Lalbrew London - suggested next steps?

[Cptn_Needa]

Hi All
I've had a Christmas Ale in the FV for a week now and after a vigorous start it seems to have stopped at 1.021. Reading various threads on here it seems that the Lalbrew London yeast has a bit of a habit of doing this.

OG was 1.060 and target FG is 1.014 but it went from OG to 1.025 in 2 days and has only dropped 4 points in the next 5 days.

I've just added the spices (ginger and cinnamon) and it has a week to go but I wonder if there is any action I can/should take (like pitching some other yeast) that you might recommend?
I did give it a gentle stir when I added the spices to see if that might rouse the yeast.
Maybe raise the temp from 20° to 22°?

It's pretty sweet at the moment and would really like this to drop to somewhere near the target FG.

Mash temp was 65°C using the following
4.5 kg (85.2%) — Crisp Maris Otter
170 g (3.2%) — Crisp Crystal light
90 g (1.7%) — Crisp Chocolate Malt
90 g (1.7%) — Crisp Wheat Malt

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I would add a pack of Nottingham style yeast now.

 

[Slid]

+1 on adding a better attenuating yeast and Nottingham is as close to style as you will get. Wilko sell Gervin Ale yeast, which is reckoned to be Nottingham.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Thanks both.
I’ve just been through my little stash of yeast and found two packs of wilko Gervin but it’s two years past it’s best by date.
I’ll nip to wilko tomorrow and grab a fresh pack (and should probably bin those old ones).
Also got a Lalbrew Nottingham but was hoping to use that on my next brew at the weekend.
Other than that I’ve got a couple of S-04’s and a BRY-97.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

I’m loving the definitive suggestion on this one too.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Couple of quick questions on next steps after I pitched the wilko Gervin yeast yesterday morning if I may.

1. Do I follow the original timelines (assuming that it's at a stable SG for three days) and rack next weekend or should I give the new yeast two weeks to do its thing?
2. Will the spices I added on Saturday be negatively affected by the introduction of the new yeast (will I lose flavour and need to add more)?

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Sorry to bug but does anyone have any opinions on this?

 

[Cheshire Cat]

I would give the Gervin 5-7 days and check the FG over two days. If stable bottle. Spices shouldn't have any affect.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Ideal. Thanks once again @Cheshire Cat.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I’ve just been through my little stash of yeast and found two packs of wilko Gervin but it’s two years past it’s best by date.
I’ll nip to wilko tomorrow and grab a fresh pack (and should probably bin those old ones).

I wouldn't sweat best-befores on dry yeast too much - if they're kept in decent conditions they only go off at a couple of percent per year. I've used bread yeast that had spent 20 years in a cupboard and it still had maybe 50% activity.

Given that Lallemand London doesn't eat maltotriose, I'd suggest it was ... optimistic to expect attenuation over 76%, unless you were paying a lot of attention to fermentability - mashing low etc.

It's not ideal to be adding yeast to finish off when the London has already eaten all the "easy" sugars - I'd be tempted to add a few gravity points of sugar at the same time, just to help the "finisher" to get going. Dark brown soft sugar would probably appropriate in this particular case.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Cheers @Northern Brewer

Given that Lallemand London doesn't eat maltotriose, I'd suggest it was ... optimistic to expect attenuation over 76%, unless you were paying a lot of attention to fermentability - mashing low etc.

Mash wasn’t particularly low @65c and it took 10 mins of stirring to bring it down (the strike temp was a few degrees higher than it should have been it seems). It may well have started conversion at 67c-68c.

It's not ideal to be adding yeast to finish off when the London has already eaten all the "easy" sugars - I'd be tempted to add a few gravity points of sugar at the same time, just to help the "finisher" to get going. Dark brown soft sugar would probably appropriate in this particular case.

It’s been two days since I pitched the Gervin. Activity has been pretty low so far; I couldn't say that it's even managed to drop a point yet.
I Will add the suggested soft brown sugar (100g for 20l wort) once it's cooled from pasteurising and hopefully that will bring it into life.

 

[Baggins]

Are we talking about the Lallemand London ESB yeast? I used that once and still have a sachet. I don't plan to use it again because it stopped at out 1020 and after 3 weeks I bottled it. Then it restarted big time. I had to loosen the bottle lids and leave in the bath for a few days. Ended about 1016 and masses of sediment in the bottles. Glad I'd used screw tops. I read its known for this. Beer was good but messy and what a faff. I hadn't heard of rousing the yeast, but that might have worked.

 

[Cptn_Needa]

Thanks for the info @Baggins.
It was the London ESB yeast but hopefully the Nottingham I've added will go the job.
I'm planning on sticking this in a corny keg so even if it does liven up after racking, the worst it will do is over carb the beer and I can just burp it for a few days.
If it's this much of a pain I think I'll look at alternative yeasts in the future (or plan my fermentable additions better).