Nottingham Yeast

[Andbrew]

Hi guys and gals,

On my second AG i used a Nottingham yeast 'pitched dry' fermentation started within 12 hours however its still going. Tommorrow is day 10, airlock activity has all but ceased, if i press down on the lid i get a few bubbles then a few hours later the lid has bulged again. So its definatley still going there is still a thin yeast cap on the beer and large clumps in suspension. Is this normal for a nottingham yeast? i've only used s-04 in previous brews / turbo ciders.

average temp is 22C

Cheers Andbrew

 

[Wez]

My experience of Nottingham is that it's a lazy sod.

Right now I have 3x 20L FV's of the same batch fermenting with Nottingham, S04 & Windsor. S04 & Windsor got off to a flying start (~2hrs lag time) and had completed the ferment in 5 days. The Nottingham was slow to start ~12 hrs i guess and it's slowly making it's way down to final gravity (FG).

 

[Andbrew]

Cheers Wez
Its the clumps i'm worried about, I'm positive its not infected it smells good. Having only seen S-04 ferment (quick start, large head which drops around day 3, then clears around day 7) i was alarmed at the difference. The sg is 1.005 IIRC it started at 1.048, unfortunatley the mash temp after 90 mins was 62C so if i can get this beer to clear i think its going to be strong and thin. Bugger. By the way i used 5 grams of youngs irish moss in the boiler for the last 15 mins.

 

[Andbrew]

Still no change on day 10. I've racked it into a secondry and added a dose of Kwik clear finings. Here's a picture of the stuff. What went wrong? I'm going to let it clear then bottle as usual.

 

[Wez]

That looks similar to clumping that I get from using copper finings (e.g. irish moss) it's a pita when transferring but won't affect the beer

 

[Andbrew]

Excellent news, i'll press on with it. On the upside, since i've now got an FV empty AG#4 is in the tun. :thumb:
I'll post it in brewdays later.

 

[Kingclay]

Just bottled a brew which was fermenting with Nottingham for 10 days. The beer started to clear at around day 7 and was very dry to taste on day 10. Looked like fermentation had stopped but there were still plenty of yeast clumps (just like your photo). Lets hope nothing goes pop in the garage.

 

[Andbrew]

I was also worried about overpressure, so after 2 days in the bottle at 22C i opened one, it was as flat as could be. I think the 24hours in secondry with the kwik clear finnings must have knocked all the yeast out of suspension, as i bottled a very clear beer. I'm going to leave this brew a while hoping that some yeast got through. Maybe open one bottle every 7 days. : for your concerns.

 

[Andbrew]

6 days in the bottle i,ve got this.

Tastes lovely, but is suffering from chill haze. Am i right in thinking if i build an efficient wort chiller, the chances of this will reduce? :drink:

 

[jamesb]

Tastes lovely, but is suffering from chill haze. Am i right in thinking if i build an efficient wort chiller, the chances of this will reduce? :drink:

It will help.

It also depends on the hot break and the copper finings you use.

You can also cheat and use some auxillary finings in the FV - Polyclar for instance.