So, these Imperial A09 Pub starters...

[AdeDunn]

Anybody else made starters with the stuff? It's seriously challenging my stir plate! The stuff is so thick and heavy, it just wants to sink out and clog the stir bar! Good job today is the last day on the stir plate.

Oh, I ended up with 2 starters after having to dilute, as my stir plate just couldn't cope with 2650 mls at once. So one big one on the plate, 1 smaller one getting the regular shake treatment.

Last night, just about keeping the yeast off the bottom, but struggling...



The little guy....



Calculator in Beersmith 3 says I'll have about 500 billion cells give or take (probably a bit less, given the shake nature of the smaller one). Planning a 19 litre batch of London Pride, for which I'll need 143.5 billion cells. This is why I didn't mind paying the extra for a pouch of Imperial yeast.... lol

 

[JonBrew]

Imperial Yeast packs are meant to contain 200 billion cells. You say your planning a 19L batch for which Beersmith estimates you 143 billion cells.

How come your making a starter to build up to 500 billion cells? Was your yeast packet out of date?

 

[Bigcol49]

Overbuild?

 

[AdeDunn]

Overbuild?

Exactly, so I have plenty left back for using in future brews. Imperial yeast isn't cheap, so making it last to make it better value is more important. I estimate I can get about 3.5 normal OG (around the 1.040 mark) 19 litre brews out of the one starter without too much effort, but given I usually do 14 litre brews, and will probably do more smaller starters for at least some, I should be able to keep this one batch of yeast lasting me a while so long as it doesn't get infected. I'll get some sterile phials at some point to store some of the yeast in, improve the odds of keeping some infection free for longer maybe. I'm still using the "offspring" from my original purchase of Yeast Bay Sigmund's Voss after all. I just make sure I have more than 1 container of it, so if one spoils, I have others to draw from still.

I wouldn't have gotten 200 billion cells from the pack though anyway, it was manufactured on 15/12/2018, giving only 64.3% viability according to BS3, or 128.6 billion cells. Only slightly short of what I need, but yeah I want it for use in more than one brew. I like Fuller's ESB too... Wouldn't mind brewing up Fuller's London Porter with some too.

 

[BeerCat]

Meant to be a great yeast for English beers. I did hear its a high floccer.

 

[AdeDunn]

Meant to be a great yeast for English beers. I did hear its a high floccer.

They're not joking! I had to use the stir bar like an algae magnet and clear an area on the bottom just to get the stir bar to spin yesterday at one point.... The yeast had gummed the bar up and jammed it solid, it just wants to settle out on the bottom and stay there.

The stuff in the pouch was like thick gloop though, you really have to shake and massage the pack just to get it out, it's like cream cheese or something....

If it's as good as I'm hoping, I'm hoping to use this for bitters and the occasional porter, and kveiks for everything else to be honest. If the London Pride clone tastes anything like the real thing, it'll probably become our house beer.

 

[AdeDunn]

So, I turned the stir plate off last night, before going to bed. 1 hour later... lol

 

[foxbat]

Sounds like it might be the Fuller's strain, a.k.a WLP002/WYeast 1968. A good choice for the beers you've got planned. Northdown hops are the key to London Pride. Very distinctive (and very nice) flavour.

 

[AdeDunn]

Sounds like it might be the Fuller's strain, a.k.a WLP002/WYeast 1968. A good choice for the beers you've got planned. Northdown hops are the key to London Pride. Very distinctive (and very nice) flavour.

I actually found a comparison table on Reddit before I bought it that did indeed reckon it was Fuller's strain, like WLP002 and WY1968.

Oh and in my freezer I have Northdown, Target, Challenger and EKG. All ready to be used.

Good to have confirmation I'm on the right track here.

 

[Llamaman]

I have Northdown, Target, Challenger and EKG. All ready to be used.

Sounds like an ESB is in the offing...

Edit: just did some research and some sources say Pride has EKG and some say it doesn’t. Strange.

 

[AdeDunn]

Sounds like an ESB is in the offing...

Edit: just did some research and some sources say Pride has EKG and some say it doesn’t. Strange.

I'm going off the recipes in Graham Wheeler's BYOBRA for both Pride and ESB, both have EKG in them. Still haven't brewed this, when I finally got around to a brew day, was too warm again for brewing with Fuller's yeast, so I used a Kveik (put it this way, I clocked it at 26 degrees at it's peak activity....).