Shepheard Neame 1698 Yeast

[terrym]

If anyone (MyQul?) is considering using this yeast I suggest you leave a large space for krausen. I am two days in now and am having to clean up every six to eight hours or so, as it has blocked the blow off tube once and so am have resorted to cracking the lid and letting the yeasty krausen/gas just ooze through the gap.
If (?) I use this yeast again I would put no more than 15-16 litres in a 25 litre FV.
I hope it's worth the effort :-?

 

[MyQul]

Weirdly, there's now hardly any krausen on my 2L stet up. It's definaltey fermenting (it's almost fermented out now) as it was off gassing C02. I used real wort hived off from my weekend brew rather than DME. Possibly/probably coincidently enough the krausen on my weekend brew (a bitter where I used notty) lasted less than 24 hourse and it's fermenting ferociously with loads of C02. The wort looks like an insane giant glass of coke and the cling film on top is massively domed.
I'm hoping that MY blow off tube doesn't get blocked when I eventually pitch it into a brew.

As an idea/suggestion, if you use this strain again put the FV in a builders trug then you can just open the top and let the krausen ooze into that and just clean the trug up at the end of fermentation

 

[MyQul]

How do you find the flocctuancy? I find it very flocctuant, in fact it's quite chunky. A bit like very small lumps of cottage cheese. There seemed to be loads of yeast too. Much more than other ystrains I've bottle cultured at this stage
I've just transferred everything from the DJ into a 2L water bottle to crash out. I'm brewing tommorrow and will use 2L of the wort for the final step up/starter. I'm not pitching tomorrow though, I'll be doing that on monday so it gives me time for the yeast to crash (glad it's so flucculant - might prove a challenge to harvest though) and then grow it further in the last 2L step up/starter

 

[terrym]

I have just moved my brew back into my my water bath, since overnight it had finally stopped trying to escape from the FV. In 3.5 days the SG has dropped from 1.043 to 1.014, but is still going.
Over the last three days or so I have opened the lid up about every five to six hours and pushed the yeast crust back into the brew to first keep everything in the FV and second make sure I didn't get a yeast crust on top and little yeast in the brew like last time to keep the fermentation going. Looking at the current SG I think I have succeeded on the last point. Swirling had no effect of demolishing the krausen so I had to use a sterilised spoon.
You are right about flocculation, there are big lumps of yeast floating about just like cottage cheese. The krausen itself is a hardish crust of yeast across all of the krausen and a thick foam underneath.
This time I have had far more yeast to cope with on top, whether it's because its 2nd generation or whether its because I pitched with more yeast to start with I don't know.
And my advice remains, do not put more than 16 litres of wort in a 25litre FV or you will be micro-managing krausen for a few days, although one solution to this is to split a 23 brew into two and use two FVs.

 

[MyQul]

I'm going to be putting my full 23L brew into my FV and hopfully a blow off tube will take care of things. I am however going to take heed of your warning and put it in a trug first though just in case the blow off tube gets blocked or anything.

It really is a flocctuant yeast. I've just had a look at it in the fridge and it mostly seem's to have crashed out already

 

[terrym]

I'm going to be putting my full 23L brew into my FV and hopfully a blow off tube will take care of things. I am however going to take heed of your warning and put it in a trug first though just in case the blow off tube gets blocked or anything.

My blow-off tube got blocked as soon as the krausen hit the lid. I have used it on other brews and this has never happened. The 1698 yeast crust is quite dense, just right for plugging a small bore tube. If you are going ahead at 23 litres :-o then I would just crack the lid open and let it ooze out, and either mop up or put up with the mess. The disadvantage of letting it ooze out is that it is very yeasty so you lose the yeast. Even when the fermentation was at its peak the liquid under the krausen was quite clear compared to 'normal'.
Best of luck :thumb:

 

[terrym]

After seven full days primary I racked off to a second FV today for a six day dry hop. A weak 2" krausen on top before the transfer. Current SG is 1.010 so if it stays there it will have achieved about 77% attenuation but if it drops another point it will be about 79%, so this is better than last time's lower 70's, and I reckon the improvement is due to me regularly folding the yeast back into the brew, although I haven't bothered since it was at 1.014 last Friday.
And there was a lot of jelly like yeast on the bottom of the FV some of which is now in the fridge in a jar for a possible next time.

 

[MyQul]

What generation are you on? As I've read that a yeast gets to it's best at about the 3 or 4 gen is so may explain why you've got better attenuation. Or it could be like you say because you've been folding the yeast back into the wort

 

[dan125]

Sorry to come very late to the 1698 party, but I had a bottle yesterday - really like it after trying recently thanks to a new local ASDA.
It crossed my mind to have a go at culturing it up, and I've been reading this thread with interest.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but do we know if SN use their main strain or a bottling strain for bottle conditioning?

Maybe I should get in touch with them and ask for some fresh yeast, as the brewery is only half an hour away???
:

 

[MyQul]

Sorry to come very late to the 1698 party, but I had a bottle yesterday - really like it after trying recently thanks to a new local ASDA.
It crossed my mind to have a go at culturing it up, and I've been reading this thread with interest.
Sorry if it's already been asked, but do we know if SN use their main strain or a bottling strain for bottle conditioning?

Maybe I should get in touch with them and ask for some fresh yeast, as the brewery is only half an hour away???
:

The yeast in the shepard neame 1698 is the primary strain. If your only half an hour away, if it was me, I'd be STRAIGHT down their and begging for some yeast to save myself the trouble of bottle culturing it up

 

[flash]

Think you might infect your brew if you do that, unless you've given em a good wash first :lol:

class:lol:

 

[dan125]

The yeast in the shepard neame 1698 is the primary strain. If your only half an hour away, if it was me, I'd be STRAIGHT down their and begging for some yeast to save myself the trouble of bottle culturing it up

Thanks MyQul.

It might well be worth an ask.

I recently emailed beer blogger Martyn Cornell with a question about a beer he collaborated on with Brain's and was chuffed to get a reply within a couple of days * - just goes to show, if you don't ask you'll never know.

* although he couldn't answer my question exactly and suggested I ask Brain's head brewer Bill directly. I contacted the brewery a couple of days ago through their website, but haven't had a reply yet.

 

[MyQul]

Thanks MyQul.

It might well be worth an ask.

I recently emailed beer blogger Martyn Cornell with a question about a beer he collaborated on with Brain's and was chuffed to get a reply within a couple of days * - just goes to show, if you don't ask you'll never know.

* although he couldn't answer my question exactly and suggested I ask Brain's head brewer Bill directly. I contacted the brewery a couple of days ago through their website, but haven't had a reply yet.

The Fullers strain is on my list of yeasts to culture up but I could cycle over to their brewery in about an hour (perhaps less) so having suggested to you asking SN for some yeast I might email Fullers before I have a go at culturing up their strain and ask them if they'll give me some. Cheers for the idea :hat:

 

[MyQul]

Just pitched my cultured up SN strain into a Brown Ale http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60803&page=2 If the slurp of the step up wort I had before is anyting to go by I think the soft fruityness I tasted should compliment a BA nicely.
I'm free fermenting (I've bitter in my brew bag at the mo) at 20C/21C which should hopefully bring all those fruity esters out
I put a blow off tube on the FV based on what terrym has said and the size of the krausen in the final step up,which was massive, bigger than the amount of starter wort in the demijohn. I've also put the FV in a builders trug just in case the blow off tube gets blocked and I have to release the pressure by opening the FV lid a crack.
Now I've done all that I bet there's only a modest size krausen :lol:
I will be havesting some yeast 36 hours from now on Wed morning using the "new" harvesting method http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=60803&page=2

 

[dan125]

The Fullers strain is on my list of yeasts to culture up but I could cycle over to their brewery in about an hour (perhaps less) so having suggested to you asking SN for some yeast I might email Fullers before I have a go at culturing up their strain and ask them if they'll give me some. Cheers for the idea :hat:

Thought I's strike while the iron is hot and have just emailed SN asking nicely for some - will let you know how I get on.

Also signed up for their 'mystery visitor' programme while I was there - in the hope of getting paid to go the pub (or a contribution towards the beer & food at least) :thumb:

 

[dan125]

Fair play to SN - they replied to me by about 9.30 this morning. :hat:

Unfortunatley a senior brewer told me:-

as I am sure you are aware a yeast adds significant flavour characteristics to a beer and as such is a closely guarded brewery resource.
Unfortunately we do not supply our yeasts to any other brewers - home, micro, regional or international so are unable to help you.

He did suggest using the 1698 bottles to harvest yeast and did confirm that the main yeast strain is used for bottling.

 

[terrym]

Now I've done all that I bet there's only a modest size krausen :lol:

What's it looking like?

 

[MyQul]

Now I've done all that I bet there's only a modest size krausen :lol:

What's it looking like?

Well I pitched last night and it had started fermenting by the morning as I could hear it fizzing away. The krausen is quite small as I kinda suspected it would be. This happend with my 1469 too. Massive krausen in the starter demijon but only a modest/small one in the actual brew.
What I suspect is happening is, because I'm not that bothered about head on my beer I just use washing up liquid to clean my FV's. I rinse them of course, but I think there may be some residual surfacants left behind in the FV which stops the krausen getting massive. I don't use washing up liquid to clean my yeast propigation DJ, I use oxi-clean, so get a massive krausen in that

 

[MyQul]

Fair play to SN - they replied to me by about 9.30 this morning. :hat:

Unfortunatley a senior brewer told me:-

as I am sure you are aware a yeast adds significant flavour characteristics to a beer and as such is a closely guarded brewery resource.
Unfortunately we do not supply our yeasts to any other brewers - home, micro, regional or international so are unable to help you.

He did suggest using the 1698 bottles to harvest yeast and did confirm that the main yeast strain is used for bottling.

That's a shame. Just bottle culture some up :thumb:

 

[terrym]

Well I pitched last night and it had started fermenting by the morning as I could hear it fizzing away. The krausen is quite small as I kinda suspected it would be. This happend with my 1469 too. Massive krausen in the starter demijon but only a modest/small one in the actual brew.
What I suspect is happening is, because I'm not that bothered about head on my beer I just use washing up liquid to clean my FV's. I rinse them of course, but I think there may be some residual surfacants left behind in the FV which stops the krausen getting massive. I don't use washing up liquid to clean my yeast propigation DJ, I use oxi-clean, so get a massive krausen in that

Plenty of time yet!
My first brew with this yeast didn't create the same massive krausen that I have had with the second one.
FYI the 'fruity' taste of my first brew, which I am now drinking about three weeks on from putting in my PB, is starting to fade, but a small sampler from the second one (although still very green and slightly murky looking in the FV) has the same taste, so maybe it is a characteristic of the yeast.
PS. I am just drinking some of the first batch from the PB. It is crystal clear. The yeast has really settled well. :thumb: