For everyone who has fermented with WLP500, what was your experience with this strain? My tripel started out @ 1.089, and after 3.5 weeks in the fermentor, the gravity is still slowly dropping. It was at 1.013 after three weeks and is now at 1.011. It's taking its own sweet time getting to FG and was wondering if anyone else has had the same experience. I'm ready to bottle, but of course my readiness means little and I will sit this one out as long as I need to to get to FG. Not happy about it, but what can I do? Dang little yeasties don't seem to give a hoot over how anxious I am to bottle.
Excellent choice for your Triple! This is the what I use for mine. I can not comment on fermentation length for this strain. I leave my big beers on the yeast for four weeks then bottle. The only gravity readings I take are before I pitch yeast and before I keg or bottle. I hope you enjoy your Triple.
I´ve used it, it is great but don´t bottle just yet or you´ll have some bombs in your cellar. That yeast continues to ferment and then it ferments a little more, then more, then more. I recommend you let it a few more days, then after bottling (and if you bottle condition) let it condition for a few days and when it´s the right co2 level (open one in a few days) pasteurice your bottles to kill the yeast, or they will blow up!
I'm using WLP530 in a dubble - NB Orange Petite - in a conical with massive amounts of headspace and I found this morning that my dang airlock was full of foamy yeast. I put 10 drops of Fermcap in there, forgetting that I had it. Hope that helps after 3 days of fermentation but I had to rig up a blow-off tube for the first time. Gross!
I've been holding it steady @ 72. Been tempted to push it up to 75, but waiting isn't that big a deal. Bottle conditioning is going to take a couple of months anyway, so another week isn't going to kill me. Slowly learning patience!
Did you make a starter? I have never had that yeast behave that way except when there was some problem with pitching rate or yeast health, and I have used that strain a lot.
I did not set any expectations because it's my first time with this yeast and there were a number of minor "excursions" from my brewing plan. I thought 3 weeks and it would be done, so I was a little surprised the FG was still dropping at 3.5 weeks. However, I anticipate that I am very close to end. I would be very surprised if it drops another two points. I still have some dialing in to do with BrewCipher to minimize future "excursions"... but it suggests 1.012 as the end point, so I think we're almost there. Just going to have to be patient and let it be what it will be. The real killer is that I want to give it at least two months of bottle conditioning. So I'm going to have to do a hefeweizen soon to give me something to drink...
BTW, BrewCipher has been pretty much dead-on with previous brews, so a big thumbs up, Vikeman! Well done!
