 to 1.010 when transferred to keg. I have typically left the beer in the fermenter about 10-14 days during this bad stretch. I was getting beer 5-7 days in the spring. So I have tried extending the time a little bit to see if things clear up and the extra time has not been helping.
I have also noticed a few things. Sometimes the beer is completely clear on top. Other times it has like a film over it and never quite clears. As I move to a unitank and really will not be able to see whats going on, this troubles me. Has anyone else noticed this? When using the Speidels I peeked in a few times and it had ton of residue on top every time I used them. But lately whether clear or not, (could be left over hop matter?) the taste has just been really bad.
Now the prevailing thought at the moment and I am sure the first thing a lot of people will say is it is probably temp related. I have the ability to heat but not cool. When the room is in the mid to upper 60s I am sure the temp in the fermenter is low to mid 70s. Now WY1318 is rated from 64-74, so it should still be in or around the range at worst. Could this be an issue that would make the beer undrinkable? Has anyone else been fermenting around the upper end of the range for this strain but had good results? I am getting the FTS temp control system with the fermenter and will rig up a cooler with ice for now to assist with any needed cooling. I will look to get a glycol chiller in the spring before next summer hits. I just am not 100% sure this is why my beer has sucked.
I took about a 4 week break and of august thru most of sept from brewing to kind of reset mentally and to let things cool down. Of course we are having some crazy heat the last couple weeks and the basement is back up to mid-upper 60s as I have a batch in the fermenter right now. I have kept daily temp long this time around for the current batch to try and dissect any issue that might crop up. Below is the daily chart:
Day 0 - ferm pitch 70 room 65
Day 1 - ferm 64-68 room 63 (1-2 krausen)
Day 2 - ferm 61-64 room 63.5 (3-4 krausen)
Day 3 - ferm 63 room 61 (1-2" k)
Day 4 - ferm 66 room 62.5 (2-3" k) why the rise when it should be dropping?
Day 6 - ferm 69.2 room 68.1
Day 7 - ferm 69.5 room 68.2
Day 8 - ferm 68.5 room 65
Looking for some feedback on the temp range. It looks like it should be right in the sweet spot for this strain. Currently its got a little film on top but otherwise is pretty clear. I am thinking of transferring on day 10.
Sorry for the really long post, hopefully someone is still reading, lol. I just wanted to provide as much detail as possible to try and get some useful feedback to try and solve my issues and get back on track.