Beer Forum

Brewed an IPA today. Pre-boil gravity was a touch low so i added DME to boil and the the OG was 1080. My yeast starter was already prepared for a 1064 OG. If the starter doesn't attenuate as far as i want (i used WLP 002) what can i pitch in the secondary to lower it down?

I've heard of using champagne yeast or wyeast 1056 but not sure if A. champagne yeast eats the sugars i need to be consumed or B. if wyeast 1056 would change the beer too much?

Any insight would be appreciated.

002 is not a great attenuator. 70% ADF (the high end of what White Labs lists for that strain) of 1.080 leaves you at 1.024. So I doubt this will finish where you want it. If you want to wait and see, then 001 or 007 would be good choices to finish it out (you'll probably want to pitch an active starter). They are unlikely to significantly alter the ester profile pitched late. I would try that before I resorted to a champagne yeast, which has a tendency to munch through every fermentable sugar it finds.

rousing the fermenter as much as possible will help the yeast do all it can to ferment it all the way down. see where that puts you, and brew it different next time. screwing around post ferment will probably just end up weird and you will not be able to learn and repeat the beer.

siwelwerd wrote:002 is not a great attenuator.

anday6 wrote:screwing around post ferment will probably just end up weird and you will not be able to learn and repeat the beer.

Agreed, I would just let it ferment out and call it a very hoppy ESB if it ferments out to drinkable final gravity. If you were looking for a drier more crisp well attenuated IPA that accentuated hop flavors then unfortunately WLP 002 English Ale yeast is not going to give you that. Under ideal conditions it will leave sweetness and a higher "chewier" mouthfeel and final gravity. This is not to say it won't make a tasty IPA but the trend from a lot of well-regarded commercial brewers is to use a well attenuative neutral ale yeast like a California Ale, American Ale I or II, Super San Diego, etc.. (Wyeast 1056 or 1272, WLP 001 or 090) or if you want an English yeast use the Dry English Yeast (WLP 007), British Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1098), London Ale Yeast (Wyeast 1028), etc. A higher attenuation would start in the upper 70's and go from there.


WLP002 English Ale Yeast
A classic ESB strain from one of England's largest independent breweries. This yeast is best suited for English style ales including milds, bitters, porters, and English style stouts. This yeast will leave a beer very clear, and will leave some residual sweetness.
Attenuation: 63-70%
Flocculation: Very High

Also I'm not exactly sure what starter size you did but if you did a starter intending to do a 1.064 beer and ended up with a 1.080 beer you would need roughly an additional 50 billion yeast cells just to keep on pace with your average attenuation of that yeast. But who knows yeast can be unpredictable, you could end up with a higher attenuation than 70%.

Thanks for the replies. I scrounged up an extra vial of 002 and pitched it along with the starter this morning. Hoping that will help it at least attenuate out as far as the yeast is capable of. I was able to oxygenate wort and a 2.1 L starter so I'm hoping fermentation will be healthy enough to attenuate. We shall see how she tastes. Thanks again

Cheers

I recently had a 1.110 english barleywine fermented with WY 1968 attenuate down to 1.034. The beer tasted great but I wanted it a touch drier. I made a pint starter of WY 1056 on a stirplate and pitched it when it was at high krausen. About a 7 days later I checked the gravity again and the cal ale yeast fermented it down to about 1.028 or so. I called it a win in my book, and next time will mash a bit lower and maybe use a more attenuative english strain.

Anyway, getting back to your question, you could easily pitch a small, highly active starter of a clean ale yeast (or even champagne yeast, don't worry, it will only eat any remaining fermentable sugars) and pitch that to reduce your FG. With only needing to gain a few points and very little cell growth and reproduction occurring in your new starter, you will not need to worry about the beer's flavor or aroma being altered by using a different strain at this point. Hope this helps.....