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Author Topic: Weird Fermentation with Wyeast #1332 Northwest Ale  (Read 2352 times)

Offline colin12

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Weird Fermentation with Wyeast #1332 Northwest Ale
« on: March 03, 2014, 09:21:12 pm »
So i recently brewed a batch of my IPA and decided to switch things up from the tried and true #1272 and opted for #1332 Northwest Ale. The brew day went fine and I pitched the yeast onto the wort, only to realize after that i had over chilled to about 50F. It took nearly 24 hours for signs of fermentation to show. I have my fermenter set up with a blow-off tube and it was needed shortly after 48 hours. The krausen pulled back within 12 hours and continued to ferment vigorously. I agitated the liquid in my fermenter on the 5th day to help keep yeast in suspension and within another 12 hours the wort was fermenting well enough to blow-off again by the 7th day. It is now day 8 and there is still a thick foamy fermenting head on top in the fermenter. I'm just curious because I have never had an ale yeast ferment this long, I add yeast nutrient to every beer i make. I usually have somewhere in the neighborhood of an 85-90% attenuation on this recipe with Wyeast #1272 within 5 days and the company the company says it has about a 75% attenuation rate.

1)Has anyone Used #1332 and experienced something similar? (an extended fermentation/It just does not attenuate as well as the other ale yeasts)

2)Could the shock from pitching the yeast onto 50 degree wort have caused an insufficient amount of yeast pitched/ could the shock have stressed the yeast enough that this is just a slow fermentation due to unhealthy yeast cells?

3)Or is it a sign of something else, like some unwanted bacteria?

Thanks for reading and if you have any info that might help it would be greatly appreciated!

Offline skyler

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Re: Weird Fermentation with Wyeast #1332 Northwest Ale
« Reply #1 on: March 03, 2014, 10:34:19 pm »
it's fine

Offline ynotbrusum

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Re: Weird Fermentation with Wyeast #1332 Northwest Ale
« Reply #2 on: March 04, 2014, 05:39:01 am »
Sounds like you found the sweet spot for this yeast strain.  I typically pitch cold and then raise the temp/allow the temp to rise to the proper range with both lagers and ales.  With vigorous fermentation, bacterial infection is less likely in my experience.  Let it finish and rack to keg or bottle after the FG is stable for 3-7 days.
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