WYeast Activator 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale Yeast

[MyQul]

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.

I stupidly put virtually the whole of a yeast cake of 1469 in a 2L starter once and in about 5-10 mins it went absolutely mental. It was like mount versuvius

 

[Smileyr8]

I stupidly put virtually the whole of a yeast cake of 1469 in a 2L starter once and in about 5-10 mins it went absolutely mental. It was like mount versuvius

I bet that was a site to behold. I have never had a starter kick off the way this did when I have used yeast reclaimed from the trub, maybe this yeast is just so much more healthy/lively, I think the next time I put it in the brew fridge I will place it a mixing bowl to catch the mess, I suppose its all a learning curve.

 

[MyQul]

I bet that was a site to behold. I have never had a starter kick off the way this did when I have used yeast reclaimed from the trub, maybe this yeast is just so much more healthy/lively, I think the next time I put it in the brew fridge I will place it a mixing bowl to catch the mess, I suppose its all a learning curve.

It's not that 1469 is more healthly/lively is that topped cropped yeast is. Top Cropped yeast is the heathiest vital/viable yeast you can get.
Have a look at post 7 on this thread. Forumite jeg3 puts some top cropped wye valley yeast into as small amount of starter wort...http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58336

 

[Smileyr8]

It's not that 1469 is more healthly/lively is that topped cropped yeast is. Top Cropped yeast is the heathiest vital/viable yeast you can get.
Have a look at post 7 on this thread. Forumite jeg3 puts some top cropped wye valley yeast into as small amount of starter wort...http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=58336

Yes its pretty impressive, the plan is to keep top cropping and using over and over, that is unless it does not suit a beer I want to brew, going to try it through all my regular beer styles.

 

[Brett74]

With regard to starter frothing over, I use a product that is meant to go into babies food to stop them from getting gas. 6 drops into 2l starter and no foam. If it is a very violent fermentation in the starter I might have to add a drop or 2 more after 12 hours. I then crash the starter and pour off the beer, but I read that some process in the fermentation breakdown the process so it doesn't effect head retention later, alot of people use it while fermenting too to stop the krausen from climbing out of the bucket, it is the same active compound as fermcap-s, it has been along time since I researched this so check it out to make sure I am not full of bull here! But I do remember it was the right stuff to use, I hate losing yeast due it frothing over on the stirplate. I put it in before I boil the starter, no boil overs here either then. Herd about poeple using it in the kettles to to stop boil overs.

 

[zipfly]

Can you tell us what the product is?

sent from my Nokia 3310

 

[Smileyr8]

Can you tell us what the product is?

The clue is in the title "WYeast Activator 1469-PC West Yorkshire Ale Yeast"

 

[zipfly]

No, i meant the anti foam baby food additive, not the yeast.

Sent from my GT-P6810 using Tapatalk

 

[Smileyr8]

6 drops into 2l starter and no foam. If it is a very violent fermentation in the starter I might have to add a drop or 2 more after 12 hours

Brett74 can you answer Zipfly's question?

No, i meant the anti foam baby food additive, not the yeast.

& sorry Zipfly I did not mean to be sarcastic...

 

[Simonh82]

No, i meant the anti foam baby food additive, not the yeast.

Sent from my GT-P6810 using Tapatalk

I'm not sure about the baby anti foam product but you can buy Brupaks anitfoam which does exactly the same thing.

I use it for starters and during the boil. I think I can squeeze at least a couple of extra litres out of a brew because it lets me boil about 1cm from the rim of the boiler. I've got a 30L burco boiler but I can get 25L into the fermentor.

 

[Smileyr8]

So 7 months & 5 days in this yeast is still serving me well, I have been top cropping usually on the second day in the FV, its been through Pale's, Golden's, Bitter's and Stouts, I would say it works reasonably well with all these styles.

 

[Braufather]

Can i bump this thread again? I am going to be using this strain for the first time so was having a bit of a look around to see what people say.

There seems to be a lot of talk about starters but i take it for a 4.3% pale ale there is enough yeast in the smack pack? I don't bother with starters as for whatever reason they dont tend to work out well for me. however, the one time i reused slurry i had great results. i was thinking of reusing yeast from this brew to make a stronger IPA next time. .Never heard of top cropping before - i was just going to collect some slurry - which method s simplest/most fool proof?

 

[Smileyr8]

I think you will be fine just smack activating & adding to your wort. I am still using this yeast I top crop & use in the next brew.

 

[Smileyr8]

It's dead, I am gutted, not 100% sure what I did to kill it maybe the wort for the starter was too hot or maybe it was left too long between brews, no idea, luckily I had a Safale 04 at hand that I pitched in the latest brew lets see how that turns out & what the differences are.

I am going to need to top crop it for my next brew either way, wish me luck.

 

[MyQul]

It's dead, I am gutted, not 100% sure what I did to kill it maybe the wort for the starter was too hot or maybe it was left too long between brews, no idea, luckily I had a Safale 04 at hand that I pitched in the latest brew lets see how that turns out & what the differences are.

I am going to need to top crop it for my next brew either way, wish me luck.

Have you got any HB in bottles? You could 'reanimate' the strain but bottle culturing one of your own HB's. I've done this a number of times

 

[Smileyr8]

Have you got any HB in bottles?

I am afraid not, I keg all my beer these days after crash cooling for 3-5 days so very so very little yeast gets into the keg, there is chance what is left in the bottom of the keg contain some yeast and I am almost through a keg so that might be worth giving that a go.

 

[MyQul]

I am afraid not, I keg all my beer these days after crash cooling for 3-5 days so very so very little yeast gets into the keg, there is chance what is left in the bottom of the keg contain some yeast and I am almost through a keg so that might be worth giving that a go.

You only need a very small amount to 'reanimate' a strain. So there should be enough in the bottom of the keg to build it up again if you're careful. I've built up strains from bottle conditioned beers where you cant see anything in the bottom of the bottle, and built it up successfully

I strongly suspect that if you went to a pub and ordered a cask conditioned pint then took a bit of the pint home with you (say you put a bit in a sample tube) you could build the strain up from that. Even bright beer has a few cells floating around in it (of course if it was a filtered beer it wouldnt.)

 

[Smileyr8]

You only need a very small amount to 'reanimate' a strain.

Right I rinsed the bottom of the keg out with boiled & chilled water then added some DME to a kilner jar its been in there about 5 hours, I have been giving it a shake each time I go past it, I have just done so again & am a pretty sure I hear gas escaping.

So the next question is how do I go about stepping this up to enough for a brew.

 

[MyQul]

Right I rinsed the bottom of the keg out with boiled & chilled water then added some DME to a kilner jar its been in there about 5 hours, I have been giving it a shake each time I go past it, I have just done so again & am a pretty sure I hear gas escaping.

So the next question is how do I go about stepping this up to enough for a brew.

How much water and DME did you add?

Here my culturing from a bottle conditioned beer to give you an idea of how to approach things

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...up-yeast-from-bottle-conditioned-beers.53567/

 

[Smileyr8]

How much water and DME did you add?

I added about 3/4 pint of water & 5 tablespoons of DME (not massively heaped but definitely not level). When I arrived home there was a few mm of light coloured solids at the bottom, I have shaken this back into suspension and if foamed quite vigorously.
If I recall correctly the original smack pack contained only a small amount of liquid and with the yeast in suspension, which it was stated could be added directly to the wort.