WYeast Activator 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale Yeast

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Smileyr8

Smileyr8

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I have ordered the above primarily for use in Greg Hughes Yorkshire Bitter and I was thinking of top cropping so I started doing some research into doing this and the yeast itself.

I have read that the yeast ferments with a massive creamy krausen, I was planning to try to ferment this towards the bottom of its range at 17.7c-18.3c (17.8c-22.2c is the yeasts published range), I was also hoping not to have to drill the fermentor lid for a blow off tube.

Have any of you guys used this yeast and have you got any information/stories you can share?
 
It's a fantastic English yeast. I used it in bother bitters and porters. Malty but finishes dry. However keep it at around 18C when fermenting as I found it to have an overwhelming apple/pear ester flavour when I fermented it at 20C. Which took several weeks to mellow
 
MyQul said:
It's a fantastic English yeast. I used it in bother bitters and porters. Malty but finishes dry. However keep it at around 18C when fermenting as I found it to have an overwhelming apple/pear ester flavour when I fermented it at 20C. Which took several weeks to mellow
Click to expand...

Thanks for the reply MyQul, I was hoping it would be good enough to use as my house yeast for use in all my brews Pales all the way through to Stouts. I was planning on fermenting at 18c +- 0.3c so should hopefully avoid the apple/pear ester flavour. I was also hoping to top crop and have watched a few videos to try to figure out the best method of doing this, the plan is to crop a couple of jars one for bitters, porters & stouts and the other for pales and goldens (I will probably harvest the trub also incase the top cropping is unsuccessful). From what I understand about top cropping what I need to gather is the foam & not the sludge the appears on top is that correct?
 
Smileyr8 said:
Thanks for the reply MyQul, I was hoping it would be good enough to use as my house yeast for use in all my brews Pales all the way through to Stouts. I was planning on fermenting at 18c +- 0.3c so should hopefully avoid the apple/pear ester flavour. I was also hoping to top crop and have watched a few videos to try to figure out the best method of doing this, the plan is to crop a couple of jars one for bitters, porters & stouts and the other for pales and goldens (I will probably harvest the trub also incase the top cropping is unsuccessful). From what I understand about top cropping what I need to gather is the foam & not the sludge the appears on top is that correct?
Click to expand...

Yes I think you could use 1469 for your house yeast.
It's has a reputation for a huge krausen. Hower, for some reason that I've never satisfactorily worked out, I never get big krausens, even with strains that are notorious for them. I'm currently using the Shepard Neame strain, another strain with a reputation for a massive krausen but I just get a couple of centimeteres :confused:
Therefore I've never top cropped. I've started to overbuild starters instead
http://brulosophy.com/methods/yeast-harvesting/
From what I understand is you need to harvest and discard the first top crop as it's full of 'cack', then 24 hours later you can harvest again for the yeast your going to use.
 
Smileyr8 said:
Have you top cropped with this strain? Have you got any advice/tips, as this will be my first attempt.
Click to expand...

No i have not used it but i did WLP004 Irish Ale Yeast and the starter i made from it went off like a rocket. I scooped out some of the krausen and some wort from the top. Approx 300ml. I would do it more often but to be honest i normall forget. Best of luck sounds like another yeast i would like to try.
 
So I made a starter from the smack pack Friday evening and although it did appear to get started, it was very clean nice white foam when swirled.
I brewed and pitched yesterday evening (Saturday), this morning it has the brown green sludge on the top, normally at this stage I leave it be and do nothing for 14 days.
What I would like to know is should I be skimming the brown sludge off today and discarding it before top cropping tomorrow? I had always thought the sludge was the yeast?
 
MyQul said:
From your post I get the impression the krausen isn't very large at all. You can only really top crop successfully if you have a krausen of several inches
Click to expand...

Just had a check and at the moment its maybe 1" the foam is breaking through the sludge, the plan was to crop tomorrow, I was expecting something quite a bit more explosive than this based on other peoples reviews.
 
Smileyr8 said:
Just had a check and at the moment its maybe 1" the foam is breaking through the sludge, the plan was to crop tomorrow, I was expecting something quite a bit more explosive than this based on other peoples reviews.
Click to expand...

Usually, your right, 1469 does have a gigantic krausen. But as mentioned it never 'blew the airlock' for me. If the krausen doesnt get big enough to top crop you can overbuild starters which is just as good
 
MyQul,

The krausen was a good few inches this evening I skimmed a jar full I have to say it was really thick/creamy I have attached a image and was wondering if it should sit under a small amount of beer/wort from the brew similar to harvesting the trub?
Top Crop.jpg
 
Ideally you want to pitch it into another brew within a day or two. Otherwise yes you need to stick it in some wort/cover it with beer if you want to keep it. Be careful though as its super-vital and at it's healthiest state. If you stick it in just a small amount of wort it will go ape. Theres a piccy of someone doing just that with wye valley yeast on the forum somewhere. I'll see if I can find it
 
Gave it a shake to try to tease the bubbles out of it opened the lid to add a little beer and it was under proper pressure and sprayed yeast everywhere I added the beer but is sank to the bottom, just gone back to add a little more & I have 3 distinct layers, I am guessing yeast at the bottom thin beer layer and krausen on the top. It will probably not be using this for a couple of weeks but will keep this thread alive as the adventure continues.

Top Crop 2.jpg
 
Used the top cropped yeast from the last beer, it would have been 2.5 weeks old, I made a starter in a 1.5 litre kilner jar (from DME) and not being sure how much yeast I needed to use I pitched the lot perhaps 1.5"- 2" gave a shake to mix the yeast in and left it went back 30 minutes later and shook it again and it had a massive foam head perhaps 2" on 2" of wort, I kept giving a shake every time I thought about it, when I went to bed I put it in my brew fridge to maintain the temperature, when I looked in the morning, there was yeast all over the bottom of the fridge. On the second days it had calmed down a fair bit I pitched it into the next brew the following day.

So the plans for doing this in the future are this make the starter the night before the brew day and not 2 days before, make a weaker wort, will probably pitch all the yeast again though I don't think I cropped quite as much this time.

I cant comment on the taste of the beer at this stage but will do so in due course.
 

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